1969 June.
That was the year we shifted to Mavoor.
The Company was at its height of glory and so was the GRHS.
For us, who just arrived from village, it was a new world altogether.
After the initial euphoria, however, I was awestruck at the prospect of dealing with the academic matters in a totally alien (English) language going by my first day's experience.
I couldn't follow a single word- spoken or written- and the whole of that day and following weeks and months, I remained seated wondering what was going on around, bewildered and perplexed , confronted by a bleak future. I was quiet, just because I couldn't communicate in English, and alienated on account of the same.
My classmates of the then Std V (1969) would recollect... I was in fact written off by teachers along with a few others in the same boat.
And Ravidevi teacher once said: Whats all this? , You come - when a question is asked, you stand up - warm the benches and go home. To Sethumadhavan Master and others, I was a real 'headache'
To me, the very thought of school was horrendous that time and I was always delighted at the outset of Fridays. At School Examinations, I tried copying the questions, as that was best what I could do to spend the minimum time before you are allowed to leave.
The Malayalam Class, the craft class of Saramma teacher who chanted 'Don't noise', the Music class of Sharika teacher and the like, I should say, could provide me some solace in those days of distress.
Then one evening, I was delighted at the commotion downstairs when the bell rang much earlier than usual! - And that was the First ever strike we had in the School, demading reinstatement of Balachandran Master who allegedly smoked in the teachers' room - I enjoyed that one month's parole from School.
I am, however, indebted to my classmates (both girls and boys) who offered tremendous moral support those days - Asha will be able to elaborate.
What could have happened that year is anybody's guess, and the rest of the story is known to many of you. For others, I recovered from that year's miserable failure and was the topper of 1976 batch, and later did my Engineering in REC Calicut.
Suresh
[Suresh chettan is my senior from GRHS, Mavoor and a student of my father]
