The KGF Years ( 1963-1965)

These were my High School years and were largely uneventful.

By now we had moved to the house opposite Skating Rink and I used to walk to school and back.

At school, we used to play football ( with a tennis ball)with Achiah, Ravi, Sasi, Kishan Bopiah , T A Stanley etc during lunch time and I used to be the goal keeper.

In the mornings it used to be marbles ( a game called benda) or another game with three holes which was a one on one game with another player.I used to come to school with shiny new marbles and therefore was a sought after opponent. Tony Rowe ( the brother of Frank Rowe whom I mentioned earlier) was a terrific marbles player along with Malcolm Marshall, brother of Rodney Marshall( my classmate).

We had a marbles season, a gilli-danda season and a tops season.Another game that we used to play was with cigarette covers.Players Navy Blue and Berkeley were common covers.Wills Filter Kings and Wills Gold Flake were much sought after and had higher value.

Dudley Pinto ( D.B.E Pinto)was the school headmaster and very popular at that.Assembly was at 8.30 AM after which the Catholics and the Protestants used to break-off separately for their prayers.The others like me used to just hang around till Mr.Pinto asked we Hindus to gather around and recite some slokas.

Our school cricket matches were played at Gymkhana Ground, close to the school. I didn't make the cricket team but I became the official scorer and occasional umpire just so I could enjoy the after -match snacks that we all had at the nearby KGF First Grade College canteen.

There was one hilarious incident that took place when I was umpiring one such match.
Afzal Ahmed was the school cricket captain and a State Schools player to boot.He was batting and I was the square-leg umpire.As soon as the bowler had bowled, there was a slight noise and an immediate appeal by the bowler for caught behind the wicket..I thought the ball had touched Afzal's bat and immediately raised my finger.

Since I was standing behind Afzal, he did not see me raising my finger and was adjusting the buckle of his pad where the ball had actually touched and caused the noise. I had to walk up to him and tell him that I had given him out.He gave me a tongue lashing right on the pitch and asked me whether I knew the rules since only the straight umpire ( near the bowler) could give decisions.I had to plead with him to leave the pitch and said we could discuss the issue later.

The second time was when I was the straight umpire and a ball bowled by a fast bowler hit the batsman on his buttocks.He was rolling around in agony and again I had to tell him to leave the field since I had declared him lbw.He also roundly blasted me asking me whether I didn't realise that the ball was so high that it had hit his bum and here I was declaring him out!! Here again I had to plead with him to leave the field.

Apart from this, my career as an umpire and scorer progressed smoothly. There was only one scare when I was doing the scoring.We had a guy called Martin Price whose hobby was to collect scorpions and centipedes.He would put them in a glass jar, keep it in his pocket and then come over to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon in the Gymkhana Ground pavilion and allow the creatures to have a free run of the pavilion!! So I had to watch out for these creatures while also keeping an eye on the match and do the scoring.

In the evenings during school term, I had the usual tennis/Shuttlecock/table tennis/library routine.

Every March, we had the annual school concert.Every class was allowed to present one program and I used to take part in plays.That's how I got introduced to Mrs.Malaprop
in "She Stoops to Conquer" and I still remember Mr.Pinto telling us that it was the school motto also--- Descendimus ut Ascendimus.

These school concerts along with the debates helped me get over my stage fright and took away my fear of public speaking.

I had mentioned earlier that this was the period when I slowly started realizing that girls weren't such a bad species after all.Ours was a boys school and we had absolutely no contact with girls.Even in the club, we boys ( Raguram,Priyan,Patan,Kumar and myself) used to play separately and the girls would play separately.

My moment of reckoning came on 25th Jan 1965. I was not yet 14 then and we had a Republic Day function at Nundydroog Club.One of the girls who was my classmate in St.Joseph's Convent ( let's call her Z) had also come to the function. She came over to the table where I sat and said " What man, Kesari!! Why aren't you talking to me! Have you become too proud of yourself or what?". In school parlance, "man" was the term used for boys and "child" was the term used for girls. Even today, I address my sisters and girls younger to me as "child".

Anyway, I was tongue-tied when this girl spoke and mumbled a reply saying that it was she who was not talking to me or some such drivel.But I was now in seventh heaven that a girl had actually spoken to me and even made a secret note in my diary for 25th Jan 1965 ---- "Today Z spoke to me".

In today's context, it's almost pitiable that these were the conditions in which we grew up and I suppose I've retained this shyness till today.

Anyway, nothing much came out of this and I was back to my boys only routine.

We finished our 10th Std ( SSLC exams) in March 1965 and then it was a question of waiting for the results and then into college for PUC.

Our school farwell party is an event I still remember. How fortunate that after all these years, I was able to connect with two of my school mates in the past 2 months---Len Ryder and Achiah Appachoo.

In December 1964, we had been on a holiday to Madras and spent 15 days with M.S.Krishnaswamy & Chambi.Their son Seeni was around Sandhya's age ( 5 years) and Jyotsna was just about a year.

Dad and mum as well as Chambi and MSK went off to Safire to watch "Cleopatra".We children were not allowed because it was an "Adult" film and Elizabeth Taylor's heaving bosom was considered to be a bad influence on us.I also remember walking up to Anand Theatre to see " Attilla the Hun".Chambi and MSK were staying at Joshua Street ( behind the Income-Tax Office on Nungambakkam High Road) and I remember being amazed that MSK was spending a princely Rs.5 just for taxi fare to take me to a hair-cutting saloon near Elphinstone Theatre on Mount Road.

The Theosophical Society sessions were going on and Dad was attending these also.

Venu was now in Binny's and we had gone to visit their house in Buckingham Gardens in Perambur.Dad was just around 42 years then and I remember Venu arguing vehemently with him that 42 was too young an age to be interested in Theosophy!!But that was Dad for you. Even in KGF, he would attend Harikathas and Swami Chinmayananda's lectures and was a regular subscriber to Bhavan's Journal. Dad did not wear his religion on his sleeve but he was a walking example of simple living and high thinking.Along with this was his passion for Rummy and 28 ( both card games) for which he was a regular at Nundydroog Club and , of course, Whist Drive and Tombola.

That's it for now.In my next blog, I'll talk about my college years--- both PUC and Engineering.