Good old days

Everyone writes about their childhoods - real or re-imagined. So let me start writing my own.

In this school as I was the smartest in the class, I felt  like an uncrowned queen. But the smart ones do have to perform other duties - not only studying. 

I clearly remember carrying home tens of  notebooks. To correct my classmates' math home-works. Because teacher was busy and he assigned me this work. And the good girl I was, I dutifully corrected their note books.

And one more cringy task was to slap the classmates on their faces. When the teacher asks a question, and no one can answer it, the student who finally answers  earned the right to hold the noses of the others and slap them on their cheeks. Yes, I had done this task as ordered by the teacher. 

But I remember one worse incidence. The teacher asked us to show the four directions - north, south, east and west. My arrow on the board was wrong. The mean teacher called my younger sister from other class. She answered correctly and slapped all of us. 

When I was in 7th grade and there were no teachers for first standard. So on many days, I would go to first grade class room, and be their teacher. What about my classes? I would manage my studies without classes - wouldn't I?

Our school was a temple. Not figuratively, but literally. Our model primary school number 3 was located in a some kind of lingayat temple with sanctum sanctorum and all. So we would remove our footwear and enter our classroom. 

We would sing prayers in the morning followed by anthem. Was the prayer "Swami devane loka palane te namostu namostu te"? I don't remember. But we would stand in neat files in the play ground and sing these and anthem and then we did exercises directed by PT teacher. "Piche mudega piche mud. Do teen ek".

Occasionally a child will faint. Was it because of the sun? Or malnutrition? Who knew?

And one of the fun days was the day after Makara Sankranti - Pongal. We all will dress in colorful dresses -we are exempted from uniform on that day. And just walk around the school distributing ellu to every one. After completing the distribution of this token of friendship in the school, we will march to other schools and give ellu to the teachers there. 

On the day of late ex prime minister Indira Gandhi's birthday, I participated in some kind of speech competition and spoke about her. It was the time of emergency and there were talks of excesses committed by the government. But I only understood a tiny bit of these. 

But there was no scarcity of sycophants. There were stories in kannada newspaper about a queen and a prince. The same papers or were the same authors, - carried the stories about excesses and atrocities committed during the emergency once the election was held and Murarji Desai became prime minister. 

There was a rally - some kind of sad rally when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was defeated in the election. People were crying and saying - "amchi ayi geli - our mother went away". 

Yes, Janata party was formed to oppose Mrs Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan played pivotal role in its formation. I think it was a combination of 5 parties. And Morarji Desai was their first prime minister. 

Do you know who supported them externally? BJP and CPI. I remember a cartoon where the kursi was being disturbed and Vajapayee and some one from CPI keeping it together. 

Luckily for me, some changes happened in our highschool by the time I came to 8th grade. Girl students were no longer required to wear sarees. Yes, you may find it ridiculous - but earlier the uniform for girl students was - white blouse and blue long skirt in 8th grade and blue saree in 9th and 10th grade. 

As I mentioned earlier, this town was bordering Maharashtra. So there were plenty of marathi speaking people around. In the high school - section A was for marathi medium and B and C were kannada medium. 

Many households would send their daughters to marathi medium schools and sons to kannada medium schools. Their rationale behind this decision was - they will marry of their daughters to Maharashtra and find jobs for their sons here in Karnataka.