HAPPY NEW YEAR

By this time we might have got the half-yearly exam date. They usually start at 4^th or 5^th of January.Though we get ourselves into alert mode with that, it doesn’t spoil our enthusiasm we have for welcoming new year. Our hearts dance… our lips sing with the very thought of January 1^st. Though we don’t do anything extra special ,still the day is special. Hope I was right !!!???

The mood for new year starts before 2 weeks for us . Every shop in the town hangs the greeting cards in long chains. Cards of flowers, gods, movieheroes, heroines, sceneries… everything is found before shops. And in our class…our friends who love drawing like vinay , amar (and also myself) start making white pages of our notebook into black…writing things like HAPPY NEW YEAR…GOODBYE 199_. And some of our friends bring greeting cards to the class. Everybody used to surround that person and try to have a glance at those cards. Some used to bring musical cards. Music is played once the card is opened. Radha and I used to look at those cards in awe. we had a great liking to such cards. But we never dared to buy such cards as they were too expensive. Though we (radha and me) had many things we like in common we differ in greeting cards. He loves cards with nature sceneries and I like cards with flowers….

We also had 2 precious holidays for Christmas before new year. Our joy doubles with those 2 holidays because we don’t get two holidays successively so often. And if one of those two days is Sunday it is really terrible. As usual we used to play rigorous cricket in those days and get back to school in the following day. With only 5 to 6 days for new year…during free time we used to discuss about the plans for the 31^st.

And at our homes things are not that much different from ours.. Mothers, aunties, sisters discuss about the muggulu and seriously study the muggula pusthakaalu. In my house…there was a notebook with no cover. A very old one. It contains lot of muggulu with red ink, blue ink and with pencil. On the top of each is written “10 chukkalu 5 varasalu., 14 chukkalu 6 varasalu." and so on…I could not understand the flow, where to start and where to end. I used to suggest my mother, ammamma, aunties…why do you use chukkalu ,you can directly draw this figure. They used to laugh at my brilliant suggestion( J???).

31^st dec. In the class, evrybody wish each other . “happy new year happy new year”. Our cricket team used to plan the tomorrow matches very seriously ..We fix the schedule and go.

By night radha and I glue to TV. Those were the days we didn’t have cable tv. Only one channel…our very own Doordarshan .We used to watch it contemplating some good program..like a new movie, special chitralahari etc.which was impossible.

We along with other friends near our house gather and wait for the moment… when the time is arrived…12 midnight….power is off for a second in the whole suryapet town. Everybody screams “happy new year.. happy new year”….. and once the spirits let down we get back to sleep thinking about tomorrow’s plans.

The next day….brand new day..brand new year….. most of the times my mother used to wish me first. Later everybody….the first thing I do is go to radha .I used to wish his father, mother…His father used to reply me back saying greetings to me but his mother replies with smile shyly . Then we go out and have a look at the muggu infront of our house. Then we walk around all other houses looking at the other muggulu. Every muggu contains greetings like “welcome 19__ googbye 19__,Happy new year” and so on. I used to find spelling mistakes in those.

I didn’t have the habit of giving greeting cards in person to friends. One time,might be in class VII, I along with some other friends , , went to the other friends house and conveyed wishes.

And at ground ..we were ready with our match…we wanted a win compulsorily on that day as we used to think if we won this day we would win all the year. “elaginaa gelavaali raa manam…manam gelusthaam”. Ah…..one year we lost the match. Our feelings were badly hurt. Then we consoled ourselves saying “ ayina eeroju gelisthe anni rojuluu ela gelusthaam..anthaledu” .

Some start flying kites this day though Sankranthi is 2 more weeks to come.

Once the day gets into finishing mode…at night.. .radha and I used to sit at his house doorsteps and talk on many things….

I used to wait for Enadu paper’s Sunday magazine. They will give labels. I usually collect all those with the hope of sticking them to my books. .

Jan 2^nd …from today the whole class is gripped in exam fever….the tension prevails until the last but one exam…

Aferthat….

My first day at Shirisha school: continued ( Initial hiccups)

A few days went on without any change. And then the real threat came in the form of an intimation that the very next day we four had to take an exam.The question paper would come from government. DV,radha,sriman and i didnt bring TC from our previous school.That's why we had to take that exam. I was very much worried about that. I didnt remember anything about V class syllabus then. I wondered how my other three friends felt about that. But I was fully scared. The next day, I woke up and was on the bed for a long time.. I was very tensed. My eyes were with full of tears and finally....I exploded and started crying. My mamaiah enquired me and said that the exam was only a formality and there was nothing to worry. That was the first time in my life i ever felt that much of pressure academically.
I went to school along with radha. We were asked to come out of the class and sit under trees for exam. I felt embarrassed while coming out of the class as everybody was looking at us. A few minutes later we were given question papers. As far as I remember , I could not answer much of the questions. And only God would have known the situation of my other three bold(??) exam-taking friends.Sometime later a sir,might be Chandraiah sir ,came and looked at our answer sheet.He smiled with a little sarcasm which did hurt me a lot. A little later,Shirin sir,the principal also enquired about us with other sirs who were there watching us. One of them even mumbled " ekkadinunchi vacchaarrra" .
Then came the top embarrasing moment of the scene. They(sirs) took question paper from us and gave that to the toppers of our shirisha classmates. They answered those questions and that was given to us so that we could copy. I could not recollect which exam was that but I still remember ,one evening, we were given the answers provided by the toppers and while we were writing ,everybody of the class was looking at us from the classroom with full of exuberance and enthusiasm. I looked at all of them and I remember their faces. Laughing. Smiling. Some serious . And some curious.
This troublesome event went on for three days and finally we became the real Shirishians.

Deepavali days

Deepavali... the very thought of that word brings immense pleasure, happiness,merry...and so on. It really brought light to us because we had two precious holidays in school to cherish .In school days,.the festival begins for me ,radha and srikanth from the day next to dasara.we would wait eagarly for that . From that day we used to fire intermittently "thoka bombulu" .The same was the case with all of us. The real happiness sprouts once our Bixam sir reads the circular in classs " tomorrow and day after tomorrow are holidays" . If not in the class, he announces in mike after the evening prayer "Tomorrow and day after tomorrow are holidays in connection with deepavali and the school reopens on...". Those lines were used to be very soothing to all of us.
At home, for me... the day begins with "nivali" at 4 am in the morning. Its almost impossible for me to wake up at that hour.Once that ritual got done, I used to go to radha. Then we both along with other friends used to fire crackers . Whatever be the festival, if the time was 9 then all our class gang would be at Govt.Jr.college grounds for cricket match.Most of the time we played against our seniors and we won.
By evening everybody would be in their respective homes. radha and me used to fire a few "bhoochakralu,chichubudlu ,vankaya bombulu". We didnt get much enjoyment in doing that. But we enjoyed watching others. We used to roam all that area watching everybody and discussing our previous deepavali days. Many things in our life happened to us in common as we both were together from very young age. we used to go to our karunakar's house who was very enthusiastic in firing crackers. Those two days vanishes just in a jiffy.
And the next day, the same morning blues to go to school. Before the prayer commences, in the class, everybody tells about their previous evening experiences. " I fired 50 rupees crackers" "I spent 100 rupees" .Hari(prasad) used to say that he had spent 500 which was a big number those days(i didnt remember the amount exactly , but he used to spend much). Radha and I would listen to all those things in awe.The discussion used to go like that. Once the bell rings everybody goes for prayer wishing "may deepavali come again soon".

My first day at Shirisha school: continued. 1

She was Roja... A few minutes later everybody started pouring in. Within no time there were many many 'men-in-blue' . Those were like ants in an ant-hill moving helter skelter. I just felt like out of place. I had never been in a class with that much of strength before.The bell rung. Now the time for payer. The bell was also very unique in its kind. Its a round brass plate hanging to a tree. And to strike it, there was a special hammer .Those two things were like made-for-each other. It was also got added to my list of "new found things" on that day.

Ah!!! what to say about the prayer "father,we...." . I could not understand a single line of it. I will try to discuss about the incidents connected with prayer sometime later. After finishing the prayer, I got into the class. Everybody was just having great time. Some were laughing loudly. Some talking . Some fighting. I was sitting still . Doing nothing. But, who knew whats going on in me.There was a great turbulence in my mind . I suppose the first person I talked to was our laxman(babu) . radha introduced me to him. I didnt get any jitters when got introduced to laxman. He looked innocent and friendlier. we became good friends later.He is the one of the two friends in shirisha whom i call as "arey,orey,raara..." , the other being anand. I could not say those things to any other friends in shirisha even for today(radha and srikanthdv are exception.we were friends from tagore school days). I was sitting in the last bench after the prayer. shyam was before me. He turned back and inquired about me.Naga Bhoopal was next to him.

My first day at Shirisha school

June .Getting into VI class. The beginning of a new life to me. I couldnot remember the exact date. If my memory serves right, I was before the school gate by 8 in the morning.. Radha(krishna)took me to school that day.I knowRadha from the day one i came into this world. Radha knew the school already. He got the admission earlier. Moreover he had many friends in shirisha by then as he took coaching for navodaya under naeem sir’s tutelage along with other shirisha friends. The gate was gigantic (compared to tagore’s where I studied before).It was green in colour. .Butterflies started flying in my stomach. I entered in. I found large ground with ironware to my left . I turned right. There was board with news written on it. As I strolled further I found a weighing machine. Radha told me about that. I walked a few steps further .There I found a hut-like structure with a small door which is like a split in a cave. I was informed about the bats living in the room next to the door.I creeped into it .And then .. I was in the middle-ground with large trees.I dont know that time that it would be the most loving place for me in the near future. We both got into the classroom. I suppose, it was next to the ‘class with tree’. I was greeted by the blue benches. The one thing I loved in my first day experience in the whole school was 'blue benches' (not because my fav color is skyblue). It was like love at first sight which lasted for ever.

I was sitting with radha in the third or second bench. No, it was third bench. Nobody came in another half an hour. Everything was new to me.The class, the men-in-blue(students wearing uniform) the trees,the campus,… everything was new.. I was apprehensive and feeling nervous. After a while a girl got into the class.She was in school uniform. She knew radha as he was already senior to me in shirisha. After sometime she asked radha ” mee friendaa brother?”. In reply he said, ”avunu sister”. . I was numb . I was well- informed about the jargon used in shirisha beforehand(brother-sister). So,no embarrassment. I havent participated in that brief discussion though its about me.That was the first conversation which happened about me. And she was the first person in our batch I encountered..