Friday, July 01, 2005

1 B

Long sit in a class room and writing a test for first time in life!! . That was when I, a cherubic young boy named "Kiran " wrote entrance exam for getting into Arya Central School, which I hence forth address as Arya Central Jail. The school has taught me lot of things both good and bad all 12 long years I was there. The unforgettable is the journey to school back and forth, 20 long Kms cutting through the middle of the city called Trivandrum, boarding rickety buses, seeing new people...

I thought of thinking back 18 years and do a brain dump of what was my world then for me.

I passed the exam; of course my mom's friends helped me. I joined 1B, its all mess, lot of children, white shirt and ash knickers for boys and ash frocks for girls. I had a big bag and I came to school with my mom. 1B was in second storey of the building which stood facing us when we assemble for morning prayers. We all had a math’s note book with blue squares on it, a drawing book, and lot of colorful text books. I was learning writing new language "Hindi" and my mother tongue "Malayalam", never realizing the importance of learning these, and ending up in getting single digit marks for these in high school.
We got a peon with white hair who we all called as "Ammavan". A mass PT with a bald haired tamilian **PT sir** was terror, there were some boys who are like born with water bottles, never letting them off their necks, he pulled them off and made them stand with hands up away in the sun.
The class room had windows facing outside schools compound, and we had crows sitting in the fence. The children use to throw snacks out and crows use to grab it with no fault, and the one who made the mark is a blessed hero. I wonder what girls where doing then. We did have school bus for our school then, which I traveled only once.

We had a prayer hall just besides our building, it was a asbestos roofed building, this foyer was pretty big with shinning surface, had lot of pictures, statues and we use to queue up going there, and spirituality is the last thing that you expect from young tykes. There was fun in what ever was happening, every one was "happy-go-lucky". There were nerds, singers, dancers in the class. I was always a proud audience, that was were it started, me landing up no were in all these things all 12 years. Nostalgia!! No way we can get back these days.

You can see my first group photo; I am the naughty looking guy in the red oval.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hehe ... somehow reminded me of my school days ...

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't quite refer to Arya central school as a Jail! i spent about 3 yrs there in the mid-80s, and have the fondest of memories. though the fondness could be entirely because my memories are older then your's.
I too traversed the whole city getting to the school - from the Ayurveda college to pattom - and remember having to walk home during those many strikes and hartals.
I do remember the playground and having to stand in the heat in those black rubber shoes baking my feet.

Riot said...

Kiran,

The instant I saw that picture, memories came flooding back. I think I have several similar class photographs. I was in Arya for about 7 years. I remember Ammavan and I definitely remember that PT sir :)