Friday, October 27, 2006
My childhood - A great memoire'
Difficult to traverse into the odds of ones likely childhood, the arena being a very tender and groovy thing to even play with. Never the same ideas roll into ones mind while thinking about ones own childhood, but after grueling around for 40+ summers, it makes things easierby the day, and to express to oneself about the genre' of their childhood is not that difficult a task ahead. Well, taken it up and let us see how we are going to strive further. I am not going to blog or pen anything unfamiliar. Am going to be very natural, honest, realistic, and all of those coz' what I am about to blog is about my other life, my childhood.
Born in our ancestral home (picchi nanamma's mansion) back in our village - Payakaraopeta, a small hamlet within the district of Visakhapatnam, formerly WALTAIR(named by the British in the early 19th century). Now, this mansion has a history attached to itself, where most of our ancestors have been raised as kids, this is our mother's ancestral home, and where even we have been brought up by our parents. Father's village which was another 60 odd kilometers away from here, stands testimony to all of us, as he was one of the first one to have surfed towards foreigh lands (Moscow, 1954 - 57 & 1958 - 61), where he taught Russian to the hungry russians, and ofcoz practiced his best passion - Geology. He was a master of the earth's crust playing and toeing with all those precious stones of the modern world, and he waded his way up very cautiously paving himself a strong foundational reputation for himself. Well, father never had time to take us to his village(though we went once or twice) and meet his mother - Smt. Rajeswari Cherukuri, who was deserted by her husband (good guy, but could not take her harrassments) early in life. So, we never got to see much of her or her love and she left for the Godly abode in Sep, 1993, without anyone of us(her son's images) around her. Such an untimely death shook me though I was old enough to understand the idiosyncracies of one's life. Well she lived alone, died alone, nothing new for us humans.
Mom was a very strong woman(not a woman of substance), but definitely a woman of a sensible nature, a strong will-power, a very methodical mind,a very calculative personality, a very intelligent individual, a highly respected person among my grandfather's circles of friendships. She took the reins of our family very young in life, only a sweet age of 16(having a daughter of 3 years to boast of), during which time most girls are still playing. Reins of a family which was into business of a very high value(cloth material), and also managing her own marriage with a person who was so highly qualified in those days(a P.hD in Geology from Andhra University), never knowing the depth or the dearth of her own future(she did not bother). There was I born amidst chaos and excitement and suspence ( as I was born after three girls - they prayed for me,mom told me later), and took the entire village by a surprise. I was born for a certain destiny(that was how I was brought up by my parents), never understanding the parellels of one's own life. This had not hampered any good things which were supposed to have been a part of my life ahead, but they certainly played a vital role in fashioning my role as a son in this family of no sons at all in the last 10 families. Let us see further, as what happened ahead was something so grand and spectacular that everyone was spellbound.
Schooling as can be, is as painful for any child of three and a half, being left alone by your man-servant among those four huge walls(they looked like a fortress for that li'l kid), and to disappear. Lead this life after being admitted into this school - Kotak Salesian School, in Chinna Waltair, Visakhapatnam. A very small school, later turned out to be one of the finest in the State of Andhra, had opened its doors to my wisdom, and promised to take me into it's folds provided I grew up and upheave it's reputation(which I could not unfortunately). Viswanatham, one of my house-holds very trusted (I wouln't call him servant), aide, took me onto his bicycle and rode that distance which sounded like an unending journey to the end of the earth. Soon, that became the regular funda of my school-going. Whereas my sisters - Prabhavathi, Usha Rani & Rajeswari(named after my father's mother), enjoyed a better and bigger school, called St. Joseph's Girls Convent, gnanapuram, beyond the railway station. This situation put me into a loop, as I became a loner in my admission into this school. Brother. Kurian - Principal, teachers - Caveri, Vasantha, Padma, Uma, Anne, and a host of educationists have been the reason for us to have reached this far in this life. Well, life at school was not that tough I, soon learnt, but not that easy either. Making friends was a way of life, coz' you know that you are going to spend the rest of the decade within those four walls, unless your folks get transferred to another city of dwelling.
After having spent sometime in this campus of Kotak, made a few good friends(all friends are good ofcoz), to name a few: Mouli, Neena, Devaki, Vijayagopal, Titus, Cyril(our school's neighbor - imagine his mother used to sell sweet meats on a small foor of the school), Anuradha, Ramayya, Girija Shankar, Raama(my colony neighbor too), Rama Devi, Sarada, Saraswathi(another colony mate) and Jagadathri(who joined us after 6th standard). These friends mostly have drifted away, except Raama who is still in touch(they say a childhod friend is the best bet one can have for a friend). Life has taken it's toll on many, some have failed but many are leading quite successful lives, if success has to be defined it would be a difficult task, as it has no boundaries at all, no proper face to show, no certain value attached to it at all. This added to the unending assignments of my life(becoming successful - whatever it meant those days), and I was driven towards it. The entry into teenage never made a difference to any us I am sure, but it did make a difference in our growth, in our outlook, in our maturity, in our wisdom - as this was when we started competing against each other. Measuring each other's marks, small successes, attendance becoming a strict vigilant rule, Manikyam master - our Maths teacher ebing idolised by all of us, and somehow I could not impress him too much. Raama was always his favorite and his maths bent of mind was the reason. I topped the class for most of those ten years, or rather we shared the glory of being the top of the charts everymonth, month-by-month, year after year, never letting down our aspirers(teachers and parents, equally).
The end of the 8th standard summer was one of the last one in my life of education where I had the best of times, (lke Ramayya says; "Naani and Raama were always there beside each other in the report card ranks,each one stealing one of the top two ranks, and being there for all those ten years), which lasted a full year, never to complain.
Born in our ancestral home (picchi nanamma's mansion) back in our village - Payakaraopeta, a small hamlet within the district of Visakhapatnam, formerly WALTAIR(named by the British in the early 19th century). Now, this mansion has a history attached to itself, where most of our ancestors have been raised as kids, this is our mother's ancestral home, and where even we have been brought up by our parents. Father's village which was another 60 odd kilometers away from here, stands testimony to all of us, as he was one of the first one to have surfed towards foreigh lands (Moscow, 1954 - 57 & 1958 - 61), where he taught Russian to the hungry russians, and ofcoz practiced his best passion - Geology. He was a master of the earth's crust playing and toeing with all those precious stones of the modern world, and he waded his way up very cautiously paving himself a strong foundational reputation for himself. Well, father never had time to take us to his village(though we went once or twice) and meet his mother - Smt. Rajeswari Cherukuri, who was deserted by her husband (good guy, but could not take her harrassments) early in life. So, we never got to see much of her or her love and she left for the Godly abode in Sep, 1993, without anyone of us(her son's images) around her. Such an untimely death shook me though I was old enough to understand the idiosyncracies of one's life. Well she lived alone, died alone, nothing new for us humans.
Mom was a very strong woman(not a woman of substance), but definitely a woman of a sensible nature, a strong will-power, a very methodical mind,a very calculative personality, a very intelligent individual, a highly respected person among my grandfather's circles of friendships. She took the reins of our family very young in life, only a sweet age of 16(having a daughter of 3 years to boast of), during which time most girls are still playing. Reins of a family which was into business of a very high value(cloth material), and also managing her own marriage with a person who was so highly qualified in those days(a P.hD in Geology from Andhra University), never knowing the depth or the dearth of her own future(she did not bother). There was I born amidst chaos and excitement and suspence ( as I was born after three girls - they prayed for me,mom told me later), and took the entire village by a surprise. I was born for a certain destiny(that was how I was brought up by my parents), never understanding the parellels of one's own life. This had not hampered any good things which were supposed to have been a part of my life ahead, but they certainly played a vital role in fashioning my role as a son in this family of no sons at all in the last 10 families. Let us see further, as what happened ahead was something so grand and spectacular that everyone was spellbound.
Schooling as can be, is as painful for any child of three and a half, being left alone by your man-servant among those four huge walls(they looked like a fortress for that li'l kid), and to disappear. Lead this life after being admitted into this school - Kotak Salesian School, in Chinna Waltair, Visakhapatnam. A very small school, later turned out to be one of the finest in the State of Andhra, had opened its doors to my wisdom, and promised to take me into it's folds provided I grew up and upheave it's reputation(which I could not unfortunately). Viswanatham, one of my house-holds very trusted (I wouln't call him servant), aide, took me onto his bicycle and rode that distance which sounded like an unending journey to the end of the earth. Soon, that became the regular funda of my school-going. Whereas my sisters - Prabhavathi, Usha Rani & Rajeswari(named after my father's mother), enjoyed a better and bigger school, called St. Joseph's Girls Convent, gnanapuram, beyond the railway station. This situation put me into a loop, as I became a loner in my admission into this school. Brother. Kurian - Principal, teachers - Caveri, Vasantha, Padma, Uma, Anne, and a host of educationists have been the reason for us to have reached this far in this life. Well, life at school was not that tough I, soon learnt, but not that easy either. Making friends was a way of life, coz' you know that you are going to spend the rest of the decade within those four walls, unless your folks get transferred to another city of dwelling.
After having spent sometime in this campus of Kotak, made a few good friends(all friends are good ofcoz), to name a few: Mouli, Neena, Devaki, Vijayagopal, Titus, Cyril(our school's neighbor - imagine his mother used to sell sweet meats on a small foor of the school), Anuradha, Ramayya, Girija Shankar, Raama(my colony neighbor too), Rama Devi, Sarada, Saraswathi(another colony mate) and Jagadathri(who joined us after 6th standard). These friends mostly have drifted away, except Raama who is still in touch(they say a childhod friend is the best bet one can have for a friend). Life has taken it's toll on many, some have failed but many are leading quite successful lives, if success has to be defined it would be a difficult task, as it has no boundaries at all, no proper face to show, no certain value attached to it at all. This added to the unending assignments of my life(becoming successful - whatever it meant those days), and I was driven towards it. The entry into teenage never made a difference to any us I am sure, but it did make a difference in our growth, in our outlook, in our maturity, in our wisdom - as this was when we started competing against each other. Measuring each other's marks, small successes, attendance becoming a strict vigilant rule, Manikyam master - our Maths teacher ebing idolised by all of us, and somehow I could not impress him too much. Raama was always his favorite and his maths bent of mind was the reason. I topped the class for most of those ten years, or rather we shared the glory of being the top of the charts everymonth, month-by-month, year after year, never letting down our aspirers(teachers and parents, equally).
The end of the 8th standard summer was one of the last one in my life of education where I had the best of times, (lke Ramayya says; "Naani and Raama were always there beside each other in the report card ranks,each one stealing one of the top two ranks, and being there for all those ten years), which lasted a full year, never to complain.
# posted by SOSOSOSOM @ 12:16 PM 
