The Memoirs of an Eighty year Old- Episode IX

Episode - College Life ����

Hello readers! Today we are virtually travelling into the 1950's when our dear grandpa topped his school in the SSC final examination. Now he had to continue his studies and there were no colleges anywhere near his village.

Luckily there was a new intermediate college that was started an year ago in a village called Chirala. It was at a good distance from grandpa's home which meant he had to either change two trains or three buses to reach the Centre if his education. So it was decided that he would stay as a paying guest in one of a local's houses. Thus settled he shifted to a new place and began to attend classes in the VRS(vutukuri Ramayya Shetty) college.

But now there was another hurdle for our grandpa to cross. Studying in a telugu medium school that had nothing more than the basics of English, it was initially very tough for him to understand and follow the classes. He says it took him the entire first year of intermediate to get hang of the language and use it.

"I worked double as hard the first year. Trying to understand something I know nothing about was very tough. I kept pushing myself and finally I succeeded. The second year was comparatively easy for me and I topped the final examinations."

"Money also was a problem for us. We are a big family of five sons and three daughters to our parents. My father was a part of the Indian Independence struggle. He went to jail for taking part in the Salt satyagraha. We had no money left with us except for the land and farm. Farming was our only livelihood and the result depended entirely on the weather."

"My elder brother worked very hard to support the family. He made sure I went to college to study further. He was the one who got me admitted in the Engineering college despite the financial crunch. I will always be grateful for his support." Grandpa said to me when we were discussing about it.

Then came his Engineering course which was for four years. It was during this course that our lovely couple, �� grandpa and grandma got married. That story is for another episode of course. Till then, keep smiling.

P. S: Isn't he handsome.. ��