My school!

As I told you Singampally was a small camp there was no school. To go to a High school, we had to walk more than three kilometres. On the way we had to cross two canals also. Only a few grown up boys and girls used to go. When it was my time to go..luckily  there were four or five girls. I joined in the school directly in fifth class. Till then I studied at home only.  Seshu's mother(my aunt)  used to teach me.
There was no school bus, no autos...We had to walk. All of us together we used to go. Then only it was possible to cross the canal.  We have to walk through the water no.. so we used to hold our hands together and cross the canal. It was a real problem those days. The floor of the canal was too slipperry. But we people were very clever. Whenever we felt like taking a leave we will get ourselves wet in the water and tell the teachers the canal is flowing high... and there is always a chance that the water level may increase by evening. Fearing this the Headmaster would give special permission for us to go home. And what next? take the bags... run to the forest... or collect lotuses in the tank. Fishing in the canal also was one of our favourite pastime. Play till evening and go home as usual like good children. All the elderly people were working in their fields. Nobody knows our whereabouts. Ofcourse we were careful enough about our safety as well as our education.

Sometimes if we were lucky we will get to travel in bullock carts. If anybody has work in the big village like buying fertilizers etc. they go by carts. We used to join them. Can you imagine what we used to get to eat on the way? I bet you can't. Jama pandlu, Sugarcane, Senagalu... sugarcane farmers would cook jaggery with sugar cane juice. One should taste freshly cooked jaggery.  No sweet is equal to it's taste. Mouth watering flavour.  On our way back from school we would help the farmers in that job. And in return they gave us jaggery. Sometimes we take it for our teachers also. Custurd apples, Maize, vegetables grown in our compounds... all these we used to give to our teachers.
Coming to studies.. we had very good teachers those days. It was a government school. Every class has fifty to sixty students. Even then also teachers paid personal attention to each child. I used to be the class leader and share half of the responsibility of the teacher. I studied from 5th to 8th in that village. And all those four years I was chosen for merit scholarship. But I never took the money. Raja mamayya said... we don'd need it, let them give it to the poor people.
My grand father was not that rich. But when it comes to studies and buying books he will say... first educational needs, then only any other expenditure. I admire his personality. I am sure it influenced mine.

Beautiful childhood

Suseela's post made me think of my childhood. Yes, we are the blessed ones.Out of four brothers our grandfather Kutumba rao garu was the only person who was a farmer. And unfortunately he was the last person too. Now I dont think anybody owns a farmland. So in our generation may be we are the only people who had literally walked in a farm. We went to the fields where my grandfather worked. All my cousins... Suseela and her brother Ramana from Tanuku, Suneeta and Subhashini from Hyderabad... all used to come in summers. Peddammma"s (Amaleswari) daughters were there in Nizamabad. Since I was brought up by my grandparents,  I was the only kid in the block to spend more time in the village.
Singampally is a small camp of fifteen families who came from Andhra districts. Almost all of them are related in one way or the other. To reach the nearby village we had to walk two miles. It was situated like that. A big Nizam sagar canal, a forest ... all in walkable distance! Houses were built with thatched roof, and between the houses there used to be a pandal(pandiri). Big compounds were cleaned daily and filling them with Muggu was my favourite job. Cattle, Chiks... we used to have all these in the compound. Evenings all the children used to sit in the pandal. Stories, Games, Dreams, Stitching, Embroidery.. what not. There was no Electricity, no Television. Folks, Can  you imagine life without these two, these days? Because these two were absent, we had lot of time. And our imagination knew no bounds. We created stories. We even made stories. We had adventures. We used to run into the forest.. Not only Indian dates(eeta kayalu), there were Morri pandlu, Regu pandlu, Custard apples, Mangoes, wood apples, Tamarind... Oh God... What a lovely feast we used to have. Sometimes we used to come across wild animals also. But we were never afraid. Now in these cities we are afraid of mosquitoes and flies! What a pity!
About my adventures while going to school ... read in the  next post... bye
Padmasri