Time and tide waits for none, the saying is so true. It was already time for me to write the final exam! I did study and burn the midnight candle, I must have answered zillions of question papers from the last 10 years. My scores were improving, my average score from the old question papers was 63, which was a major improvement from 24 :)
Even before I could gloat, my guru Mr. Ramaswamy would bring me down firmly to the ground by saying "Ishtu bandide antha beega bega, meaning don't gloat, you still have a long way to go, 63-65 out of 100 is nothing!". I took it upon myself to do well and prove to everyone that I of all people could get a decent score in Maths.
Our Exams were scheduled to begin in March in Bharath Mata High School which was the venue. For some wierd reason my school (websters) wasn't the venue. My friend's neighbour who was an autorickshaw driver graciously offered to drop us to the exam venue everyday for a nominal fee. My exams began in March 2nd week, my mom and dad visited me for the first two exams. On the third day my mom had to leave on a pilgrimage trip with her sister. My dad had to go to sabarimala, so I was left with my sis and my other aunt. My mom was not very keen on going and I could see it in her eyes, I also gave her a lot of grief and emotionally blackmailed her saying that she needs to be with ME during my exams. Finally she decided to go as my aunt forced her to accompany her. On top of this, I fell sick, thanks to the lack of sleep. On the day of Maths exam, my mom's youngest sister who stayed with us made me drink a glass of mosambi juice an hour before the exam so that I would have some energy and strength to brave through the exam paper. I reached the venue and 15 mins before the exam, I threw up. Out went the mosambi juice and idlies that I had for breakfast. I was so tired and exhausted, I somehow managed to clean up and went and sat at my designated place. At 9 a.m sharp our question papers were handed to us. I looked at the paper and read it and re-read it 3 times. Then I said a silent prayer to god and started answering the questions.
There was a girl from Bharath Mata school who was sitting next to me, she kept pestering me to show my exam paper. I decided to complain to the teacher. When I did complain, that teacher - invigilator(she was from bharath mata school) came up to me and said "So what, it is ok help her out", I was so shocked. I think one of the teachers from my school heard this and she came into the room and threatened to report this to the education inspectors. The matter was settled then and I could calmly answer my paper.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
10th standard
Once I moved to 10th standard, every body had the same question to ask me "What will you do after this? Which college will you join? Will you take PCMB??", Gawd!! How I hated those questions!! especially when it came from nosy family friends/relatives whose sons or daughters had scaled through II PUC with flying colors and were in the midst of engineering or medicine.Bah! people never learn!
The pressure to perform well was always there throughout the year. I had a bunch of easy going friends Uma, Parimala and Vasu, and all we discussed was which actor was dating whom, which movie was releasing when, where to shop for good shoes and outfits. My dad and mom like any parents were keen on me doing well in my finals. So I was packed off for tuitions. The tuition class was taught by one Mr. Kaduru Ramaswamy. He was an excellent teacher, very principled and very strict. I would wake up at 6 a.m and my dad used to drop me every day to the tuition class. I used to suffer from a bad case of wheezhing and asthma like attacks during the months of July through September so it was quite a challenge waking up early in the morning,especially when you have spent the previous night gasping for breath and used endless puffs from the nebulizer.
Tuitions were fun, as Ramaswamy sir used to make the lessons very interesting and he used to share some of his experiences at Marimallappa high school - Mysore where he had taught for more than 20 years. I used to be really worried and nervous when he would start asking questions during Maths tuition. I was scared of not being able to answer his questions. There were a bunch of mean girls too let me call them G, AP, K and other carmel convent snooty brats. They used to laugh at my prowess (lack of it) in Maths and make faces. I would be very embarrassed and would cry sometimes. A sweet girl called Sandhya Reddy who used to sit next to me would comfort me. She had failed the previous year and was repeating her 10th. There was another nice girl called Suma Panicker who was very helpful and would offer me tips on solving Mathematical problems.
Ramaswamy sir took special interest in students who were weak in studies, they were supposed to stay back for an additional 30 mins to interact with him and work on previous year's question papers. As you guessed, I was in that group too. Initially I would be ashamed when I saw all the other students scamper away after the class ended and I had to stay back . Eventually I realized that this was for my own good and decided to make the best use of the extra time.
As usual I had managed to obtain passing marks in Maths all throughout the year. It was time for me to take preparatory exams. I did very well in all other subjects, however, got 24 out of 100 in Maths. Now I was really worried, the final exams were in a month's time, here I was with a 24 out of 100! I realized that I would surely fail in my finals and would have to commit suicide unable to bear the embarrassment! Now when I ponder about my past, I think I was really stupid and immature to come up with such thoughts. I guess age makes you more mature and wise :)
The pressure to perform well was always there throughout the year. I had a bunch of easy going friends Uma, Parimala and Vasu, and all we discussed was which actor was dating whom, which movie was releasing when, where to shop for good shoes and outfits. My dad and mom like any parents were keen on me doing well in my finals. So I was packed off for tuitions. The tuition class was taught by one Mr. Kaduru Ramaswamy. He was an excellent teacher, very principled and very strict. I would wake up at 6 a.m and my dad used to drop me every day to the tuition class. I used to suffer from a bad case of wheezhing and asthma like attacks during the months of July through September so it was quite a challenge waking up early in the morning,especially when you have spent the previous night gasping for breath and used endless puffs from the nebulizer.
Tuitions were fun, as Ramaswamy sir used to make the lessons very interesting and he used to share some of his experiences at Marimallappa high school - Mysore where he had taught for more than 20 years. I used to be really worried and nervous when he would start asking questions during Maths tuition. I was scared of not being able to answer his questions. There were a bunch of mean girls too let me call them G, AP, K and other carmel convent snooty brats. They used to laugh at my prowess (lack of it) in Maths and make faces. I would be very embarrassed and would cry sometimes. A sweet girl called Sandhya Reddy who used to sit next to me would comfort me. She had failed the previous year and was repeating her 10th. There was another nice girl called Suma Panicker who was very helpful and would offer me tips on solving Mathematical problems.
Ramaswamy sir took special interest in students who were weak in studies, they were supposed to stay back for an additional 30 mins to interact with him and work on previous year's question papers. As you guessed, I was in that group too. Initially I would be ashamed when I saw all the other students scamper away after the class ended and I had to stay back . Eventually I realized that this was for my own good and decided to make the best use of the extra time.
As usual I had managed to obtain passing marks in Maths all throughout the year. It was time for me to take preparatory exams. I did very well in all other subjects, however, got 24 out of 100 in Maths. Now I was really worried, the final exams were in a month's time, here I was with a 24 out of 100! I realized that I would surely fail in my finals and would have to commit suicide unable to bear the embarrassment! Now when I ponder about my past, I think I was really stupid and immature to come up with such thoughts. I guess age makes you more mature and wise :)
Friday, January 12, 2007
Mathematics - Grrrrrr
Gawd!!! how I hated Maths! I know a lot of you may disagree and say that it is the most interesting subject, but you know I never felt so. I remember getting only 36 out of 100 or 20 out of 50 the minimum marks you need to pass through. Things were still not so bad until I came to 7th standard. We had a teacher called Swarna who taught Maths, she was a strict teacher and would be cross with the students who did bad (me!). Our final exams were fast approaching and still my scores hadn't improved (I had got 44 out of 100 in the preparatory exams!) I finally decided enough is enough and had a talk with my parents, they calmly listened to me and decided to meet Swarna miss for further guidance in this issue. All three of us went to her house, she greeted us warmly and her husband had just returned from a temple, he applied the kumkum on my forehead and said chennagi odamma meaning study well. Swarna miss told me that she would coach me and she shared a lot of question papers from previous years. I would work out those problems and she would correct them and guide me on solving them in a better manner. I really did work hard for my 7th finals and was apprehensive when the results were out. I had got 63 out of 100!! this was quite an achievement for someone like me who had always managed to scrap through. Phew I brushed off the sweat from my forehead.
My love-hate relationship with maths continued till I finished my II PUC. I will share my 10th standard experience in the next post.
My love-hate relationship with maths continued till I finished my II PUC. I will share my 10th standard experience in the next post.
School life
I had the time of my life at websters. I made some really good friends. Vasundhara was my bestestest friend :). She was such a sweet girl, once when I was in 8th standard we had a teacher called Kamakshi miss, she had asked us to get a 100 pages note book to be used as a monthly test book. I had conveniently forgotten about this. The next day the teacher asked who hasn't got the book and I was getting ready to stand up, Vasu immediately sneaked her book into my hands and stood up. However much I protested she didn't listen. The teacher beat her badly on both her palms, they were swollen so bad. I felt soo guilty and sad and angry about myself. She and I used to spend a lot of time together. During P.T (free) periods she and I would take a walk around the school and she would tell me movie stories. She used to be a telugu movie buff and had a huge collection of Vijayanashanthi's, Venkatesh's and Balakrishna's pictures.
She would tell me the story of the latest movie she had watched at Kamakhya theatre and I would gobble it up with gusto! We would always share our lunch and to this day I can't forget her mom's mango-lime pickle, they tasted heavenly. We had another girl called Manjula who would never get her lunch and would always ask others to share their lunch with her, she was the "Official Buddha" of the class, atleast thats what every body had nick named her. The guys of our class especially this guy called Srinivas would say "Bhavathi bikshaam dehi" when she would start asking us to share our food.
We also had another girl called Swapna and she was this lice distributor of our class, I know this sounds gross, but I noticed that everytime she sat next to us I would go home with a scratchy scalp and calmly pass it on to sis. The moment our mom saw the two of us trying to compete with each other in scratching our scalps, she would know the cause and immediately she would summon us and apply coconut or castor oil and comb our hair and kill those lice that would crawl out of the comb.
I was ok in studies, even though Mathematics was always my big problem as I sucked big time in that. Everything else was fine and I still managed to be within the first 10 ranks as my average was better in other subjects.
She would tell me the story of the latest movie she had watched at Kamakhya theatre and I would gobble it up with gusto! We would always share our lunch and to this day I can't forget her mom's mango-lime pickle, they tasted heavenly. We had another girl called Manjula who would never get her lunch and would always ask others to share their lunch with her, she was the "Official Buddha" of the class, atleast thats what every body had nick named her. The guys of our class especially this guy called Srinivas would say "Bhavathi bikshaam dehi" when she would start asking us to share our food.
We also had another girl called Swapna and she was this lice distributor of our class, I know this sounds gross, but I noticed that everytime she sat next to us I would go home with a scratchy scalp and calmly pass it on to sis. The moment our mom saw the two of us trying to compete with each other in scratching our scalps, she would know the cause and immediately she would summon us and apply coconut or castor oil and comb our hair and kill those lice that would crawl out of the comb.
I was ok in studies, even though Mathematics was always my big problem as I sucked big time in that. Everything else was fine and I still managed to be within the first 10 ranks as my average was better in other subjects.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Life in Bangalore - II
We changed schools when I was in 7th standard, my pappa felt that we should study in a convent school because one of his cousins had his 2 kids studying there. So off we went to Websters High School. This school has 2 branches, one in Hanumanthanagara, the other in Ittumadu Village (you should see this place now, this is anything but a village, houses here cost you anywhere between 1 to 2 crores!!). So my poor sis and I were separated :(, she was in the Hanumanthanagara branch which had classes till 6th and I was in Ittumadu which had classes from 7th to 10th. We used to travel in the van every morning. My thatha(grandpa) and ammamma (grand mom)would help us get ready everyday. I still remember my ammamma telling me "Paalu thaagu, Paalu thaagu" meaning drink your milk. My grand father used to take us to the van stop and be there till we left. We used to be so happy if the van driver didn't turn up. I remember once my sister and I were waiting for the van to arrive and we waited and waited for 35 minutes, that driver didnt turn up, suddenly this tall dark and charming guy comes to us and says "Makkale nimage schoolu illa, Nazeer saab has died so you have a holiday", Nazeer saab was some minister then. My sis and I were so happy we literally jumped and said abba schoolu illappa and rushed home. I realized that the guy who told this to us was none other than Prakash Rai also known as Prakash Raj in Tamil filmdom. He used to live in our locality when he was a struggling actor.
Life in Bangalore
I was born and brought up in Bangalore in a typical middle class kannada brahmin household. My mom and dad worked for Canara Bank for 32 and 34 years respectively and took voluntary retirement. I used to live in Banashankari II stage, my grand parents and 2 of my aunts were living with us. My sister and I used to go to JSS high school for 6 years. This school was close to our house and the ayah used to come in the morning to take us every day. She was appointed to help us cross the roads :)). My sister and I would follow her dutifully for a few blocks, once we were sure that our parents were not watching us we would speed away, the ayah would come screaming behind us saying "Ayyo enramma idu ee tarha odtheera, osi ninthkalli".
I made some very good friends when I was in JSS, but alas, I have lost touch with every one of them, if any of you read this blog please do get in touch with me.
My good friends there were:
Archana - Her mom was a teacher in the same school and was called SSB those were her initials
Vidya - Her mom was a teacher and her name is Shanthi Miss
Priyanka - she left school when we were in 6th standard
Deepa and Divya - twins
Kavitha - she is a very funny girl and always used to crack jokes, I just found out that she lives behind my mom's house, so I will catch up with her when I go to Bangalore.
I made some very good friends when I was in JSS, but alas, I have lost touch with every one of them, if any of you read this blog please do get in touch with me.
My good friends there were:
Archana - Her mom was a teacher in the same school and was called SSB those were her initials
Vidya - Her mom was a teacher and her name is Shanthi Miss
Priyanka - she left school when we were in 6th standard
Deepa and Divya - twins
Kavitha - she is a very funny girl and always used to crack jokes, I just found out that she lives behind my mom's house, so I will catch up with her when I go to Bangalore.
welcome!, yet another blog!!!
Hello all,
This is yet another blog. Well, I have been reading so many blogs out there and have liked them all. So decided to embark on developing my own blog. I decided to name my blog as "Malehani" which in kannada means rain drops.
I would like to use this blog as a platform to share my experience in life with you all.
Chickoo
This is yet another blog. Well, I have been reading so many blogs out there and have liked them all. So decided to embark on developing my own blog. I decided to name my blog as "Malehani" which in kannada means rain drops.
I would like to use this blog as a platform to share my experience in life with you all.
Chickoo
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