Writing more..

Just today I was going through the comments and i found a few "keep up the good work.. keep it coming" comments. So I am feeling energized to write one more. So college days are gone. 20+ years gone. Before I start blogging my thoughts and my own philosophies, I will share the incidents in my life as I believe in being a common man and also they will be interesting to read than philosophies. Great people discuss ideas, common people discuss events and there are other people who discuss people. It is always fun sharing events and happenings.

Here I begin.. My dad and me took the IA flight to Hyderabad and were quite excited to see a person holding a board with my name and my company's name written on it. We were taken in a nice air-conditioned sedan to Taj Residency (now called Taj Deccan). I was recovering from Amoebic Dysentry. And I decided to anything that is vegetarian and no restrictions. 15 days of stay in the Taj, we will never forget. Everyday, bathing in the tub for an hour and a half. Boy, that was awesome. Great food at the Blue Flower, the restaurant. We were given a cab for the initial 15 days to go around Hyderabad.My friends were put up at a nearby hotel Taj Banjara. We synced up in the weekends for going around places. We went to the Film City, Secret Lake and many other places. My dad and me covered other places like the Museum.

The museum is a great one worth a mention here. It is called the Salarjung Museum. The museum is a huge one with G+3 floors and we could not cover all the exhibits. The museum ticket had a picture of veiled rebecca and people had told us the important things to see. There were things like large dresses which could be folded into a matchbox, ivory carvings, huge furnitures, man and woman in the same statue, monalisa's duplicate etc.. There was a painting of Salarjung which is a beauty. The room containing the portrait has two entrances. When you enter the room through one of them, Salarjung's foot in the portrait will point towards you and as you move, it will always point towards you till you exit the room. It was awesome.

Then we went to see the veiled Rebecca. It was a white marble statue of a lady covered by a netted veil. And there was a lot of people looking at it. We never realised what makes it so great. Then we went and read the description near the statue. Some history and then this statement, we were taken aback. It stated, "The veil is made of the same marble and the veil merges with the statue at the back". Immediately, I felt goosebumps. Yes, we did confirm it seeing the back of the statue. Make sure to see veiled Rebecca if you come to Hyderabad. She is a beauty.

We found a house to stay in one of the very posh areas of Hyderabad. In fact, it was not a house, it was a bungalow with garden in front of it with space to park 2-3 cars. The house was too big for us. We thought three more would join us. But due to some reasons only we 3 stayed. My dad, after finding us a house, left for Chennai. The area was very calm with lots of police as one of our neighbors was the ex-CM. We later moved from there to an apartment near our office, as we were not willing to pay the exorbitant rent which was planned to be shared by six but was shared among 3 of us.


In the beginning, our team which takes care of the already shipped Operating Systems, was in a different building than the company campus. It had dwarfish cubicles so that we can stand and talk with people in the next cubicles. I still remember the meeting with my Director. The entire team was invited and the new hires were asked to give an introduction. So my intro was "I never intend to speak funny but whatever I talk people have enjoyed and laughed". And of course people laughed at this intro as well.

There we used to play a number of continuous games of Table tennis in the weekends. I also used to play Foos ball, a really tough game to play when you are new. Those initial few months, we played only indoor games and were so eager to shift to the campus. The pool table always looked attractive but I knew I do not play that game well so I avoided it. Work, I do not wish to discuss here nor I am allowed.

Then we moved to the campus.. Already too many words.. Continue in the next blog..

Final Year

Placements were also fun. I never cleared any written test. I was hoping for a company which would start from an interview directly. I got a couple of placements and I chose to be with one of the best companies. There were a lot of treats and a number of trips. We had been to Bangalore for an All-India contest in Intel and we won the first prize of Rs. 30000. Then we had been to Coimbatore for the Asia Regional finals of the most prestigious programming contest. I had by then placed a full-stop for my pursuit of Masters degree in Science. That too was a decision on my gut feeling. I did not secure my target in GRE and did not even bother to write TOEFL.

Then one of the most memorable trips of the college days was to Goa. It was for a poster presentation at a conference on High Performance Computing. It was for a half-day session and the rest of the 4 days in Goa's water bodies, churches, monuments and the long train journeys were great fun. Then I came to Hyderabad for getting sponsorships from companies for our college's technical symposium. And apart from this we went to a trip to Coorg, Thalacauvery and around. Coorg was a so called hill station and it was not upto our expectations.

And one good cricket ball match, where I was involved in a big unbroken partnership, after wickets tumbled. That was a match where I played in the two-piece stitched ball after a long gap. But did well by scoring the second highest in our innings, though there was a huge difference between what the highest scorer's score was and mine was. We won that match. I conducted Quiz in Prodigy for school students and Abacus, International Technical Symposium.

Then we did enough work in our final year on our research project which is now an IEEE publication. Then after I completed my final year exams, I went on a trip to New Delhi, Simla, Kullu, Manali, Kufri, Chandigarh, Manikaran and Kurukshetra. Rohtang Pass is the best place you can reach by road in the entire world as it is the highest road in the world. Hats off Border Roads!! Taj Mahal, the wonder in India, you can simply realize why it is that greatly acclaimed by the very first sight of it. And after all these travels and treats in a year, I fell ill for a month before I joined my company and I dropped 10 kgs. And that is the only way, I could have lost weight. I will continue with my company experiences in my next post.

Second year and third year

Before going into the Second year, the NSO camp of the first year has to be mentioned. It was a very great experience. The running, mess food, yoga classes, sleeping on the terrace, escaping and going home. Here, we did one more thing when we sneaked through the hostel gate and went for a movie at night. It was a Hindi movie and as I did not know hindi I just had to see the heroine of the movie. Those ten days were great fun and I got new friends there. I played Shuttle Badminton in the camp and since then I have played Shuttle Badminton only a very few times.

Second year we slowly started moving away from the studious attitude and we started involving in other activities. Marks did not matter any more. We started participating in various programming contests and I got close with the most brilliant students of the class. And my god, they were BRILLIANT. There was difference in each and every person in the class. In our second year we went on a tour to Bangalore, Mysore and it was called an Industrial Visit. But many just saw the company from outside. It was great fun and our OS staff could not do any hindrance to it inspite of her efforts.

Third year, we planned to start a company but people suddenly realized it is not going to happen and started quitting from that thought, may be it was a wise decision not to start and face a big flop. Myself and my friend wrote a paper and implemented the idea and went to some college and presented it and won prizes for it. It is the credit to my friend for putting the simple idea in complicated terminologies. My birthday in that year was celebrated so well that I could not forget it. We went to the Marina, cut cakes and had great enjoyment.

We went for two more visits that year. One was to Munnar, Cochin, Ernakulam and around. And the other was an incredible trip to Parson's Valley, Ooty. Parson's Valley trip can never be forgotten. That trekking was awesome, adventurous. I saw natural ice and a brook for the first time, to my memory. Only a very few students went for that trip. I am collecting photos of those trips and soon will post them. As you could easily realize, I am rushing years very easily, since there was nothing so unique, that happened in my life. Thorough enjoyment with laziness no less or no more. Unique events or happenings become slightly unbloggable.

These two years we have played cricket quite often. I remember some of the matches where I went opening and played dead slow and created tension and won them. There were great cricketers in our class. There were people who could bowl really fast. We used play between the two batches and there will be clashes at the end and all were fun. I will continue with the final year happenings in my next post!

College Fresher

I got a seat in Open Competition in Com.Sci & Engg. in the best college of the University. This has turned out to be the wisest decision I could have taken than to have opted for some other discipline or college. I have seen a lot of great students, brilliance and talent personified. So the first year is where a lot of things happen and it is fun to think of them. In the first semester, I was in the special batch of foreign language students. I had opted for French. My hostel room mates were all from my same native. There was one another similar person to me in the room whom I met for the first time only in my college. He is still residing with me.

Both of us were very lazy and were not at all interested in putting in hard work after all both of us were tired of studying too much for +2 exams. The other two were quite sincere in the beginning. One left after a month to pursue his medicine studies. Hostel was ok but the mess was pathetic. I never used to have food there. Once lizard had fallen in the food and I have even had food in the mess that day. So first year -> ragging!!

Ragging was very mild to me when I listened to the stories of many other fellow class mates. I never went to the Senior hostel for a long time. I went once and escaped somehow. Three instances alone I remember when I was ragged. Once at night in the bunk canteen, some senior asked me to propose for him to his classmate and I did. Then some more naughty questions as usual and as expected. Anytime you met a senior you would be called to their hostel block. I avoided many.

Then it was in French committee inauguration of the year, many were ragged in a well planned way. I was made up like a tribal person with leaves, ink, toothpaste and all sorts of ladies cosmetics and commodities. Then in Freshers' party as usual they made me a messenger and I had to convey many things between a senior boy and a girl. Everything they did to me in ragging were highly acceptable. Our college way of asking name to a senior is "Might mighty senior sir, dirty dirty junior sir, may sir I sir know sir your sir name sir sir sir?" and I have told this quite a number of times.

Then in first semester, being new to Chennai we had to see some places in Chennai first. We have gone for bowling, multiplexes, watched movies back to back and led a very very normal college life except that I could not have food in my mess. It was simply scary and it forced me to call my mother and make her shift to Chennai for the next semester.

First semester was laziness to the peak. Workshop was a torture and boring. Second semester we had Engineering drawing and I hated it to the core. Apart from these two rest of the courses were fine. I got to know many hostel students and after I became a day-scholar I came to know many day-scholars as well. This is a real good thing to know many people. First year, we studied as well. My highest GPA in college was in the first semester with 9.04/10 and my eight semester CGPA graph plot will be one with a negative slope. Too many things have happened but it is too difficult to narrate in short. I will continue soon with more on my college life, studies, tours, treats, Chennai city etc.

My family and my final days of schooling

We were a joint family as I have told earlier. Later, for occupational reasons people went to different places. My father was brought up by his uncle and grandfather. He had come up in life from misery. I do not want to share his life stories and make my blog a sad one. He was brought up in a very very disciplined way. But I was given great freedom by my dad. I am proud to have him as my dad. I have thoroughly enjoyed my life till date. I never felt that I could have had a thing and he has denied me of it.

Me, my parents and later my sister have a great understanding. Whenever we feel something different can be done, we sync up and do it. Right from small things like going to a restaurant to buying things for the house, travel plans etc. were great. We have like tastes. And my tongue was respected by many in my family and friends. I have been quite a gourmet, and my parents have taken me to all restaurants in my native. We have felt the difference after coming to Chennai. Chennai restaurants are awesome when compared to the best of the hotels in my native.

We have travelled a lot, though still not outside India. We have been to many tours like a Kerala tour, Karnataka tour (this is still in my memory Belur, Halebeedu etc.), Bombay tour to mention a few which I can name immediately. All those were not captured in digital media. I am in process of converting those memories in digital media. Our last tour to Kullu, Manali, Shimla etc. are digital memories. School tours were slightly less fun as most of them were single day tours. Our native town lacked a lot of attraction as I realised later when we came to Chennai. I like to travel a lot and I do not think of reaching the destination.

Tenth standard Matriculation board exams were held and I secured 1005/1100 a fair score. I was as usual not the school topper, I stood second. 47 of us wrote the board exam and more than half the strength left the school. Even the topper left the school stating that there is no competition for her. I wanted to study French as my second language in +1. But I was denied by my principal as they were expecting a District rank from me and French students are not considered for it. +1, total enjoyment and my score was less than 85%.

Lost the original content... Adding trying to write whatever I would have written..

In my +1, the only paper where I have performed well was Mathematics where I was awarded 200 and then reduced to 199. I was shown the paper in +2. +2 was the only year I have studied like hell. I had special coaching from three experts for Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I secured Disctrict II Rank with centums in Maths and Physics. I was offered 50% scholarships in two entrance coaching institutes and I joined both the institutes. In one of them, I regained touch with my old friends and one of them is now one of my best friends. I secured a good score in the Tamilnadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination as well.

Now I remember what I had written earlier. Some rare incidents...

In +1 there was a Parent-Teacher Meeting. As usual the staff complained to my dad that I never wrote definitions and answers as given in the textbook. I always put them in my own language. This was a concern for them as I was expected to score a high score in +2. But I was always thinking of a B.Sc. in a college in Tirunelveli. My dad never had let me down. And he always would say that Prasad studies well and he will fair better next time. I never could write or reproduce as given in the textbook. That time, in the meeting, this was another comment which my dad has told me. My english teacher had told that my uniform was not pressed on Monday of the week before the meeting. My dad was too impressed with the care, the teachers showed towards us and the amount of attention they gave me.

Other activities

Apart from my studies in school, games and sports, I did quite a few things. Most of them, I did not pursue properly. I learnt Yajur Veda from a great Sanskrit scholar for eight years approximately. Right now, these days I am recollecting whatever I have learnt. I have forgotten a lot of what I have learnt. I used to participate actively in Rudra Ekadesis, Shiva Ratris and Sankara Jayanthis even during my final stage of schooling.

I learnt playing Veena from my mom and grandfather. My grandfather and so many people in my mom's side are stalvarts in Veena and Carnatic music. I did not pursue it properly and it is very difficult for me to learn from now on. I can play Veena only to a very little extent, say I can play some easy Geethams. These Geethams I can play because I used to lend my ears to my sister when she was learning vocal music at home. I also learnt to play a simpler instrument, Keyboard. I used to learn some new songs from my grandma(my dad's mom).

To say more on my music interest, I listen to a lot of old songs, Ilayaraja and Carnatic songs. I can identify a few raagas. My grandma used to sing songs and conduct a quiz for me and my sister to identify raagas. We would also analyze raagas in cine songs. Music is a huge part of my life, I feel. But I very rarely listen to latest releases. I listen only if I get good reviews. When it comes to songs, lyrics come second to me. I never listen to the lyrics.

Since I was telling about quiz, quizzing was another passion for me. I used to participate in a lot of quiz competitions and I have won some prizes also. But I lacked that enthusiasm there to know things which are not coming my way. This I felt when I went for bigger Quiz competitions where I found people answering questions which were not at all guessable. Guess work is a key to Quizzing. I have felt this. If some quizzer is reading this, do comment on this.

Then, Karate. I learnt Karate for five years. Self-defence and physical fitness are also key things in this world. I secured Green Belt and also appeared for Brown IV. Karate classes were also fun. The exercises were really tough and tiresome. We always used to skip when the master was not seeing us. Cuttas and sparing were always of great interest. Karate master's singularities are still in my mind. His counting in Japanese, his tamil proverbs to scold students are still in my memories. I wrote and removed since it will be unparliamentary to write them. If you are interested ask me in person. :)

I am very poor in drawing. Another interest of mine was Photography. My dad bought me a Snapper camera when I was in my primary school. I have taken some good pictures then, for the child level. That camera was not an automatic rewind camera. Later I was given a Minolta Riva automatic rewinding camera. I have covered my uncle's marriage fully and I still have the album with 108/108 good snaps. The current camera which I have is a digital camera Sony 5.1 Mega Pixels camera. I have lost interest in photography suddenly, the reason being I will never be in pictures when I am taking snaps.

And in the next blog I will continue with my final schooling days.

Off-the-school

In those days, I was fully occupied with activities. I never remained idle. We have played cricket like anything on the street near my house, in nearby schools' grounds and also in paddy fields. We used to hit balls and when it goes on the terrace of some house we would climb on top of a house and walk the entire street on the terrace and get the ball. Those were really adventurous and I am very scared now on the very thought of such activities. We would play ice ball in the evenings when there are power cuts. There were very strange rules for the game and it will be so funny to explain them and I am skipping them. Video games were creating the trend. Mario is a game which I have played in all possible ways to reach the queens. Business was another time killing game.

Some events are still so crystal clear in my memories. I do not remember the age when I did this. My grandma alone was in the house. My friends were all quite elder to me. They had planned to go to a movie. Indian starring Kamalhassan was the one recently released. I too wanted to join them. My grandma would not allow nor give money if I had told I am going to a movie. So I said I am going to buy a team cricket bat and we all are sharing the money. It was not a lie. We bought a bat but for 35 rupees!! We went to the movie Indian and saw it seated in the first row. Then I told this after a long time to my dad. He did not tell anything. After all he would have got reminded of his childhood.

One day, when we were playing cricket during some vacation in the day time, I was keeping wickets. Then, there was an edge from the batsman and I took the catch but the batsman said it was not. The stump was the base of an electric post. When the batsman denied it, I threw the ball in anger and the streetlight was broken. It burst with a great sound and people came outside their houses. But we immediately vacated the streets. But everyone knew we were the culprits. We have broken several roofs, water pipes of houses, hurt so many people while playing cricket, spoilt milk cans etc. etc.. On that eventful day, one of my friends who used to come by cycle to play left his cycle near the playarea. Since I was responsible for this, I had to get the cycle. I did not know cycling then. I had to pull the cycle by hands and took it to the street corner and handed it over.

This is an accident I saw very close to my eyes. We were playing a tournament in a school ground. When our side was batting, we were sitting on the terrace of the principal room of the school. One of my friends, was standing on the wall of the terrace. There was a high voltage line passing on top of the building. He started swinging holding that and at some point, he held two wires together and he started screaming. Another friend of mine, was too smart enough and hit his hand with a rubber slipper. The boy fell down and we could see his bones in the forearm. His flesh had already melted. I took him to some doctor and after dressing up, I took him to his house and I got scoldings from his family. Poor people, how would they know what had happened. I saw him after a long time and we remembered everything.

I have played a lot and have gone missing from my house and have got a lot of scoldings from so many people. Everything just seem to be nothing other than memories now. I have enjoyed my life each and every moment, whether it was happy or sad, I have enjoyed. I was quite athletic and used to run considerably fast among my classmates. And I also used to play many more games like Shuttle Badminton, Volleyball, football and have won prizes. Even now I play some volleyball, cricket, football but the frequency has come down considerably. I will write more on things other than sports and games.

My Schooling - III

Continuing with playing cricket in school as it is more fun... So how do we used to play cricket? This is a very very interesting way. We used to bring cricket balls hidden in our bags. Bringing balls to school was banned. If found the P.E.T staff used to collect them. If even balls are banned how come you get bats. Is that the question in your mind? Cricket bats were manufactured by us in school. We used to break chairs and tables and get a leg of it or an arm of it and used to play with them. So it is obviously indiscipline as per the school. If ever the P.E.T staff come to the ground, we all would run and hide somewhere.

Sometimes for our big hits the ball used to go out of the cricket ground boundary wall which means outside the school premises. Some watchmen would allow us to go outside the gate. Some do not. In that case we would climb the wall, jump over it and fetch the ball. Of course sometimes we would get caught for such activities. We most of the times were successful. There used to be a lot clashes on the cricket field for small small things. Our class B section remained to be a terror till X standard. A lot of notorious activities used to happen. Bunking classes fetched us cleaning the ground. We always used to go and play whenever a staff was on leave. Copying in exams, seeing the original question paper in the staff room were some other thrills practised in our class.

There were three kinds of boys I have felt in my class - who were wanting themselves to be disobedient, who were spending time with girls of the class and the others were very quiet and obedient. I used to move with all kinds of people and mostly I was very much a mix of these three with the third kind more in me. The girls were also quite similar. We did not have any tomboy or tomgirl in our class to my memory. Will continue soon with my studies and other activities in my next post with a better title.

My schooling - II

My fourth standard found me a new girl competitor. She was a beautiful brilliant girl from a minority religion of India. She is doing her studies in medicine when I am writing this blog. I liked her very much. I do not want to attribute any word like "crush" etc. as it was a very young age and I am quite bold enough to tell the same to the girl today. I would still like her! There are so many indefinable relations I have felt.

Fifth standard was a totally dark classroom. The classroom had a pigeon's nest and the classroom was always stinking. They closed windows always to avoid the birds. The bird would give some strange sounds and the class would burst into laughter. Many of our classes have got cancelled because of this reason. We would chant Bhagavad Gita in those classes or play some games. I am really having a very poor memory of these primary classes and this should be acceptable as it was more than ten years ago.

There was a boy in the primary school. He was quite a genius. His mother was a teacher in our school. He was consistently topping the class. Me and my friend always used to look at him with awe and also make fun of him. It never mattered to me as I never was topping the class.

Sixth standard, I was shifted section from A to B. In A section, the staff felt there was too much elitism and wanted to have it balanced in both the sections. The toppers were shuffled. I got first rank in my sixth standard first exams. After that what happened, I never secured first rank. B section was totally totally a fun-filled classroom. We started playing cricket regularly. Everyday in breaks, lunch and in the evening after school.

Sixth standard, the uniform changes. Boys wear full-pants. That gave us a great feeling. Boys were not allowed to use the school van service from sixth. But they permitted me as I had my sister in the KG. So what and all I did outside the school in those times. Let me continue in my next post. Will write soon!!

A few more childhood events

This is the latest of the stories of my childhood and I heard this a few days back. My grandfather was a homoeopathy doctor and I used to get those sweet medicine daily from him. He used to prepare the sugar balls separately and add medicine later. So I guess he would give me the sugar balls alone. My grandfather used to spend most of his time upstairs in his easy chair. One day, when he had gone downstairs, I had creeped upstairs and poured a full bottle of gumon his easy chair and applied it. He had laid on that chair and he got stuck on it. Then people slowly detached the chair from him or him from the chair. He was so angry with me that day.



And yet another "hit" story. I had hit my great grandmother with a cleaning stick which is used to remove spider webs near the ceilings. My grand father who used to prostrate to his mother everyday and check her pulse, did the same that day and told people that there is no pulse. Everyone got scared and they called on our family doctor. And so very luckily she survived and the doctor told my mother that I had hit the old lady on her way back home. She had come home rushing to see her mother-in-law's mother-in-law!!

My schooling - I

I was not 3 years complete when I started going to school. I was underaged when I was admitted to Lower Kindergarten. My grandma used to carry me to the school which was near my house. I still remember my care-taker teacher and the school principal. They too remember me till date. I did my LKG and UKG alone in that school. That was a very small school and I do not have great memories of what happened in that school nor could people know what happened there and told me.

Some of my memories in those days, I wish to share in this blog. The first is a fancy dress competition where I was dressed as Swami Vivekananda. Lot many people were involved in making me up and teaching me a few lines to speak. Great lines but nothing difficult to memorize or present it. "Awake, Arise, Stop not till the goal is reached". I remember I was asked to speak like this. But I see this quote everywhere as "Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached". Whatever be it. The thing here is that I won the first prize for this fancy dress competition.

Nothing more I wish to share about the school. I guess it was quite like everyone else's KG schooling. But I have been told this incident quite a few times and it happened in that time but not in my school. It was near my house gate. My neighbor was very fond of me and she always used to make me speak something. That day, I was with my grandma near our gate and my neighbor entered her house. She as usual asked my grandma some common questions and then turned towards me and asked if she could come to our house for lunch. And my answer was so simple and it was "We did not place the cooker on the stove today!".

Then I got shifted for my I standard to another school, in which I continued for 10+2 years. I remember all my classrooms and almost all my teachers. In my first standard, the class was asked to do an assignment and it was to collect some insects. And children never do assignments in that age and it was work for the parents. My father's office staff collected insects for me and my father did the fit and finish job. I remember this very much because I saw this years later in my school. All the insects had decayed and there were no remains but the names of the insects and my name were there.

I started playing cricket on the streets from my first standard. I used to play daily in the evening as soon as I come back from school till sunset. In my second standard, in school, there was good competition in our school and the toppers in the class, we were really close friends. In the maths class, I remember there was always a race as to who finishes all the problems first. And I do not have any statistics as to who used to win the race mostly. The things I remember are that I used to score good marks but I never have stood first in the class. I had come first in class only once till my X standard. In my II standard, the maths papers where distributed and I had secured a centum. The teacher used to teach Tamil and Maths. The teacher gave me the paper and said "Keep it up!". I was a sincere student and I immediately climbed the book rack and placed the paper up. I do not remember whether it was my ignorance or my intention to create a laughter in the class. But everyone laughed in the class then.

We used to play a lot in the school. The school was far away from our house and I was a passenger of the school van. During the waiting time for the van, I would finish all our homework in school so that I could play as soon as I get back home. In my second standard or third standard, I joined the Veda chanting class near my house. That I continued for 8 years nearly. My third standard memories are totally void or I did not do anything special or rememberable. I guess I had a fancy dress dance competition where I played a Frenchman. There was a girl for a frenchwoman. I do not remember her name.

Let me continue with more on my schooling in the next entry.

My infancy and childhood

This blog is an attempt to share with others the Prasad I know. I am sharing only shareable memories of my life! I would simplify the narration instead of burdening people to remember names and relations, thereby being safe also.

I was born on 23rd July 1985 at Nagerkovil. Nagerkovil is a place in Tamilnadu, one of the southern most states of India. My birth alone was there in Nagerkovil. I do not share any other significant bond with Nagerkovil. I was slightly above normal weight at the time of birth.

17 years of my childhood I spent in Tirunelveli. I was brought up by a lot of people. Our family is big and in those days after my birth my parents, grand-parents, great-grand mother, my two uncles(my dad's younger brothers), one with his wife used to live in the same house. We lived in a house on the main road. Our house had a ground floor and a first floor. It was a rented house and the owner of the house is one of our very close relatives(like an elder brother to my dad) who stays in a street parallel to ours. My dad's sister used to stay in the street parallel to ours. From the backyard of our house we can reach the backyard of her house and our elder uncle(our house owner) stayed in a house opposite to that of hers.

I was less than a year old when the following happened. One night I had cried to the peak of my voice. I used to cry around midnight and my mother would give some infant food drink and the bottle would be finished by me in a few mins and thrown away. That night my mother thought that it was the same and she had come with a feeding bottle. I had not stopped crying that night. People were worried that some insect had bitten and thought that was why I was crying. So immediately they had taken to me to our family doctor. The doctor was the right person and he did find the correct reason as to why I was crying. There was some fluid coming out of my ear and they immediately took me to a nursing home at around 2 am. I was medicated properly and I have fairly good audibility till date. However, my ears are one of my weak spots and I hated people touching my ears till my high school days.

The above was one of the incidences people used to discuss very frequently and almost all the following incidences are not from my memory but from the narration of the people who had grown me up.

I was quite fast in learning things in my infancy. I stood up and used to walk even before when I completed 1 year. I never had had a childish accent. I had been able to pronounce "KA", "RA" (the indian way of pronouncing "RA") even in my very young ages. My uncle's wife used to give me lunch as both my parents were employed. I used to run to my aunt's house behind ours and make her run after me to feed me. One day, as usual when she was chasing me to feed me, I had stopped in the garden in our backyard and threw a big piece of a brick at her and people say that she was wounded!! Was I that strong when I was a year old?

I was very agile and used to run through all the places in all the three houses(ours, my aunt's and my elder uncle's). I was 2-3 years old when the following happened. In my aunt's house, I used to play cricket with my aunt's son in the first floor. On the day of this anecdote, we had played for long and we were getting down for lunch. My aunt's mother-in-law had her head shaved that day and was seated in the staircase. I asked her to give way for me to get down. I remember she had some hearing problems. Whether she heard me or not, I do not remember, but the fact is that she did not give me way that day. So what happened next? I had a cricket bat in my hand. It was not a plastic bat but a bat with the famous brand Sunridges written on it! BANG!! Blood started pouring from her head and Prasad was nowhere in the spot after seconds of her scream. Poor old lady but she survived the hit thankfully.

I used to play with my elder aunty in their backyard. There is a well in their backyard which serves them water till date. This well situated in the river bed of Thamirabarani has had water all round the year for several years. The people then in this house were my grandmother's sister, her husband and their two sons(my elder uncles) and daughters in law(elder aunties). I spent time almost equally in all these three houses. My grandma's sister was drawing water from the well that day. It was around noon when she was drawing water and she saw something glittering in the sunlight in the well. She managed to take that object and found that it was a tumbler. That day all the inmates of the house worked for hours and found several utensils from the well. They are not treasures but they were all their own vessels with their initials in them. So the obvious answer as how they went to the well is me. I had been dropping all these into the well unnoticed.

This was me during my pre-school days. I was a kid whom everyone loved and feared. I was scared of one person, an old person who used to roll in the streets begging for alms shouting the name of the lord Govinda. On hearing his voice I used to run from wherever I was to my grandma and close my ears. Apart from this, I have hit people, made people run behind me, thrown stones, bit some noses, carried a fully grown pussy cat which people were so afraid of etc..

These are some memorable anecdotes of my pre-school days which people have told me. In my next blog, I would continue with my school day memories.