Never a dull moment

  Nostalgia School day lunch intervals. Taking offence ? No way ! In Malayala medium at Chennai in class VI and VII, I was the only vegetarian.  We, classmates, used to eat lunch together. Mine was always butter milk rice with a dry pickle - a combo easy to swallow without much effort. The tiffin boxes of my friends opened to boiled eggs or pieces of meat nestled in parboiled rice doused with oil. My friends used to kneed rice-oil combo between their fingers and palm into perfect spheres with the rest of action in their mouths - thorough chewing. Pieces of egg/ meat used to go in seperately. One of those days, as I was finishing my lunch, I found a shapeless rubberish brown lump at the bottom and stopped. My friends peered into my cylindrical tiffin box with a bucket type handle ( "chottu patram" ) and felt it was a piece of mutton. Some laughed in merriment saying " Subbu ate mutton curry !" while the rest picked up a quarrel with the merry guys while I sat around ...

 Pull ups, school  days and fitness At high school - in class IX, X and XI, we had physical efficiency test in the first term. Though our SSLC books had columns for entering the results of these tests, I find these columns are blank while in my dad's SSLC book, there are entries of the results achieved. Our class of around 55 boys would spent half a day in our sprawling school ground on an assigned in first term in class IX. We had six events for evaluation.  All of us had to run 100 m and 800m. With severe knock knee and 100 % flat foot ( I discovered these when I joined Air Wing NCC in class IX ), I was not good at running. I performed well in broad jump ( long jump leaping from a stationary position ) and unassisted sit ups with hands behind the head . My effort at cricket ball throw was okay. But pull ups with forward grip left me ashamed. Half the class could do two or more pulls and I could not do any.  I told my dad about my dismal "pull ups" performance....

 A teacher retires - primary school days First image of teacher I have is of Achatu Janaki teacher and thinking of her makes me smile.Our primary school was at farthest point of our village. She called on my grandparents and got me enrolled in her school. She used to fetch some of us on her way to school. We were a flock of fifteen by the time we reached the school. She retired when we moved from II to III standard. A farewell  function was organised. We were told to bring gifts for her. The farewell function was in the open and we were all seated on the ground. Couple of tables were laid out and Janaki teacher was seated with headmaster Anthony master beside the tables. One by one,  we got up, said namasthe to Janaki teacher and handed over our gifts which other teachers piled up neatly on the tables. Nothing can be carried to the nether world. If such a possibility exists, Janaki teacher would still be using the bathing soap cakes we gifted ! She would have run out of t...

  Forty five years ago - Nostalgia NCC camp Foggy morning walk image this morning made me recall an event forty five years ago - our NCC Air Wing 10 day camp held in 1974-75 second term break at Air Force station Tambaram We were twenty four cadets from our school occupying three tents Night dew used to render our beds damp and mist of us used to be up by 3 am and used to chat. The night sentry cadets used to knock on the tent pegs and asked us to keep quiet. Our school was lucky. We were not assigned night sentry assignment in the camp. We dug small moats running around our tents - to prevent snakes from entering the tents. There was hip high grass where we pitched our tents - we cut them and levelled the ground. We had carried all our stuff in the longish black camp bags which were like giant versions of mridangam cover which we laid out neatly before we went for morning march. There were prizes for well laid out tents. Our neigbour Wessley school bagged the prize. On the first e...

We are in the age of gel and ball point pens. They are utilitarian and long life is not demanded of them. Most of them are of "use and throw" variety. At school and collge , we used fountain pens. The pens as well as nibs had long life. More than the pen, its nib, on prolonged use developed a character of its own mirroring the writing style of its owner. The nib used to wear out with a "personal" touch depending upon angle of grip and pressure applied by is owner. As a consequence, it was tough to borrow a fountain pen and use it at one stretch for long writing work. I used to find my sister's pen "rough" and she also had similar feeling about my pen. Hence it was much easier for the pen to stay with the owner for long without "getting lost". With proliferation of mass produced gel and ball point pens, such attachment to pen is uncommon among students these days. I spent six years in high school from 1970 to 1976 with...