Thanks to DD's article on her school life. Reading her article took me to those beautiful school days.
Giving nicknames, passing comments, playing "name-place-animal-thing" and "hang-man" sitting on the first bench, fighting with the most hated sir for 2 marks in midterm answer sheets, looking forward to the evening 4 o'clock bell, sharing lunch boxes, visiting friend's home for group study and playing cards, buying new year greeting cards and getting confused as to which friend should get the best among the lot - Unerasable moments from my heart.
I enjoyed school life more than my college life. Precious 14 years. We were very partial in giving nicknames to teachers. Only the bad ones would be privileged to get a nickname from us. We had named our science sir as "Alangaaram" because he always combs his hair in class before he starts his lessons. There was one more sir who used to take commerce and my friends used to call him "Saaral" as his saliva sprinkles all over the first bencher's faces. Our English sir who always comes in white and white is a "Vellaiyan". Our Biology madam who keeps a frown face is a "Inji thinna korangu". (I remember one more funny name now. In college, there was our Digital logic madam who was called "Kundalakesi" as she used to wear big earrings.)
The headmaster or the "Big Master" is a dreadful sir in primary school. He used to catch any kid's hand and knuckle the fingers one by one. Damn painful it used to be!!! But the sir derived immense pleasure in doing that. English and Maths used to be my favourite subjects then. My mother was good at Maths. Whenever I do my homework, I would ask her the answers for addition and multiplication and she would reply immediately. Later she found out that I was lazy to do the calculations on my own and not actually testing her mathematical skills.
St.Marys, Chengalpattu where I had spent 3 years, 6th to 8th std has given me so many beautiful memories to cherish. An all-round personality development, I should say. I got to play basketball, participated in elocution, quiz and essay-writing competitions, learnt a bit of ballet dancing, took part in many cultural activities and also stood first in academics. The teachers were so good and there was not even a single teacher whom I didn't like. I had to shift my school as we shifted our house. It was a tough decision to move to another school.
Jaigopal Garodia National Hr.Sec. School, Tambaram definitely made a big difference in my life. I understood that a good teacher can instill interest in a subject. My interests in geography, Maths and Science (love all three facets, Physics,Chem & Bio) were triggered by my teachers. Our headmaster was also a nice person. I still remember during my 10th std model exams when the 1996 world cup was happening, he used to announce scores now and then.
If I were given a chance to go back in time, I would want to relive my school days......