Six and Seven

There weren’t much memorable things that happened in the next couple of years or so. I passed 5the grade with first class. Moved on to a new division (previously was in A division) which I don’t remember, for 6th grade. Opposite to my class room was a big tamarind tree. I got some new friends here. But none of them were specially close to me since they had their own set of friends. So, my 5th grade friend remained with me as a close friend. Till that time, among my friends, I was the most studious and hence there weren’t any competition from them.

Most of our teachers came in bicycles. Many high school teachers had scooter. I did not see anybody coming in car.

For seventh grade I was put into C division. Got acquainted with some more kids and my friends remained same, (those who belonged to my original ‘I’ division). But I met one of my old buddies in this class. He was there with me during my second grade. And among the acquainted ones, one became a little more friendly than the rest of the C division kids (we moved on to different class and then met again at college and he finally became a Dentist)

One thing I remember about this seventh grade is a flood.

There was a kind of slum area half a kilo meter away from our school and that got affected during flood. Hence government used our school to temporarily accommodate them. It was like a camp. Thus we got lots of holidays :). But when we were back to school, on the first day, we were asked to wash and clean our class :(

I went to a tuition center that year. And there I met another old buddy. He wasn’t in my class but we studied in the same school when we were in second grade. He became a friend of mine. When I remember him, the first thing that comes in my mind is the smell of fish. He used to take fish daily and most of the time smelled too. His nick name was ‘monkey’

There was some pressure at the end of the exam since we were moving to high school next year. But I did not take any of these pressures seriously, either from school or from the tuition center. Parents did not bother about my studies.

There was a club and community hall half a kilometer from our house and even today, it is there. Opposite to my house lived a politician who then was the member of the legislative assembly. He also was leftist a trade union leader.

On the way to my school lived two (or three?) ministers. That means, it is the official residence of ministers. Then the city police commissioner’s office. Police training college also was very near. Then this building called ‘Residency’, with vast compound. This is called so because, when the British were ruling this place, their resident representative, a British citizen, lived here. We used to wander inside this place and throw stones at the mango trees (to get mangoes). And for some kids, this served as a safe place to hide when they bunk class.

There were ice stick venders outside the gate of our school. Though teachers ask the students to not to buy them, we always bought them. They came in different colors and flavors. The most popular type had sort of ‘pasta’ in it. These weren’t of high quality and I hardly think that they were made at hygienic conditions. But still we bought them very frequently, some even daily. There was a small shop near our school’s front entrance where we get nice jaggery-coconut candies. They were very tasty.

Another ‘establishment’ one can never forget is a small restaurant opposite to the back entrance of our school. We students used to have our lunch from there if we could not bring lunch box. None of us ordered a regular meal, though we were there to have lunch, but its most popular ‘item’ was ‘dosa’ which weren’t like home-made ones. It looked like pan cake and tasted differently. The curry supplied along with it was ‘sambar’. Then in a tray comes snacks like ‘vada’, ‘modakam’ etc…my favorite was ‘modakam’. Most of us preferred having food from this restaurant than brining from home. But what if the parents think the other way? Huh !


Dosa in that restaurant looked like this


Sambar



Dosa


Vada made of black gram



Vada made of bengal gram

We mostly played ‘konnikkali’ a ‘limping-game’ where we draw a court and using one leg to jump/leap, we need to touch the others inside the court. If that person accidentally touches his other leg on the ground, he is out. And next member from his team continues the game. Otherwise we played cricket. There weren’t any cricket ball, no bat, no stumps !!! We will make a ball using paper (or sometimes used rubber ball), use some flat piece of wood as bat and some sticks or our school trunk as wicket. Sometimes we play even hide and seek or ‘seven tiles’

I wasn’t doing great at studies, I never aggregated above 80%, but since there weren’t much competition, I always stood within the top 10 of our class, where we had about 40 students (then moved on to top 3)….I wasn’t self motivated. There weren’t any encouragement from either the teachers or parents, so I did not participate in any of the other-than-study competitions, though I could have achieved something.

At home, only change that happened was, the house owner’s wife gave birth to a baby boy (later on, one more……I met them recently, I could not identify them, one of them became a CA – like CPA)….cat died and new cat came. Then some minor quarrels between my mother and the house owner’s wife. Once I even heard about my dad’s plan to leave us and live alone, which I think was just a bluff to threaten his wife.

But again, as the four members sit together as a family, without any doubt, it wasn’t a happy family.

I entered into puberty……

I developed the habit of writing diary/journal.

Once again I passed the final exam with first class. Now time to move on to high school.