School & College

My school life 1957-1961

Very few memories linger on of my school life, the main reason being the short stays at many of the schools.

• Medikondur Municipal School – 2 years
• Bapatla Municipal School- 1 year
• Majety Guravaiah School- 1  year
• Danavaipeta Municipal School- 2 years

Me in 1960

Classmates in Danavaipeta School that I remember are D.V.Ramana, who was an intelligent student who came first usually and I used to be second or third in the class and rarely did I jump over him, not even in English. I heard he got his Ph.D., from IISC, Bangalore in Satellite Communications and was one of the pioneering engineers at ISRO. He has been in UK for a long time specialising in Space Communications.

Another of my classmates was Agastya Sastri, who became a Cine Writer and TV Artist in Hyderabad. While searching for Agastya on the net, I came to know that he sadly passed away in 2012 in Hyderabad and lived in Vijayanagar Colony. Had I known his address prior to 2012, I would have definitely met him. That was the first year after my retirement and I was busy settling down in Hyderabad after 35 years abroad. I also found out about another classmate Ms. Sarvamangala who was the elder sister of Agastya Sastry and she has written a book on her family while living in Mississippi, USA titled “My Journey from Godavari in Rajahmundry to Mississippi in Greenville, USA”. The book is very interesting. My memory of Agastya is that of a friendly person and he showed some early inclination towards entertainment and stage. His sister was always cheerful but the only time of my interaction with her was during the SSLC (Level -10th standard) exams held in Gurukulam School. I was a shy teenager and never spoke to her. After completing one of the exam papers, she saw me and said “ Yela rasawu paper. Neekemilay, nuvvu clever head wu kada!!” (How did you do the paper? It’s nothing for you, you are a clever head!!)  I don’t know whether I replied but that single sentence stood out in my memory as a girl talking to me direct.

I stumbled upon Dr. Rudra Narasimham, ex-Indian Army and now settled in USA who was another classmate and a top student. Dr. Rudra has won meritorious awards for his exemplary services in the Indian Army. Mahesh Babu and Ranga Prasad were my class fellows and they joined the Police Department. Nagabhushanam was a cloth merchant and was very friendly with me. I wish I could get hold of the complete list of students.

Surprisingly I, being a Muslim with Urdu as my mother tongue, was good in Telugu and the Telugu Teacher one Mr. Suryanarayana was duly impressed. I must say my basic Telugu was from various schools of Guntur and Palanadu. This was 1959-61. I had a moment of deja vu in 1974 when I was a Branch Manager of SBI, Amalapuram. The SBI staff was conducting a Cultural Festival for the Region at Amalapuram and one of the programmes was Telugu Stage plays. Among the judges was Mr. Suryanarayana and it was a pleasant meeting. I acknowledged him on the stage when I was delivering the welcome speech and he was happy. I invited him home for lunch after the programme.

I studied for PUC at Government Arts College, Rajahmundry in 1961-62. I opted for Hindi as my second language from here on. The course was a mere nine months and I can hardly remember any of my class fellows. I do remember watching a cricket match where Maqbool Hussain Hashmi uncle was batting on the college grounds. He is related to us and was an English Lecturer. I had a close relationship with him for some time. He invited me to his house during summer holidays and encouraged me to read English poetry and classical literature. He started off by discussing the English translation of Surah Fateha. This inspired me to take up reading classics seriously and I did get into poetry in a big way. I met him again in Ramachandrapuram where I was deputed to act as Branch Manager in 1973 and he was working in the college there. He was indisposed during that visit due to high blood pressure. We again discussed my reading progress. He visited me at the bank and felt happy on my career as a banker.

I remember our family visit to Dad’s colleague M.A.Wahab saheb’s house. He was Deputy Superintendent of Central Excise as was my dad. His daughter was Zarina Wahab who was perhaps 14 years old. I noticed that she used to cycle down to school which was a rare sight those days for girls. Zarina Wahab later was well known as a Bollywood actress.

Right outside the college was a tailoring shop owned by Basha Tayajan of Municipal Colony and we used to stop over for a chat with him. Beside his shop, Ziauddin chacha was running a cycle repair shop.

College days 1962-65:

Dad was transferred to Guntur in 1962 and I joined B.Sc., in Andhra Christian College. I did try to get admission in Engineering but the competition was severe and I did not get a seat. This was the time my interest in English literature was building up. I was doing well in all my English exams and in my final year, I was made the Student Editor of the college magazine to assist the English Professor to put together the annual issue. The best student in English was nominated. The Professor was Prof. M.G.Thomas who used to wear suits with a bow tie and was very serious. I believe he was a bachelor. He called me once to discuss the editorial piece I wrote. He made me sit across his chair and straightaway pointed out that one should put quotation marks for quotes. I remember this criticism always.

Andhra Christian College, Guntur (present day but looks the same)

Having spent three years at a stretch at this college, I made good friends. I was into cricket, NCC (Military style training designed for students) and library. My good friends were Krishna Reddy, the cricket captain, Mir Ziauddin, Ghalib, Vidya Sagar, Subba Reddy, Samuel (Hindi class). I lost contact with several of them but I kept in touch with Zia who retired as Colonel in the Paratroop Regiment of Indian Army. He was very keen on NCC and represented our college at the Republic Day parade in Delhi and soon after graduation, joined the Army as Commissioned Officer. I attended his wedding at Hyderabad in 1970 and he later visited me twice in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 2000. He attended the wedding of Badar in Chennai in 2012. We also contacted him in Bangalore in 1996 when he was Chief Security Officer in Leela Palace Hotel and he hosted a dinner at his house.

Vidya Sagar became a Professor of Mathematics in Sagar University. I wanted to contact him and searched on the net but failed to find him. He was a close friend. Bhaskar Reddy became a doctor and he played cricket at Ranji level for Andhra. Bhaskar Reddy took me into the cricket team and got me to play in the Inter-collegiate tournament. I was not very regular in practice and was an off-spinner and middle-order batsman.

During this time, I had an accident on my bicycle. I was coming home from college. Two dogs were chasing each other and the leading dog passed by me, but the second one ran headlong into the front wheel. I was thrown down and I landed on my left elbow. All of it happened in a split second. My elbow was dislocated and I was moving around in a plaster cast for three weeks. After this incident, I was always on the lookout for running dogs but I could only spot very docile dogs with tongues hanging out and observing me closely!!

Immediately after graduation in 1965 when Chinese aggression resulted in huge shortage of engineers, especially Civil Engineers in Government and private sector, many universities started a three-year course for Science graduates in addition to five year courses for PUC students. Under the guidance of dad, I applied for several Universities for Engineering. During this wait period of two months, I was offered a position of Demonstrator in Chemistry department in the college. I was guiding students in the laboratory and once I was asked to fill in for an absent lecturer and teach some Chemistry topic. It was a nervous moment and somehow, I completed the period of 45 minutes.

Jandhyala Papayya Sastri was the Telugu Professor and was a well-known poet at that time. His pen name was “Karuna Sri” and his most famous poem was “Pushpa Vilapam” which used to evoke emotional tears from the readers. Though my second language was Hindi, I used to attend his Telugu class as he was known to recite poetry totally unconnected with the syllabus. I enjoyed his recitations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2qkEo8eiWs

Next post will continue with university stories.