To those who know that I was brought up in a small village in Palakkad,Kerala, this intro would be little disinteresting, so you may skip these. Though my native place is Thrissur - the cultural capital of Kerala, due to my grandpa's employment in Govt College,Chittur , he bought a house in the beautiful village of Thekkegramem ( Thekkegramem in Tamil,Malayalam and Talayalam -which is the unique language of palakkad iyers- means the village that is situated in the south ---of Chittur town .i.e.South Village). It is a typically a palakkad(an) agraharam where you can see houses in a row and the closest neighbours can hear the conversation in my house unless we talk in a hushed voice(which palakkad Iyers are unfamiliar to)
I studied in English Medium and was a good scorer in school. I had got many 1st Ranks to my credit and my mom boasted about these achievements to my gramavasis and her FAMILY members (My maternal grandma was the 16th child of her parents and had 7 children to her credit also- so you understand what I mean by FAMILY). There was always a depression in my mom's face when I scored 49 out of 50 in Maths; everybody would congratulate me but she thought why I was so careless to lose that one mark.
I was the only one (Rather I believe) in School who had a Wren&Martin Grammar book, which was actually recommended to me by my extra-rich cousin who was also of my same age (I think she had gifted me the extra one which she had- Her father always bought two copies of all text books, one remains permanently in school book shelf and the other at her study room, perhaps an idea to reduce the school baggage's weight). My teacher congratulated me whenever I scored a 50 in English; even she started behaving like my mom when I scored 49,48.5 etc. I studied till seventh standard in a co-ed school, but I had to shift to a far-away boys-only-school coz the former school was only co-ed till 7th; after 7th it is a Girls High school for reasons better known to the nuns who run the convent school.
So till 10th standard I had no option than to study coz there is no girl in class. For school drama events, boys used to dress up as girls BUT it was a very "big deal" for the adolescent 'boys' in the High school. My villagers were very orthodox as far as boy-girl relationship is concerned and they cannot think of any other relationship than love, if a boy and girl interacts. So I didnot have any relationship with girls other than sisterly relationships (I hate Chechis -who are always dominant).
After I completed my elementary education, I joined a college in Palakkad for Pre-degree course in commerce (i,e IV group). My ambtition was to become a chartered accountant coz in my maternal side there were lot of CAs and my parents(even I) thought that after becoming a CA there is no work to do, than to sign some papers and collect fees. The only game I liked very much was Chess and so I even skipped my PDC classes to play Chess with another crazy guy from another remote Palakkadan village. ...There were lot of girls in the class and everywhere there were girls in the college. I felt as if I were hungry but since there was a lot of food to choose from, I finally chose nothing; hence I stayed hungry and stayed foolish. But there were three girls who were extremely intelligent and I always had a gut feel that these girls are gonna be the toppers in the university. These three came to me after six months of my joining college and gave a Mujse-dosti-karoge look before they introduced themselves. Current generation may wonder why it took six months for intro, but that was the truth some years back . It even took DAYS for classmates to smile at each other (atleast for my classmates, not so sure about others).
I later realised the reason why these girls took an accretive intiative to talk to me; I had scored the fourth highest in the Mid-term exam conducted by our department. The student who was regularly irregular in attending classes has become the topper among boys and the fourth in class. The other three being the above mentioned three girls, my first girl-friends. At that time I never felt wrong to call them girl-friends coz. I thought logically- They are girls, they are also my friends. At that age I did not understand the customary meaning of girl-friend, break-up, move-on etc.
Time passed and Pre-degree results were out. The topper in the University was none other than me. Two of my three girl-friends claimed second and third position in the University. Lucky we were, all three ranks for Commerce goes to the credit of our college. My third girlfriend had already become a real GF of somebody of some other college and hope that was not the reason why she couldnot top the exam.
We three rank-holders were showered with lot of praises, awards and the important thing "MONEY". We were also invited by an elite club where we were felicitated by Gentlemen and some Glittering Ladiez.
We all joined the same college for graduation in commerce. First day in B.com was a freshers day, though we were not freshers in College. We were subjected to some ok-kind-of ragging which I felt funny and interesting. I knew a lot of oldies in college who were pursuing their last year of studies so I felt more confident when subjected to some small pranks played by seniors. But then I realised that there were some seniors who constantly tried to harass me. Few of them even tried to make mockery out of the dress I wear and made remarks supposedly aiming at my poor financial condition. Suddenly I felt a rich-poor divide, which made me angry and I shouted at them saying that "Rich wont stay rich forever, poor will definitely defeat them one day or other...Your days are counting". Hearing my loud voice, one of the oldies whom I knew very well (Infact I had defeated him in a district chess tournament ...He studied chemistry, but he had a "girl friend" in Commerce) came for my support and he turned out to be a staunch activist of the students union representing the leftist cluster. His arrival made the scene calmer and my seniors scattered as they knew that individuals cannot easily revolt against a political party supporter.
The oldie calmed me and guaranteed his help whenever I required so. My aggressiveness even helped me to earn friends in my own class who thought that they have somebody who represents the down-trodden i.e. the JUNIORS. I narrated this incident to my friends at my tuition class and one of them said that my talk had the stint of a communist and no wonder why a politsupporter came for my help. That day I could not sleep properly since I kept thinking why my seniors kept targeting me when there were lot of other preys for them. Suddenly I remembered that during my felicitation session at the Elite club, I told my two girl-freinds that since I am already two years old in the college, no body would dare to rag me on the freshers day or any other day for that matter.... I kept extrapolating my thoughts and I fell asleep only after concluding my thoughts like this - These two girl-friends also had good contact with oldies in the Dept and hence they only would have passed on my idle NOBODY-CAN-RAG-ME conversation .
What a genius I am!......; One of my seniors -who attempted to make a truce with me after the
intervention of the Leftist oldie- came to me the next day and told that my two girl-friends are the ones who have leaked the conversation (He told this to me in a such a degree of seriousness as if Pakistan had leaked the key Indian defence info).
The same day there was a membership event by the leftist students union and after the speech given by the college Unit Secretary , I felt my thoughts were closely aligned with the ideology of Marx; So I took one rupee from my torn wallet and got registered as a member.It was then I re-christened the phrase "Ningallenae communistaakki" to "Ente GirlFriends ennae communistaakki".
Postscript: Currently I am not affiliated to any political party and have also re-aligned myself to Spirituality. But I feel sad when people blame an MP/MLA/Minister for non-development.... Why dont you contest elections, win and change the fate of the nation than blaming everybody else except you for the country's current state of affairs?
I studied in English Medium and was a good scorer in school. I had got many 1st Ranks to my credit and my mom boasted about these achievements to my gramavasis and her FAMILY members (My maternal grandma was the 16th child of her parents and had 7 children to her credit also- so you understand what I mean by FAMILY). There was always a depression in my mom's face when I scored 49 out of 50 in Maths; everybody would congratulate me but she thought why I was so careless to lose that one mark.
I was the only one (Rather I believe) in School who had a Wren&Martin Grammar book, which was actually recommended to me by my extra-rich cousin who was also of my same age (I think she had gifted me the extra one which she had- Her father always bought two copies of all text books, one remains permanently in school book shelf and the other at her study room, perhaps an idea to reduce the school baggage's weight). My teacher congratulated me whenever I scored a 50 in English; even she started behaving like my mom when I scored 49,48.5 etc. I studied till seventh standard in a co-ed school, but I had to shift to a far-away boys-only-school coz the former school was only co-ed till 7th; after 7th it is a Girls High school for reasons better known to the nuns who run the convent school.
So till 10th standard I had no option than to study coz there is no girl in class. For school drama events, boys used to dress up as girls BUT it was a very "big deal" for the adolescent 'boys' in the High school. My villagers were very orthodox as far as boy-girl relationship is concerned and they cannot think of any other relationship than love, if a boy and girl interacts. So I didnot have any relationship with girls other than sisterly relationships (I hate Chechis -who are always dominant).
After I completed my elementary education, I joined a college in Palakkad for Pre-degree course in commerce (i,e IV group). My ambtition was to become a chartered accountant coz in my maternal side there were lot of CAs and my parents(even I) thought that after becoming a CA there is no work to do, than to sign some papers and collect fees. The only game I liked very much was Chess and so I even skipped my PDC classes to play Chess with another crazy guy from another remote Palakkadan village. ...There were lot of girls in the class and everywhere there were girls in the college. I felt as if I were hungry but since there was a lot of food to choose from, I finally chose nothing; hence I stayed hungry and stayed foolish. But there were three girls who were extremely intelligent and I always had a gut feel that these girls are gonna be the toppers in the university. These three came to me after six months of my joining college and gave a Mujse-dosti-karoge look before they introduced themselves. Current generation may wonder why it took six months for intro, but that was the truth some years back . It even took DAYS for classmates to smile at each other (atleast for my classmates, not so sure about others).
I later realised the reason why these girls took an accretive intiative to talk to me; I had scored the fourth highest in the Mid-term exam conducted by our department. The student who was regularly irregular in attending classes has become the topper among boys and the fourth in class. The other three being the above mentioned three girls, my first girl-friends. At that time I never felt wrong to call them girl-friends coz. I thought logically- They are girls, they are also my friends. At that age I did not understand the customary meaning of girl-friend, break-up, move-on etc.
Time passed and Pre-degree results were out. The topper in the University was none other than me. Two of my three girl-friends claimed second and third position in the University. Lucky we were, all three ranks for Commerce goes to the credit of our college. My third girlfriend had already become a real GF of somebody of some other college and hope that was not the reason why she couldnot top the exam.
We three rank-holders were showered with lot of praises, awards and the important thing "MONEY". We were also invited by an elite club where we were felicitated by Gentlemen and some Glittering Ladiez.
We all joined the same college for graduation in commerce. First day in B.com was a freshers day, though we were not freshers in College. We were subjected to some ok-kind-of ragging which I felt funny and interesting. I knew a lot of oldies in college who were pursuing their last year of studies so I felt more confident when subjected to some small pranks played by seniors. But then I realised that there were some seniors who constantly tried to harass me. Few of them even tried to make mockery out of the dress I wear and made remarks supposedly aiming at my poor financial condition. Suddenly I felt a rich-poor divide, which made me angry and I shouted at them saying that "Rich wont stay rich forever, poor will definitely defeat them one day or other...Your days are counting". Hearing my loud voice, one of the oldies whom I knew very well (Infact I had defeated him in a district chess tournament ...He studied chemistry, but he had a "girl friend" in Commerce) came for my support and he turned out to be a staunch activist of the students union representing the leftist cluster. His arrival made the scene calmer and my seniors scattered as they knew that individuals cannot easily revolt against a political party supporter.
The oldie calmed me and guaranteed his help whenever I required so. My aggressiveness even helped me to earn friends in my own class who thought that they have somebody who represents the down-trodden i.e. the JUNIORS. I narrated this incident to my friends at my tuition class and one of them said that my talk had the stint of a communist and no wonder why a politsupporter came for my help. That day I could not sleep properly since I kept thinking why my seniors kept targeting me when there were lot of other preys for them. Suddenly I remembered that during my felicitation session at the Elite club, I told my two girl-freinds that since I am already two years old in the college, no body would dare to rag me on the freshers day or any other day for that matter.... I kept extrapolating my thoughts and I fell asleep only after concluding my thoughts like this - These two girl-friends also had good contact with oldies in the Dept and hence they only would have passed on my idle NOBODY-CAN-RAG-ME conversation .
What a genius I am!......; One of my seniors -who attempted to make a truce with me after the
intervention of the Leftist oldie- came to me the next day and told that my two girl-friends are the ones who have leaked the conversation (He told this to me in a such a degree of seriousness as if Pakistan had leaked the key Indian defence info).
The same day there was a membership event by the leftist students union and after the speech given by the college Unit Secretary , I felt my thoughts were closely aligned with the ideology of Marx; So I took one rupee from my torn wallet and got registered as a member.It was then I re-christened the phrase "Ningallenae communistaakki" to "Ente GirlFriends ennae communistaakki".
Postscript: Currently I am not affiliated to any political party and have also re-aligned myself to Spirituality. But I feel sad when people blame an MP/MLA/Minister for non-development.... Why dont you contest elections, win and change the fate of the nation than blaming everybody else except you for the country's current state of affairs?
Good mix of wit, sarcasm, ideas, and ideals with a powerful message in the end. Well done again Ganesh! I would say you are using your bachelor days fruitfully. Keep writing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Manju, for your words of encouragement.
ReplyDelete