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Nostalgia: The IIT Years - Sem One

At last, I have now come to writing about my hostel life.
To continue where I left, the vacation before joining college was a very long one owing to water problems in the institute. A good part of it was spent playing cricket at Skandy's place. As my mom and I had been in Chennai just for my education and now that I am joining hostel. We wound our house and gave it for rent. My mom headed for Dubai to join my father. As the vacation was extended, I too headed for Dubai for a month. Vacating our house was quite some work and lots of things (many unnecessary ones) got shifted to my hostel luggage.

September 1st was the joining date.

Will continue....

Nostalgia: '97 - '99

My father got an offer to work in Dubai arnd Dec '96. The company my father was working for in Madras was performing dismally and almost going to collapse. So, after a lot of thought put into it, my father decided to go ahead and work there. He left for Dubai on Jan 19th '97.

It was the first time that my father was away from us. Started feeling about it but within a month my cousin sister's wedding was there. So these feelings got dissolved in the festivity. This was the first marriage of my generation in my mother's side (Most cousins on my father's side are as old as my parents!!!).

The plan was to visit Dubai for 20 days during the summer hols and return. Then we will wind up our house and I will shift to hostel while my mom joins my father. We looked at different residential schools in Madras as well as Nellore. None were to upto our total satisfaction but I was ready to join a residential school in Nellore as my uncles were there.

After my grade 8 exams, my father sent us our visas, a visit visa for me and a residence visa for my mom. We left on May 1st. The first time I was flying abroad! When we landed, I was simply amazed at the place. It looked like a fantasy world, so clean, so modern, so western, just like in the films. The tall glassy buildings, the wide smooth roads and posh cars. The more amazing thing being all this in the middle of a desert! My father recieved us and took us to our studio apartment (which is our house here till date...) - a hall partioned into a hall and bedroom. It was small but good enough for us - especially since my mom didnt have a domestic maid to help her out.

Those first few days in Dubai were great - a totally new place but with lots of Indians, esp mallus. So I didnt find myself totally alien. It was like a perfect amalgam - a western city but with an Indian feel to it. Of course, the weather was horrible and my father hadn't installed a/c's by then, but being from Madras helps.

After going there I had more insight into the schooling system there. There were innumerous Indian schools which were affiliated to the CBSE Board. But of course it was costly! arnd 4k a month was the cheapest. I had not paid that much per year before! But everyone advised me to join school there - it will be a new experience and I will get to stay with my parents. And so, it was decided that I will join the school in Dubai. It was also decided that I will return to Chennai for my XI and XII so that I can prepare for the entrance exams. The system in the Gulf schools was to run classes from April to June and hold quarterly exams and the vacations were in July-August, as those were the hottest months there. Since I couldn't join just as yet, we decided that I will finish my quarterly exams in my old school and come to Dubai in August.

So I arrived in Dubai in August and got my residence visa in about a week. Joined school on September. This was the first time I changed my school. I was put in 'P' section. The class was mostly made of Malayalis, Sindhis and a few Konkanis. Only one Tam, Ashok, who had shifted from Chennai a couple of years earlier. I topped the class by far in my half-yearly exams and that made me a geek in other people's eyes. That impression pretty much remained for the two years I was there. Some of the friends I was close to were Ashok, Khushroo, Sachin, Nitin and Ravi. The school used to start at arnd 12 and end at 6 in the evening. So the morning was spent watching Zee TV (as there was nothing else to do....) - Hum Paanch especially. I was introduced to taped tennis ball cricket here. All the car parks were the playgrounds (Now its impossible to find space to even swing a bat!). There were many instances of police snatching away the bat and ball. This was my main outdoor preoccupation during my two years in Dubai. We played in peak summer with temperatures arnd 45C in open areas, turning me into a barbaque version of myself (look at my pictures!). We even played during my 10th board exam study holidays while my contemporaries in India would have been working like a horse drawing a tonga.

During my 10th grade itself, we applied to DAV, Chennai. They admitted me provisionally to be confirmed based on my 10th board marks. Eventhough my overall percentage was a dismal 83 (67 in Hindi!), my good maths and science marks ensured that I got a seat in the Comp Sci grp there. When I returned to India after a gap of 20 months, it was a wonderful feeling - coming back to the place where I belong to. Of course, the roads are nasty, the traffic was horrible, blah blah.... But, its India maan, India! I am not able to express that feeling in words.

'99 - '01 - My IIT prep years - in next blog.

Nostalgia: '93 - '97

'93 was the year, we shifted to our own house (one of the 150-odd apartments in the complex) in T. Nagar near Hindi Prachar Sabha. I was happy to leave the place because it was boring now as the owner's granddaughters had moved out by then. They were my best friends (outside of school) till then. [Now, I can hardly talk to them :-D] The shift was due to the fact that the house we were living in, was to be razed to the ground and converted into apartments. It made a lot of economic sense for the owners. They got paid for the land as well as got two apartment for themselves. Long before this, the place which was our home till '87 was also converted into flats. That was the time when independent houses in Madras were razed to the ground and apartments roze instead. This phenomenon has subsided relatively. Now the expansion is in the suburbs.

I still continued to go to the same school, which was on the same road as the rented house we lived in. But now it was no more walkable. Enter auto- and cycle-rickshaws. Getting cramped with about 5-10 more and going by the most curviest path possible dropping/picking up kids wasnt really a great joy but it was a nice time to interact with people. I dont remember much of these though... I started going by bus after a couple of years. Free bus pass was given to all students till 8th (later extended to 12th - me benifiting from this later). It wasnt too far off, just arnd 10-15 minutes of travel. I remember even having walked the distance a couple of times (It was quite a remarkable thing given my amazing power to remember routes. lol.) People were very supportive of us ( ;) ), especially when we shoved our school bags (heavy enuf for trekking) into them. Not to forget our lunch bags.

The shift to the apartment gave me access to cable TV, one of the earliest technology revolutions in India. Thus began one of the closest relationships i have ever had. This was when I started watching Hindi serials/movies with lot more seriousness (I had also started writing private Hindi exams conducted by Hindi Prachar Sabha opposite to our flat). Star was almost completely english. Zee was the major regional channel. Sun & Gemini had just started being aired only a few hours per day but slowly became full-fledged channels. DD Metro was still the coolest though with weekly serials. 'Junoon' - weekly first, biweekly later - was one watched quite a lot. Tekhikaat, Taara, Darr, Shanti, etc. Weekly serials surely created a lot more interest due to the time gap. Daily serials now are far too dragging. Lots and lots of comedy serials that time - Dekh Bhai Dekh, Shrimaan Shrimati, Hum Paanch, etc.

Will add to this later....

Nostalgia: '87 -'93

In May '87 we shifted to T. Nagar (Habibullah Road). I was to spend the next 6 years of my life here. This also was an independent house with place for 3 families. I joined LKG in June '87 exactly at the age of three. As I mentioned before, I was not a happy school-goer in the beginning before I settled down.

Our house owners were Tamil and here is where I got initiated into the language - even managing to read a bit! The owner's family consisted of an old couple with his son and his family staying with them. The owner's two granddaughters were my first friends (of course, I have completely lost touch with them now and can hardly talk to them). One being 2 years elder and other, a day junior.

Besides the owners lived another family. They had a daugher and a son. The boy was 5 years my junior but it was with him I played cricket as long as I was there.

It was in kindergarden that I met one of my closest friends, Vedik. He and his family still remain one of our closest.

I was an average student in kindergarden but started picking up from 2nd std. I remember consistently topping my section from IV to VIII. I also remember having won the prize for academic excellence for a couple of years.

Let me recall some names I remember: Arun Bosco, Aravind, Charlie, Sriram, Arunkumar, Sivakumar, Prabhu, Vijayaraghavan, Karthik (D & N), vagairah, vagairah.

Vacations:
Most of my vacations were spent at my mom's village with my grandmom and my grandaunt there to take care of me besides my aunt and uncle. I have played hell of cricket in the front yard with neighbouring kids and my uncle's daughters, much to the irritation of elders and neighbours.

I always loved going to the village. A welcome relief from the bustling city. Things were so quite and so much greenery around. The vast paddy fields are awesome to look at. As good as the movies! The care people show for others (it can be irritating many a time) is also phenomenal. Everyone knows everyone. Not to forget the fresh fruits and coconuts we get. My mom and myself have always enjoyed the palm fruit. Nights were spent fighting mosqis and lots of stories from my grandaunt.

We also used to visit my father's village where my ailing grandmom and my father's sister lived. This village was a coastal one and far less fertile. This one was a typical stereotype village compared to my mom's which was far more modern. Thachted & bamboo houses with huge courtyards and kitchen gardens. With dry thorny branches as compound walls, and red mud roads. Electricity was a read luxury - only used to light a bulb. Fans weren't present and who needed them when there is an awesome breeze present all the time. Eventhough the village looked ancient, it had great educational institutions producing scores of professionals like my father who went out to towns and cities to make a living.

Nostalgia: '84-'87

I was born in American Hospital, Nellore, AP (my mom's village 'Damaramadugu' is 10kms from here) on 1st June 1984 (Friday) arnd 8.30am. This is enough for you to get a horoscope made for me i guess. lol.

My father had been working in Madras (now, Chennai) since '76. My mom also shifted after her marriage in '82 (she finished her degree and then moved in '83). So eventhough I was born in Nellore, virtually I have been in Chennai for the first 13 years of my life without vacational visits to Andhra.

I dont remember too much of these first three years of my life but my parents keep reminding about some things which happened:

• My first birthday party: Cake from the Taj - thanks to Hong Kong mama (my father's close friend). I guess that was my biggest b'day party for about a decade.
• We used to live in Raja annamalaipuram till '87. It was an independant house with us in the ground floor and the house owners above us. They were Telugu and there were 2 thathas who were very fond of me (both of them are no more), esp., the younger of the two. He used to teach me a lot and I guess what I grasped then are still embedded in me at a sub-conscious level. It seems I was very fond of cocunuts which grew in the compound.
  
• My mom's uncle also was amoung my early teachers. He passed away in '87. Eventhough I was too young to know him vividly, I still remember a few moments I spent with him. He was a great man. Equally great was my father's father who passed away before I was born. Both were farmers but valued education a lot.
• Indira Gandhi was shot 3 months after I was born.

As mentioned before we shifted our house in '87 close to my first school 'Sir M Venkatasubba Rao' where I studied till 8th. My first days at school were horrible. I think for a month or so, I kept returning home early crying like mad.

Rest in next blog.