CHAPTER 2:
1991-1995
I had to undergo some tough times at NSM with the strict regimen in place over there. The bad handwriting that I possess, I have to put the blame on the teachers of NSM. However the times I spent at home was wonderful. My mama(Mom’s brother) who was doing his engineering at Nagpur used to bunk his classes and kept coming back to Vijayawada to spend time with me. I enjoyed the times I spent with him. Eventually he ended up discontinuing engineering and a part of the blame has to be taken up by me. Having toiled for two long years at NSM I moved out when my dad got transferred to Cuddalore. A small town with an amazing sea shore. I got myself admitted into the best school over there. It goes by the name of Arcot Rama Linga Mudhaliar public school. It was a school that reflected the sorry state of the place. Small rooms covered with thatched roof made up the class rooms. I resumed my schooling over there and started off with UKG. Those were very long days at school. I was at school from 8 Am to 4 PM. My home was pretty large and had a large back and front yard. The backyard was a regular visiting place for frogs and snakes. I was brave enough in those times as I used to roam around in backyards all alone even at nights. At times frogs managed to creep into the bathroom and I enjoyed killing them by pouring some hot boiling water on them. My neighbors were very kind and helpful. I spent most of my evenings in their homes. I learnt how to play carroms from them. My mode of communication with my friends was English and I don’t know how much they understood of what I said. In classrooms every bench was occupied by a boy and a girl. I ended up sitting beside a fat girl. I don’t remember her name, however I remember the nickname(Jayalalitha) that I gave her. We used to fight with each other and frequently disturbed the class and ended up most of the times out of the class. At home, my mom forced me to sit down and study daily.
As a result I ended up with some impressive report cards which I still preserve.I studied over there till 2nd standard. Since Tamil was a compulsory subject at school. I ended up learning Tamil. During weekends I forced my dad to take me to Pondicherry(now puducherry) which was around 20 Kms from there. I enjoyed my weekends at Pondicherry. I spent most of the time at boat club where I got a chance to ride a speedboat. It was wonderful to zip through in the high seas of bay of Bengal. For diwali holidays I went to hyderbad to celebrate diwali with my cousins. Celebrating diwali with my cousins was a customary and I enjoyed de diwalis at Hyderabad. For summer holidays I ended up most of the times at ooty or kodaikanal. Kodaikanal was a boring place for me as there was nothing over there for me to play or enjoy. Ooty was a place I still enjoy. The resorts over there were amazing and the weather in those times sans global warming was cool. I enjoyed the rides in the toy train over there.
Occasionally I made visits to madras. I hated the weather and traffic over there. However toys available over there were nice, my favourite being the remote controlled cars. Also I started off with a hobby and that was stamp collection. I also went for some tennis coaching though never mastered the game. I am not able to recollect the names of my friends however they were all very nice people .
No comments:
Post a Comment