An alumni meet triggers a few school memories

It was another one  of  husband's school alumni meet and he had to miss this time due to a priority work. But his friends had managed to webcast the same and I too joined to watch the fun. Many of his friends shared some of the school memories most of the strict punishments, warnings and other naughty pranks were fun to hear, One of his class mates narrated how hindi language was a night mare for him and he could not differentiate between sanskrit or hindi when recently somebody had forwarded a message to  him.  He also shared how once  his teacher asked him to make a sentence with " Prathi din" in hindi. and he a ttempted to make a sentence with  "prathi din mera janam din hai"  and felt accomplished only to realize its meaning later.  

Listening to their anecdotes, i was reminded of my own....for me kannada was a night mare, I had chosen this as my third language. A jobless neighbour uncle of ours helped me in class 4 and a few of our neigbhour kids during exam times  with  kannada and there was this lesson on Malaria where i had to read a sentence " sollegalanu dhoopadinda hodisabahudu" meaning you can chase mosquites with the fumes of dhoop. solle in kannada meant mosquito and i read it as Soole ( meaning prostitute) meaning prostitutes could be chased with dhoop. My neighbour uncle laughed heartily while i had a puzzled look ...... for long he  used to remember this and recalled in many gatherings till i grew old. He would say,   while he felt like scolding others for making mistakes...i would always get away for bringing such lighter moments. Another time he asked meaning of " Pragati" and i told him "gotthu uncle - i know uncle" confidently and said " kett buddhi" ( bad intelligence/knowledge) and sported a confident look...all these were fun moments in the small class. 

While my husband was telling he could not recall any of his school memorable moments( he has a very bad memory which i think is a blessing in many circumstances) ...my mind travelled back to the 70's and 80's to my school and college times...

Although i can't remember any of the incidents of LKG and UKG which i combinedly did for an year( 6 months each) at a small montessorie school opposite my home in Rajajinagar....i remember a memory vividly of my First standard. we then shifted to HAL in Bangalore and I studied in St. Thomas school. My uncle who then stayed and was looking for employment would walk me to the school...my school was a km away from my home and we had to walk the broad HAL  road which had a divider. The roads were not busier then but it definitely had cars and big buses which carried people to the airport and a few heavy vehicles like loaded tempos and lorries. One afternoon during lunch break I found a way out of school and walked on the road divider safely to reach home, I was just 4.5  or 5 years old. I told my mom who was washing clothes that due to teachers meeting we were let off. Next day, too around the same time, I reached home with the same excuse. While the previous day, my mom did not suspect me, the second day my mom found out something was fishy. I  was a pampered single child then and hated school where the nuns were strict and were walking with a cane in the hand. I was not interested in studying and would find ways to bunk school.  My mom  immediately readied herself and took me to the school and found the school was functioning. She left me in the care of the nun and all i know after that  was the bamboo cane leaving purple scars on my legs right in front of the chapel where i knelt to pray to god. 

To this day, the whole incident is unerasable in my memory...thankfully i studied in that strict school just for an year.. for second standard,  since my mom moved to her maternal home for delivering my sister i studied in Kumaran's school in Mylapore for 6 months. This school was more like a home, where the teachers pampered me like their own child...it was a small school and my teachers used to take me to their home. I particpated in dance and fancy dress competition and won prize. The photo copies  of which are still in many of relatives place that recently my second cousin in Atlanta had posted in a family group and asked to identify me.

My third standard again I shifted to Bangalore. Chennamma memorial school at Richmond road , run by Chinmaya mission with montessori methods and headed by Lalitha Mandanna.... a school that gave me excellent exposure to sports, creative arts and studies.  Perhaps this school brought out my love for sports and arts....more on this and other anecdotes  at another time.....

P.S: signing  off this post at 1:28 a.m  - another one of those sleepless nights which helped me to blog.

PPS: edited spellings on this post on reading a second time...i have to be careful now because recently my daughter's friend read my blog and told her" your mom makes many punctuation and spelling mistakes"....LOL