Episode:
High School and Mode of travel
Continuing
about the schooling grandpa says the selection of high school itself was not an
easy task for his father. Their village did not any ZPHS though the villages on
adjacent sides had one each. There were no proper roads from one village to
another. The route was a mud road between the Krishna river canal and the bund
that was constructed to stop the flooding river from entering the village. The
bund he says is a high block wall build of mud and had a slope in one end which
made walking on it a risky affair, especially for children and women. The risk
was greater during the rainy season.
And so
grandpa’s father asked around the village and found out that there was an art
teacher in their village who worked in one of the ZPHS in the adjacent
villages. The teacher was delighted to help and after clearing the entrance
examination grandpa got admitted in 8th standard. Back then he said
that the classes from 6th standard had different naming.
6th
class- Ist forum.
7th
class- IInd forum.
8th
class- IIIrd forum.
9th
class- IVth forum.
10th
class- Vth forum.
11th
class- VIth forum. (SSLC)
The 11th
standard had the final board examination called the SSLC after which one could
join Intermediate.
The
school started and grandpa went along with the teacher to the school by walking
3 K.M. to the next village every day. Their uniform was a simple light colored
shirt paired with half-length pants. Even teenagers rarely wore full length
pants those days, it seems. Walking barefoot was no easy task and they ended up
with nicks and pricks of thorns on their legs and feet.
After a
year the art teacher got transferred to another ZPHS in the village on the
other side and grandpa followed him to that school. The route they had to now
take was in the opposite direction but the path was the same, between the canal
and the bund. He made new friends and his juniors also joined the same school.
So grandpa along with his group of friends traveled to and fro each day.
Grandpa
continues saying life was simple and good. He says he topped the school with
52% marks in the SSLC board examination. Back then any student who crossed 50%
marks was considered a brilliant student and getting 40% marks was an
achievement. People were not so competitive about marks that they would treat
their own friends as enemies when it came to studies. There was also rarely any
secrecy about what they studied for examinations. This I feel is something
today’s parents should realize and re-learn.
