School Days: My First Unit-Test Ever In Shirisha School(In VI class)

A few days went on.... everything looked strange. In my previous school our class had a strength of 4 students. Me,Radha,Dv and Sreeman. But here there were around 50 . I was feeling out of place. I was very reserved those days. I hardly opened my mouth and engaged in any kind of talking. Some were coming to me and trying to know about me. I talked to myself more number of times than I talked to others. New books .....new dress...new friends ..new teachers...totally its a new environment. One thing I observed was these guys were very crazy about the drill period. Whenever there was any leisure period, someone goes up to PT sir or any other sir and asks for a drill period. And once it got approved they used to rush to the background and start playing kho-kho and kabaddi. I never played those games in my life before .The only game I ever played was cricket. Sometimes ,chess. I had a strong dislike towards those khabaddi and kho-kho.I remeber one incident related to this.One day we had a break and all the boys and girls were playing in Back-ground. Boys were playing kho. I just stood near the wall watching our friends . My sheer ill-luck : Our PT sir stylish Upendra observed me and dragged me to the game and when I said a big NO he gave me a stern warning. No other options left with me. I took part in the game. When I was in the game, I felt like everybody was watching me and laughing at my bad game. It was the most embarrassing moment for me.

News was doing rounds in the class room that the first unit test was going to be held soon.I was petrified by that . Though I have written such tests in my prevous school also...here the situation was quite different. Previously..it was like a smooth affair .I never felt like I was writing exam. It was pretty cool .It ws a friendly atmosphere over there I was accustomed to and I used to get first rank. Here it was different. Huge syllabus to study ,besides the task of getting used to the new environment. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was getting the jitters. I went home and told my mother about this. Empathizing with me , she told me not to get panicky and said everything would be settled soon.

Finally the test date was declared. All the teachers informed us about the syllabus. We had to take 3 exams a day which was the first time me . We had a system of 2 exams per day in the previous school.With the confidence given by my mother, I prepared well for the exams and had written okay. I let a huge sigh of relief once they got finished. I was informed by our friends about the top students in our class. I listened to them trying to have a glance of those toppers.

After a few days ,we were given our awnser sheets. . I was getting good marks , but I never tried to know the marks of the others and the toppers. Radha,DV and Sreeman are exception to this. we know each others marks. Anuradha teacher,the telugu teacher, who is also our class teacher came to the class one morning bringing the exam-sheeets with her. She was calling each and everybody ,anouncing the marks and giving the exam sheet. I was waiting for my turn.A few minutes passed. She called " kranthi". I got up and went there. I got good marks. She looked at me and asked me

"Kotthaga vachhavu kada?".

I said "Yes teacher".

She said" Very Good kranthi .keep it up".

I was numb at that juncture. But.... very happy. I went back and sat in my place. As usual...Radhagaadu is smiling looking at me(it happens between us very often).

A few days later..... Anuradha teacher was giving progress cards. The cards were like small booklet in sky-blue colour. I was given my card. I opened it. My rank was second. I couldnot believe it. The first thought that came into my mind was" There were 50 students and many toppers in the class ... and i got second rank. ...." . Anuradha teacher congratulated me whole-heartedly. She was very happy for me. Radha and Dv got 14th and 15th ranks and they were worried a lot thinking about the wrath they had to face at home.


The first rank went to Rajani. On that day... I never thought that I was going to witness this girl getting the first position in every exam throughout my school-life.

MAHASIVARATHRI

During school days.....there was always a doubt every year on the day before Sivarathri. We generally contemplate on having a holiday on sivaratri. Are they going to give or not.? And if they do, whether it is on that day or the next day. We used to draw a logical reasoning that the holiday should be given on the day next to sivaratri because we do "jagarana" and a holiday is absolutely needed to sleep in the next day. Most of the times, no holiday was given.

I particularly remember one year when radha and I decided in the class to do jagarana the whole night. Its not out of bhakti but we wanted to do...so that we can boast about it...and throw some attitude in the class that we did what others couldnot. There was already a discussion begun among our all other friends in the classroom about the jaagaaram and about the movies to be watched in VCPs(no DVDs those days).Forget not the mid-night shows of movies in the theatres until next day morning. Our friends used to discuss," arey..sridevi talkies lo em cinema,Ramalingeshwaralo enti ,Lakshmilo chiru cinema anta" ani.

I remeber ,one year,our Amarnath saying to me "kranthi i am fasting .I am not eating anything. I will eat fruits and remain awake whole night". Amar and I were very good friends. In seventh class, we used to sit next to each other in the second bench next to wall. We shared common interests and hobbies....drawing,painting. We both used to draw many many pictures..cartoons, natonal leaders etc. I learnt about water colours from him. I used to draw some cartoons about babri-masjid demolition ( dont think much about these cartoons...not that great) and Amar used to appreciate me. We both used to laugh at Shyam"s stories making jokes on them while he was narrating his never-ending stories standing holding the sir's chair at the black-board.

Radha and I were very close to my ammamma. We two share a good rapport with her. She tells about the mythologies, about the old movies,about the games they used to play in her childhood.... and everything. As I grew up along with mamaiah at my ammamma's house I call her "ammaa.... " (now also..i call her so) . There will never be any words with me to say anything about the special bonding I had with her. What I can say about her? She is everything to me.

After deciding to do jagarana.. Radha and I told my ammamma that we were going to stay awake for Jagarana along with her. She said okay. She was on fast but we were not. So, after coming from school...no holiday was declared ....we were so disappointed though we expected that.After our usual playing and a meet with friends, we formed a small group of 4 to 5 who were willing to take part in jagaranam.We were were very jubilant and looking forward to go ahead with the task. After finishing our supper( we already had breakfast and lunch so we thought no need to skip supper :-)) we started our jagarana sitting before "the great one and only" tv channel-doordarshan. We were expecting a number of programmes to get entertained. A movie was also on its way.. I still remeber the name.. It is an old classic "jayabheri". We enquired with my ammamma about the movie. She said "wow..Its a great movie. very good one". Radha and I jumped with joy having heard that. Not to forget about our really dearest programme on tv "chitralahari". Every shivaratri...same songs from movies like Bhaktha kannappa,Bhookailas were played,only the permutations and combinations of songs differ. Though I didnt have any liking to those songs at that age..now I feel they are really cool...very devotional. Some songs from the heart of Ghantasala directly lands in your heart. Especially the song from Bhakthakannappa " shiva shiva shankara bhakthava shankara shambho hara hara namasthuthey".

We two were battling with our closing eyelids putting our all strength to keep them open. No programme is interesting. Very dull . All of our gang members who were to be with us were already blissfully sleeping on the floor . In the mean time...we were asking ammamma about what time will be the end of jagarana and till what time we should stay awake..... She used to stay"meeru velli padukondi....parvaledu " ani. We stared at each other with many question marks on our sleep-needing faces and without any decision taken we turned our faces towards tv.

Finally the time for movie . It started around 1 am(or 2) . The title cards itself were very boring. Ammo...aa perlu padey vidhaanam choosthene mind poyindhi. oka 5 min varaku paduthoone vunnaayi. Then the movie started.I think nageshwara rao is hero in that film. To make matters more worse .... for every 5 to 7minutes there was a song. Such an old( I have to say "oldest") movie. Believe me . Songs , songs and songs...maa valla kaavatledu... I discussed with radha what should be done. We thought for a while and finally came up with a unanimous resolution ... " give up jagarana..tell to ammamma...and..and... get yourself wrapped in bedsheets without any other thought." The time was already 3 am in the morning by then.

Thats how it happened that year on the auspicious day of Shivaratri. Next day morning....,we enquired ammamma about her jagarana. She said she didnt sleep at all. We said to ourselves "great kadaraa...etlavuntaaro asalu nidrapokunda...ayina chinnapillalu kashtamraa melakuvatho vundadam" ani.

This time,today.... I planned to do jagarana with our Hari(Hari Prasad K). I think..... this time..... I will emerge as a winner. I am sure about it.... what do you say???

San"kranthi" at Bhanupuri

Sometimes..I celebrated sankranthi in suryapet also.I grew up with my mamaiah in my ammamma's house here. Besides gobbemmalu,muggulu......Sankranthi at suryapet is really an exhilarating experience for me. Very lovely... because here lies my soul... I feel immensely happy. Unlike in my naanamma's village where I pass the day counting seconds..here I live the life of king. I do whatever I wish to. i wake up early in the morning ... then Radha and I with tooth brushes sit at the back door and talk and talk...on countless things. With brushes in the mouth we go to the ground (govt jr college ,only a wall separates our house and college ) at such early hour checking whether any one is playing cricket. We eat gangaregi pandlu with lot of interest. We just love them. We even take the information about the location of such trees ..... go there and have them stomachfull. So is the case with sithaphalapandlu.

After finishing bath and having breakfast....we go to ravi and nagu house. They live next door. They are the masters in kite flying. Actually the kite episode in sankranthi is a long process in which we also take part. Ravi prepares his own maanza(thread that tied to kite).For that we a gang of 5 to 6 embark on a great adventurous journey. First ,we go to college ground and search for any broken soda(goli soda) bottles. And then for Aloevera plant leaves(kalamandha) for smoothness. Then go to shop and buy some colours, bendakkayalu. A soft pulpy mass is formed mashing all these things ..A good quality thread is taken , hold that mass and run it all over the thread. Thats how a sharp cutting colourful manza is made.Then the next bing things are kite and charka. They are bought from shops at maseed(masjid) which is nearer to our gorgeous school.

Though there are many who are our opponents, the main opponent to us in having " war in skies" is our Karunakar. Karnakar flies his kite from the top of his house and we from ours. A serious war which also includes lots of ego is witnessed in sky. Very energetic..very funny and also very serious. Radha,Dv and I are very poor in kite flying.We hardly know how to fly them.But we used to stay with Ravi and enjoy the whole episode.

Without cricket the day is incomplete. Matches , matches...and matches... wonderful cricket we used to play.

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.