best days were school days?

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4 responses to “best days were school days?”

1. 

   April 12, 2010

   Veena Shivanna

   Awesome and so true..

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2. 

   April 13, 2010

   Suresh Panje

   Well, today I so much regret the days when as a student I would envy the elders since they had no botheration of going to school or doing homeworks and they always had 1 Anna, 2 Annas, 4 Annas and 8 Annas coins with them and also 1 or 2 ruppee notes. And as I grew up and became an earning member (not to count the 9 years and odd months in the IAF as all facilities were assured), at the age of 28 years in 1975 when I had to be self-reliant, I realised that the student days were better. It was foolhardy to assume and presume the elders were a care-free lot.

   All said and done, I wish to share a tiny so-called poem that I had scribbled in 1971 for my Nursery Teacher – Ms. Anuradha Patankar of Himamshu Shishu Vihar. She was my first teacher in 1950.

   MY NURSERY TEACHER

   Oh! Miss, whom do you expect
   That I eternally respect?

   Of course, Miss, it’s none but you
   ‘Cause you were my first ‘Guru’.

   You taught me ‘A’ for Apple
   ‘nd retold many a fables

   Teaching me to read-n-write
   You showed in my life, a new light

   Making me learn one plus one
   You prompted me to be second to none

   Thanq Miss for all the lot
   Which you taught me when I was a tiny tot.

   – Suresh Panje

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3. 

   April 17, 2010

   Sanjay M

   ha ha yeah Suresh grass seems to always seem greener on the other side 🙂 You have quite a head start, you were already 28 the year I was born 😀
   Wow that’s such a lovely poem, I think your Miss might be really delighted to see it! I am really touched by your idea of getting back to your nursery teacher

   (removed ur mobile number for privacy, but saved it in my addr book)

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4. 

   April 23, 2010

   Suresh Panje

   These couple of observations pertain to the School Days Were The Best. Yes, what I mean to say is that during the 1950s, similar to the games being played as per season, we students too had certain pastimes in tune with the season. Thus we had the one or two months solely for the ‘Burige’ – the spinning tops, marbles and gilli danda among others. As for the hobbies, the craziest one may say was the collection of matchbox labels. Wayside shops in every neighbourhood vending assorted items like cigarettes, beedis and Ele Adike (betel leaves and nuits) pakumpappu (lintels – dal treated in jaggery), kadilekay unde (sweet made from groundnut) etc, would also display these match box labels and similar to a stamp collector there were umpteen enthusiasts amassing these colourful labels and pasting them in used note books. ‘Cheetah Fighter’, ‘Magic Man’ (a figure reflecting a face both ways), ‘Lamp’ ‘Train’ were some of the popular labels of matchboxes, invariably printed (by or) for the makers of matchsticks from Sivakasi or Tenkasi.

   I had never realised the actual meaning of inflation and recession until I recalled the day when we as school students (of Arya Vidya Shala in Seshadripuram) had been taken to the Sampige Road in Malleswaram (between 15th and 18th cross roads) to hail Kruschev and Bulganin, on their way to Tata Institute, better known as Indian Institute of Science. Yes it was some time in 1955. Unlike the present day leaders moving with posse of blackcats, greendogs and assorted security personnel, they travelled in an open car right from Residency (present day Raj Bhavan) to Tata Institute. All the students were given two flags – our tri colour and that of Soviet Union to wave. After we completed our task of waving the flags at the visiting dignitaries and Pandit Nehru, our schoolmaster told us that all of us could return home.

   Indeed, I was delighted and as I stepped towards home, my eyes fell on the ground to see two shining coins. These were a four anna and an eight anna coins. God knows to whom it belonged but my hands reached them. Soon with my brother Ramesh and two of my other classmates, we marched into a restaurant (Brahmin’s Hotel – that is how the vegetarian eateries were referred) and the four of us had a good feed of Masale Vade, Uddin Vade and Khali Dose – all for just 14 annas. I had to chip in the two annas I had with me to make up the bill.

   Well, had it been today, this treat of masale vade, uddin vade and khali dose would have taxed me to the extent of not less than 80 rupees, in contrast to mere 87 paise of 1955.
   So the inflation is literally more than 100 percent. The school fees at Arya Vidya Shala, a middle school, was just 2 rupees and six annas per month and today I have seen parents spending whopping sum of thousands of rupees even for play school and nursery classes admissions.

   Sorry, I went off track from the intended topic of days at the school. With much fanfare World Environment Day, Forestry Day, Save The Earth Day et al are celebrated or observed these days. Believe me, in 1950s, there were no such days and yet, we as students had a reverence for the ecology and the environment. For instance, while munching groundnuts or any eatable, if a boy happened to drop it on the ground, we would say it is for Bhoomi Tayi (Mother Earth) and not pick it up. Surely, it would have become the food for the early bird the next day! It was not a mere blind belief but one of conviction. So much so, when the huge trees (probably most of them were over 50 years) between Fort High School and National College were cut down, my heart and thoughts literally wept. It was one of the most well shaded avenues in Bangalore. I was also told the road from Mysore Bank to City Market earned the name Avenue Road because it led straight to the well laid from Vani Vilas Hospital to National College.

   Thus in the name of development our good old Bangalore has been razed to no ends and likewise all over, Mother Earth has been raped (pardon me for the language). These comments surfaced in the context of the nice photo feature Twilight Zone in a Heavenly Park.

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