+1 of 2

Sarvajana HSS since 1924

I dont know who decided to call it as +2 as from then till now I think most children see it as an additional burden, like an extra  load that gets picked overhead. The 2 crucial years as the new order of 10+2 made it to be, started with a bang. The X public exam results came and with it the news that GRG shuts +2 in CBSE and may even change the Board ( it's now a Matriculation School). Suddenly there was this emptiness - where to go, which board, what about friends, which group to choose -pure or (not so pure)science, commerce. The school was part of the PSG group, but that mostly had colleges and fewer schools. They prepared Sarvajana School to take this mass migration. While it was a big school with great legacy, it was a sea change. It was till then a Tamil medium school and started the English medium only for +2 for us, it followed the TN state board and was a Boys school. But like GRG it had a impressive school building, playground was just next to the famous PSG Tech college and was a institution with a legacy since 1924. Legend has it that Tagore sung the National anthem at Sarvajana School in 1926, which adopted it for its daily assembly much before it became the National Anthem

Dr SS Rajagopalan our Head master

We had as Headmaster Dr.SS Rajagopalan, a person who personified simplicity and discipline. He wore whites, a tie and a dark coat all made of pure cotton, would cycle to school and taught us Maths. He now lives in Chennai and is still in touch with us through Prabhat. The Asst Headmaster taught us Tamil and then we had a set of teachers for the subjects who till recently taught only in Tamil but had to now also teach us in English and while it had its challenges I think they put in their best to manage it though it would regularly humour the class when languages got mixed up. 

The new school also got students joining from other schools and we got a bunch of fresh faces to us apart from the lot that moved en mass from GRG. There was Hemant who was from Kerala and our own Mamooty. There was Ravi who was a sportsman bodybuilder and very particular of his well oiled hairstyle and got teased for that. There was Muthukumar who was the most flamboyant and was studying science but very fond of Tamil literature and many more new friends not captured here.

Academics was important but so was extra curricular activities. There was this input that for professional courses if state, national, presidential recognition is there you get bonus marks and in some places quotas. So the attempt to collect certificates and get involved in a lot of activities continued - Singing, sports , arts etc. and the school got us as additional talent pool to participate in inter school events.

Traffic Service at Coimbatore

We had to join NCC, NSS or Rover Scouts. Scouts promised variety and was on flesh timing etc. so a lot of us took to it. We went on hikes, helped in public events etc. We had a great hike in the foot hills of Nilgiris along with little games at organising ourselves, finding jugadu solutions when out in the forest etc. A small prank by the scout master had us on a spin. He got all of us around and pointed to a plant with small needle like stuff. He said guys if you haven't seen it before this is Chilli and the amazing thing is it is sweet now and becomes pungent when it grows, try it and most of us plunged and it was like Bhoot Jolakiya and was so pungent that we finished our water bottles in no time and still jumping around.  

..and the award from MGR

A memorable experience experienced happened with public service. During Diwali the police roped us in to help in traffic control and we were given some basic training and then taken to town. For a couple of weeks we had free passage in all buses (no tickets), were given beats, made to control pedestrian and traffic from the podium as well. Even did a night beat with cops and got to see the darker side of city life, police station at night, the lockup rooms though the cops I thought were sensible in not letting us get close to situations and used us more to sense and relay anything fishy. One Mr. Paramasivam was the senior police officer who managed this project and don't know why (as they never discussed these things) he made me do a lot more things and even took photos etc. and then later I realised got me to receive on behalf of the school an award for the project from yes MGR who was the chief minister then and came an gave me the photos. He was police officer of repute then and must have gone places.

At home , we shifted to another residence at 3rd street Tatabad. Ram finished his Bsc Zoology and then tried for Medicine through graduate quota but as luck would have it that year they scrapped that quota and it was so difficult for all of us and how the reservations and quotas were playing out was pathetic. But his time in Madras and a larger world view made him I guess chose a radically different professional track and he chose to do article ship for CA, a bold decision and came back to do it at Coimbatore. It made me look more seriously at competitive exams which were few but I said let me. Coaching classes were not that common but I did take some postal coaching. 

Around this time we had the next major wedding in the family after a longtime of Balu mama my mother younger brother. For the first time me & Ram were left to fend for ourselves for a week before the wedding, got our first experiments at cooking and living home alone. We both have a weakness for Pakoda and remember made the most chewy Pakoda ever when we apparently used Maida instead of gram flour. The wedding itself was a grand, traditional all courses event that went for three days punctuated with in house entertainment. The wedding was in Feb and post that we went to Tirumala as a large group. I think it had rained and was a bit cold up in the Tirumala hills. I saw what anticipation and travel readiness was from Balu mama's father in law Subbarao uncle. He had lived in Delhi and had anticipated it will be cold for the average Madrasi and kept pulling out sweaters he had packed for not just us but most of us.  Balu mama was then working near Cochin and later I had a wonderful summer break with him and Padma Manni (where the convention was broken to not call he Mami (aunty) but Manni (bhabi) which was a younger title). With them in Cochin I expereinced life in Kerala which is quaint and very different. Realised how similar sounding words can mean very different things even in languages that are seemingly adjacent and had quite a few humourous exchanges and misunderstandings due to this. 

The +1 of 2 looking back, just whizzed past with all the changes and new experiences.