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.