OUTSIDE THE INSTITUTION

During those days we did not have a Pre-KG, LKG or UKG. Children went to school only in the first standard. By then they were 6 years old and picked up immunity. There were very few incidences of sickness. I do not remember falling ill at all, except for once in my 4^th standard. We did not drink mineral water, drank from the taps, ate everywhere but never took ill.

It was the first day in school for me.  It was a convent. My father took me the Mother Superior. Her name was Florita. She was a  tall fair woman, with a kind voice. She looked at me and said “Sit down , my child.” She was talking to my dad and after some time, when the interview was over; my father took me to my class. It was a long room with eight windows on each length side, and two windows on the breadth side.

The entrance divided the room into two halves. There were two black boards, back to back in the centre of the room. This arrangement divided the hall into two sections. There were two sisters, who taught the same lessons for both sections of first standard, simultaneously. I was seated on the right hand section. The sister who taught us was very strict and I was afraid of her, right from the first day. So I did not feel like going to school. A week after I attended the school, I told my dad about this fear. My father did not take my complaint lightly. Next day he addressed my fear to the Mother superior, and she completely understood my plight. Without wasting time, she shifted me to the other section, where the teacher was friendly. 

The school had high standards of education, but boys were allowed to study only until 5^th standard. After that, we had to shift to some other school. I was not good in my studies, and managed to come 18^th in a class of 30 students. However, my dad made no comparisons.

For 6^th standard, I was shifted to a local boys school. The standard here was so low, that I stood first in the quarterly exams. This school had two floors and an open terrace with a wide parapet wall. All  the students from 1^st standard to eleventh used to have lunch there. In sixth standard, when I was having my lunch with my class-mate, he challenged me to walk on the parapet wall.  Very unaware of the danger of falling from the third floor, I coolly got up on the parapet wall and walked a few steps. This was very much unexpected, and there was stunned silence as, the senior students grabbed me and pulled me down to safety. I could not understand the reason for the commotion, as I stood bewildered. I was immediately paraded before the shocked principal, who without delay locked the terrace, and from that day all of us had to eat on the play ground.

My parents were horrified, and advised me not to do such crazy feat once again. It never happened again, as we took over one more activity; Fighting physically after lunch. During one such fights, one boy slammed his sharp shoe into my shin, wounded me and I bled for a very long time that day until evening.

As this school had low standard, I too lowered my bar and by the end of 7^th standard, once again managed to slip from the first rank to 20^th rank in a class of 25 students.  

Generally, for me school was a place to go. I never understood that the purpose of going to school was to learn.

So when I turned a trainer, I never got upset with some of the candidates, who sat through the training, without putting their mind to the classes. I saw myself in them, and tried my level best to get them to like me. For I believe that only if you like someone you will listen to them. After the first few days the candidates listened and the results were encouraging.

And I simplified the classes, and gave them the barest minimum knowledge, they need to know for a successful career. I announced the tea breaks, and lunch breaks on dot, and dismissed them each day sharp by 6 PM, unlike my co-trainers, who kept them beyond endurance. Therefore, I earned their liking, for they were interacting with a person who valued their personal time, as much his own. I might not have been a good student, but I knew students. Because I know that the most interesting place in a students life is outside the institution.