The Story of My Life( Early days in KGF- St Joseph's Convent)

Ramadevi ( Rummy to us, Rams to her friends, Rama to her in-laws side) was born on 26th Nov 1952.Like me, she was also born in Chitradurga and Choudakka was the mid-wife during her birth also.

My earliest memory of Rummy was that she had some sort of high fever when she was around 2 or 3 years and my dad and mum were very worried.

I joined St.Joseph's Convent in 1954 and I recall that mom spent the entire day in the corridor just outside the classroom.

Mother Dorothy was my class teacher in Nursery.She was a very sweet lady, just the right person to handle kids.She used to recite the alphabets and numbers in a sing-song voice and we used to follow her.Years later, she shifted to a convent in Chitradurga and was the class teacher for my cousin Rajini ( Prabhakara's daughter).

Miss Johnson was the Class Teacher in Standards 1 and 2. She was a very short tempered lady and used to poke our heads with a sharp pencil if we talked in class or did our sums wrong.

St. Joseph's Convent allowed boys only till 2nd Std and after that the boys were expected to go to KGF School, which was a boys school.However, we used to get horror stories about KGF School where the boys used to get benders ( Sharp strokes of the cane on the back while we were bending) for any mischief. So a few of the boys ( me included) prevailed on our parents to speak to the Chief Nun and allow us to continue in Standard 3 also.

I missed the first few days in Standard 3 because we had stayed back in Chitradurga for the summer holidays. As a result, I was not present when the teachers announced the text books and note books that we had to buy.As soon as we came back, I rushed to my friend's house to get the list.

Here's what I wrote down:-

580 pages notebook 1
400 pages notebook 1
360 pages notebook 1

My dad was surprised and said notebooks with that many pages were not available. But I insisted and we searched all stationery shops in KGF.Of course we couldn't find the notebooks.

The next day, we went and bought 5 80page notebooks, 4 100page notebooks and 3
60page notebooks.

In 3rd Standard, we went to "Private School" in the morning and "Public School" in the evening. Private school fees was Rs.10 per month, an astronomical sum in those days. Public School was Rs.2 or Rs.3 per month. Mother Magdalene was the Class teacher.All our text books were printed in England and the History lessons were taught mostly from an English point of view. Robert Clive was depicted as a hero and Tipu Sultan was the villain who was unfairly trying to usurp English territory.
Much was written about the "Black Hole of Calcutta" and an entire chapter was written on Clive's victory over Siraj-ud-Doulah in the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

( Even today, in the Victoria Museum in Kolkata, there are sand models of the Battle of Plassey showing the relative positions of the opposing armies at various times on the day of the battle.)

All the remaining boys shifted to KGF School after 3rd Standard, but I was still scared of the benders and prevailed upon my dad to talk to the nuns again and let me continue in the 4th Standard also.That's how I ended up as the only boy in the class in the 4th Std.

Mother Miriam was the Class teacher--- tough but fair.

Rummy and I used to travel along with the other children to Convent in a van which picked us up from home and dropped us back.We used to have breakfast by 7 AM and be ready. Muniswamy, our Mali, then cycled about 8 kms every day to bring lunch to us.
The lunch box had 3 compartments, one huliyanna or Saaranna, one mosaranna and one with chocolate or kodbale or chakli or thengolu.This extra was what we always enjoyed.

It was from Mali that we heard about Gemini Ganeshan marrying Savithri and I remember feeling very happy on hearing the news.I had just seen "Kalathur Kannamma" then and had ardently hoped that they would marry.It was only much later that I learnt that Gemini Ganeshan was already a much-married man when he wedded Savithri!!

Rev Mother Angela was the Principal of the Convent and was the picture of piety and devotion.The Convent had a chapel and I used to sneak in there occasionally.
The Convent had mostly Christian students and they used to attend Mass and catechism. During this period, we non-Christians were allowed to play.

I had learnt the Lord's Prayer and was fairly familiar with the Catholic rituals like Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, observing Lent,baptism, confirmation etc.
The Protestants were in a minority and they used to say their prayers separately.

The girls used to play hopscotch and rounders ( a form of softball) during lunch time and I also became fairly good at hopscotch.

Anyway, 4th Std came and went and then I was in for a rude awakening. The nuns firmly ruled out giving me any more extension and I was ordered to leave the Convent.

This was in 1960.

Before I close my account on St.Joseph's Convent, here are 2 other nuggets of information that I remember.

Every Christmas, Rummy and I used to buy Christmas & New Year Greeting Cards and distribute to all the teachers.

Every weekend, there used to be a scramble among the girls to collect the kerchiefs of the nuns, bring them home, wash the, iron them and then being them back to the Convent on Monday.I swear on everything that I consider holy that this information is true and correct and disbelieving readers may contact Rummy or my mom for confirmation.This was apple polishing of the highest order.

Bye for now .

In my next blog, I'll talk about the other non-school events that took place in the 50s.