St. Theresa's Preparatory School

My son, Nirupam goes to pre-school. He found it difficult to get adjusted. (It was quite easy with Nithin.) The first week, I went along, so he thought it was some outing. Now, I expect him to be there without me - so its like asking too much of him. Niru, 14 more years of schooling.... oh, the kids must forgive all the parents. We send them to school so early.

Off to St. Theresa's Preparatory School. Though I owe more to my high school, my primary school memories are always special. The school is in the same compound as the high school. But has a different management. It has classes upto IV. All the three of us studied here and then shifted to St. Aloysius A I H S S from class V. Old buildings, few trees, fewer plants, small play area...nothing much to describe the look. But still, it is a school. My school.

I did not cry on my first day. I sat quietly in my chair. (I maintained this throughout my school days!) We had square tables with two chairs on each side. I remember, a teacher holding two crying little kids on each side. I pity the teacher too. The kids were wailing and trying to runaway towards the door. Vasugiamma came over with her grand daughter Jayanthi. She made her sit next to me and said,'Take care of her.' Jayanthi could ve become my first friend in school. But I was taken to upper KG, because I was old enough. I forgot my teacher's name. But I remember her face. Its no use describing her. All the teachers were Anglo-Indians who dressed in frocks and had short hair. But I remember that teacher - Dukward Miss -who took me to my new class room. She was a well built, tough teacher. Had curly, very short hair and her dress was similar to our uniform- sleeve-less, knee-level. She took me and two others - Bharathi and Ponni or Ponarasi- something.....after a day of trying to recall the name, I got it - Ponrathi.

LKG and UKG classes are separated by another building which had Miss Quine's 4th Std, in front of which there is a huge Tamarind tree under which we had our assemblies and other gatherings. We also have lunch there. There are some water taps too. Behind was watchman Bahadur's house. He stayed there with his wife and kids.

Enter class UKG. There I met one of the most beautiful teachers. Patty Miss. She taught me my first letters, numbers, drawing. Everything she said was Vedavaaku. Oh, why didnt I meet her once before leaving school. Why didnt I tell her how much I liked her?

In the mornings it should ve been Amma who brought me to school and in the evenings, mostly I remember Prema akka coming to take me. Well, I remember a day she came early to pick me up. 'We'll be going to the new house', she said. Around that time, we shifted to our new house, our own house in A P Road.

The classroom had big pictures of the alphabets both capital and small. Dark blue prints on white. It was some old English font and the curves were so interesting that I have stared at them for long. For some time we had classes only in the morning. The afternoons was 'sleep time'. We had mats for everyone. We took our mats, rolled it out on the floor and slept. (Do they still follow this?!) Ah! Those sunny afternoons and the sound sleep we had!

I remember the day we had give up our mats! That afternoon, as usual, we came running into the classroom and took our mats out. Patty miss said something. I looked around. Some kids were keeping the mats back. And everybody followed. She must ve said- 'no. no. no sleeping from today'. I think we would ve had some ayaa to help us and the teacher, but dont remember anything much.

31, A P Road

The memories while we lived in 31, Avadhana Papier Road, shortly, AP Road, are really bright. There are lots. Our favourite place was the terrace (again!). hey chechs, do our kids play any of these...?
Kalla Manna –
The top view of our terrace was a ‘C’ ( [ ). The house was so because of the muttram. The two ends of the terrace was ‘Kal’ and the space in between was ‘Mann’. One of us should be ‘out’ and take up either Kal or Man. The rest should take the other place. Generally the ‘out’ person took the mann. And the rest split ourselves and stood in the kal. We should try to move from one ‘kal’ space to the other without getting touched by the ‘out’. The one who gets ‘caught’ by the ‘out’ is the new ‘out’ and the game starts all over again.
Skipping-
We were four crazy little girls who skipped a lot. My sis used to go in hundreds. We used to compete with each other. I don’t remember who used to win. But it was always tough. Chechi use to lose her ‘golusu mani’ and royally get it from mother for being careless.
Bachch-
This was a piece of flat stone used like a ‘coin’ on boxes drawn on the floor. They were drawn using ‘sengal’ or chalk piece. A big rectangle of about 6’x4’ was equally divided into 6 boxes (3rows and 2columns). Each one of us had a ‘bachch’ and had to hop around these boxes for many rounds, without stamping the lines, each time changing the position of the ‘bachch’. Except for the initial few rounds, we are not supposed to drop the ‘bachch’. The aim is to ‘acquire’ the boxes. The winner is the one with maximum number of boxes.
We must have played other games too. But these were repeatedly played for long hours. Our friends, P. Sumathi has two daughters and B. Sumathi has a son and daughter. Both were middle class family kids studying in a Corporation school on the same road. Thank you ladies. We did have a good time.

Kalathiappa Mudali theru

Memories..., some memories of playing in a house in Kalathiappa Mudali Street . Especially the times when we kids used to go to the terrace and talk with our neighbours, Sunila-amma and her kids.
There was a heavy rain once. This house has a long pathway and water had flooded in. All the kids at home (Chechs if am not wrong, they must be Jai -my brother must miss you Jai- his sister and cousin Kutti) made paper boats and floated them.
I remember my mother’s raisins, (soaked overnight) and idli with pachai milagai chutney. She made thakkali chutney rarely. But when she made it, I used to love it and think it must be a special day. I also remember an instance when brother played a prank. We three were sitting down and eating our food. I wanted some water and asked him to pass on the ‘tumbler’ of water that was near him. He whispered something to sis, smiled and gave it to me. I was trying to make out what it was all about. I drank from the cup as I was looking at them. I turned the cup completely towards my mouth. Then looked into it. Oh, no water at all. He gave me an empty cup!
In the mornings, Achan used to gently pull my nose in the forward direction, saying, ‘mooke vaa, mooku thande vaa’, just in a hope that my flat nose will become long and sharp. I don’t know how far this has worked for me, but he insists that I do it for my kids also (both have taken after me :-) he also used to do some exercises and ask both of us (where was Annan and Sangi? Not able to turn my camera around) to do it too. Sis and me did it very faithfully. And he used to give us a bath together. Just unforgettable. Achaa- love you for all this.
Sangi was a baby then. I think I remember an instance of her sleeping in her thottil.
It was 1980. The then Prime Minister's son, Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash. I was too small to realise it’s impact but everybody at home watched it on TV. We didn’t have a set then. We watched it on our neighbour’s TV through a window near the stairs. I still remember the white smoke rising from the flames of the pyre.
There was another family in that house. The lady in that house had bottles of candies. She used to give one for all of us everytime we went. Was it Davidson's family? I remember that Davidson lived there. But was he alone or with family?
I dont remember Chitappa staying in that house. But Sridevi was delivered while we lived there. As a baby Sridevi was very different from all of us. May be because of that I remember her. I remember her crawling, but not sure if it was the same house.
All these memories are in black and white.

Its Chinese new year

It is February and the Chinese community here are all preparations to welcome the New Year. It is the year of the tiger. Even the expats are all busy this time- making use of the holidays and the ‘extended’ sales and the events in the city and the oranges...
We get oranges throughout the year from China. The ones that come during this part of the year are very delicious.



These oranges are a variation of our satukudi. About the same size with thick skin. The juice is good even without sugar.



Small oranges (size of a lime) that tastes the best of all. Very similar to our Nagpur oranges.




During CNY, oranges are sold packed in red packets. Red is a very auspicious colour for the Chinese too. The elders give away money in red covers, called, ‘Ang Pow’ as gifts during special occasions.
Generally they taste like the ones that we get back in Madras- sometimes sweet, sometimes sour.

Solidaire

Going back in time is a fav time-pass. Let me see.
We got our TV set in the early 80s. (82 or 83) it was Solidaire, B/W . It was such an amazing piece of technology. We actually needn’t go to a theatre to watch a movie. Many of our neighbours used to come to our house on Saturday and Sunday evenings to watch movies. (years later I heard that those who had a TV used to charge 25p per person)