Early Schooling

Schools:

My schooling started in a strange way. My first year in KG was in a girl's school-Stall Girls School in Guntur. Our neighbour in Nagarampalem, Guntur was a lady who was Headmistress of this school and she saw me with dad once and suggested that I join her school. Boys from some select families were asked to join this way among girls who were a majority. This was only for KG. She used to accompany me to the school holding my hand for some time till some alternate arrangement was made.

Stall Girls High School

Where I studied classes 1-5 is a blur as dad was moving around on postings. I then moved to Government Primary School in Medikondur for class 5 and 6 where Shakir was with me and Shammi was at home. I have a picture of Shakir and I walking to school which was not too far. I remember playing a Police constable's role in a school play. I had a three-word dialogue which was" this is the thief" in Telugu. Big deal!!!

Medikondur School (Me and Shakir)

A few of my memories here in Medikonduru. We had Shazamani apa visiting us from AttilI. She was a year elder to me but the thing that amazed me was how forward and direct she was. I now realize that the more rural area you grow up in, the more you are simple and honest. My living in a slightly larger town like Guntur left more inhibitions in us.

Medikondur is in an area of Tobacco and Chilli. Dad was taking care of Central Excise Duty on Tobacco while we kids were being introduced to Chilli. We had a maid, an old lady named Ratnamma who used to live in a small hut. One day when I went to her place to call her for work at home, she was busy grinding some reddish chutney in a stone mortar and she said she will come in a while with some nice chutney. She did come and gave Ammi a pot of chutney. We kids wanted a taste and it was made of lots of red chillies and a little tamarind. We had a burnt out tongue for a while.

Class 7 Bapatla Municipal School: Dad hardly stayed in Bapatla for a few months. It was a nice and clean town by the beach. Dad was posted to Parchuru midway in academic year and Masood chacha and I were asked to stay back to complete the year. I have already narrated our second experience of Red Chilli chutney in Bapatla in an earlier blog.

Class 8 Majety Guravayya School, Guntur: This school was opposite A C College and the only memory I have is playing Baseball during sports period. Perhaps this was the stepping stone to cricket in later years.