(warning: loooooooooooooooooooooooong post)

Talk about it to me. Education is something which the great almighty didn't embed in my system. I had no idea why, but even then I am suprised sitting here doing one of the biggest courses in anyones life. I have no idea how I got down here or for that instance how did I get so far. For once when I started my parents wondered if this guy would graduate from school. Now all those fears have got bundled up and been thrown out of the window, one definete reason that I have graduated from school & the second reason is that I have graduated from college too.

I have studied in inumerable number of educational institues. My parents changed my schools in between LKG & UKG itself. See this was the time any kid would be so small not knowing anything about the ideology named schooling. Even then I was being changed schools for the reason that the aayaa didn't clean my undies when I peeded in my pants. Naaa, just joking definetly for the reason that other kids peeed so constantly that aayas had to be running around just cleaning the shit off. So my parents found it un-hygenic, offcourse any parent would find it. In fact given an opportunity they would have changed the school half-way down it, such was the state of the famous Velankanni Matri School at T.Nagar.

Then came the big difficult stage of UKG. Though I never repeated any years at school, this I would regard as the single most difficult class I have ever been too. It was like they taught me rocket-science. As a matter of fact even if you would teach me rocket-science now, it will fly over my head. So imagine someone teaching 'me' that when I was a kid. I also had the balls to go to my class-teacher and tell her that "miss-miss enga mama sonna neenga romba azhaga irukenganu", which I consider as the single most flattering statement for a 24 year old good looking class-teacher. That apparently happened to be the very answer, which answered over the rest of them in the final examinations. Bharathwaj Sattanathan has cleared UKG in style, topping the class! It was quite unbelievable for my whole family. Thanks to my mama (moms bro), I achieved something remarkable I thought.

Then markered a different three years of my life. Delhi didn't welcome me with arms-wide-open. My folks put me up in a school where no one spoke anything other than hindi. For some one from madras being thrown straight at a delhi school, was like asking Hrithick Roshan to play for the Indian Cricket team. (Maybe he could do a better job sometimes, who knows?!). I still remember the way I ran out of the class while the teacher was going blah-blah asking us to repeat A-B-C-D. Luckily there was a hope that even my son will finish his first standard. D.T.E.A meant nothing other than Delhi Tamil Educational Association which associated itself in educating kids.

I strangely found myself screaming A, B,C,D from the last bench all of a sudden. I screamed that from the top of my voice for three years. Yes, I did that for three years. Where the rest of the world was learning baba black ship I was still trying to figure out which alphabet comes after G.It used to be like the "gumbaloda govinda" types. Yell when the teacher is looking & then talk to the girl next to you when she is facing the board. Remarkebly I still remember the name of my first std teacher, Rukmini. How will I forget her name? She was my patti's age & never scolded me for anything, only me. I was like the darling of the class.

I porrikified in D.T.E.A for three years successfully. My meaning of success is passing, okey?! You should keep in mind my mental capabilities before I go ahead. I was in news always for different reasons like extra-curricular activities right from the beginning. Anything associated with fancy dress competitions, singing, dancing, playing the fool around, etc etc my name was the first & suprising I used to pull off all the prizes too. But when it came to exams and marks I had no place in the arena there. It was like I belonged else where.

Three years were like three minutes when I was starring at myself in Madras again after I finished my third standard. I would want to mention the abbrevation of my schools name here since it would take me ages by the time I complete writting the name. I didn't know why the hell the school had such a long name. Bleady long, it was. Its okey, let me mention it once again for one last time. Jai gopal garodia hindu vidyala senior secondary school it was called (JGHVSSS). Man shooooo! I am tired. Imagine my plight if some one asked me then which school I studied in. It would be like listening to a lecture for someone, who wants to know out of curiousity, just after I finish telling the school name itself. They would be sometimes releaved when at the point in time when I finish. Some of them never used to understand that too, so they would be like "Enna sonna da kanna", which means that they want to hear that again. Some times it used to be frustating but finally after sometime I got used to it.

Report cards were the one thing I remember back then. It used to be the ultimate paper of judgement for anyone in class. Whenever I come out of the examination I used to tell my parents, who asked me how well I did -"Ninety kulla vandudom ma". It took me long to understand that it means I would get within ninetly wherein I was trying to tell them that I would get my marks in ninetees, which never was the case. We had two sections for every class with 30 students each. I was happy that my cousin was in another section, since the first thing she would do is to tell my parents with which guy I was fighting at lunch time. Lunch times used to be like the ones that come on fight club movies. The excitement was nothing short of that. Fights were so common then, especially I would chumma get into a fight for the fun of it. Most of the times I would find myself "standing-on-the-bench" or "kneeling-down".

I can't just understand what pleasure do other teachers take in finding some boy or girl kneeling down outside the class. It was like "the" news. Whoever passes you by, would give you such a stare as though you have murdered someone. Come on, all I would have done is to forget to bring a pencil to school. So whats the penalty for that, kneel down, crazy stuff man. Then everyone would look at you and spit on you without knowing what you have done. This was like public punishment wherein they would tie the guy who has commited an offense & throw stones at him. Every single time my report card used to come home, there would be a define comment in the comments section which read "Capable of getting first rank'. Who the hell bothered about that. I was too busy in breaking windows of my neighbours, playing cricket, rather than to get first ranks.

For me then first rankers were simply termed as nerds. Nerds were like the strangest people on earth for us. We never spoke to any & neither appreciated their sense of knowledge. We always believed that they used to get the question paper before the exams which facilated them to score much more than anyone in the class. Again even here my name always appeared in the prize list for everything else other than studies. It was not the case that I was dumb or something. It was simply the case that I would never study. I was ranked in the top 10 of the class but never the hard-work to top it.

If I consider D.T.E.A was a matter of minutes then I should say this was like seconds. Even before I realised I was out of there. Strange memories do remain, none strained, everything pleasantfull. This was the time when my character was close to that of Swamy in RK Narayans Swami & friends. The mangoes sum reminded me the very way I got 'kottu-fied' from my dad on a maths sums.

Santhome School was just for cricket. The time I spend in the field was much much more than the time I spend attending classes. It was cricket all the way. Prize tally at home quadrapuled without anything being awarded for education purpose. In spite of that I managed to pull of a first class in the each of the years. It's now amazing if I look upon my schooling. Off course I feel good, who the hell denied it?!


filtered by sambhar....