To remember my teachers,
First comes my father, then my mother!!
Yes. My Father used to teach me math and science
And my Mother, music. In my school, there were some teachers who stayed permanently in that school. Some had experience of over 20 years, some 30 years!!
It was too good to be learning from all of them. There was a specific teacher to a specific class. Like Padmathamma for nursery, Muniyappa for 1st standard, Ramakrishnamachar(Swami master) for 2nd standard, Doreswamy for third standard and so on...
For us math, science and social science would start from third standard onwards. Till then we used to learn how to read and write, playing so many games, some rhymes, songs and stotras!
I still remember the Kannada rhyme which goes like this: "Baro Baro maLe raya... bAleya toTake nErilla"(This was taught when there was no rains during the monsoon season as a prayer)!
Oh! How good those days were!
We were not allowed to enter the classrooms with slippers. This was just because we needed to treat the classroom as a prayer hall or as a temple. What a sacred feeling. Teachers also would leave out their slippers outside just before entering the classroom.
On the classroom walls there used to be good sayings written allover and the teacher would light an insence stick(sambhrani kaddi) the first thing in the morning; what a good practice!
Later on as we entered 5th standard, our teachers introduced us to grammars and freedom struggle and so many other things.
There was a strange incident once in a social science class. Every one of us was given a portfolio in a mock ministry. I was made the chief minister and some of the others cabinet ministers and some state rank ministers; we were all asked to read newspaper and write down something about the then ministers of our portfolios!
What a novel way of introducing one to political science!
oh! How can I forget MVenkatappa! he was our English teacher. Since it was a remotest village and most of the parents being illiterates, English teaching was the toughest job of all. But this teacher was, I consider him to be, successful in planting the English seed in most of us. We started learning English in 5th standard.
He used to prepare small post cards and distribute it to all the students, guess what he would write on it?! Name of the person it was distributed to! And more, he would take time, write it in bold with sketch pens so that the stamp always remains in the minds rather than the paper. Some people left English learning at it, sadly and some moved on to be IAS officers!!
All the above facts were of the Govt. primary school. I don't think they still maintain the standard of teachers as it was in our times!
Then the high school. It was a good platform for our analytical development. Apart from just studies, as sadly so many schools now a days prefer, we had so many competitive programs in singing, reciting, cultural, educational, recreational, vocational, sporting and others like drama.
There used to be a science competition for which we used to prepare for over a month. Participants would come from allover the district and it used to be a very nervous time to perform (teach in science) in front of so many judges and teachers! We all learnt so many things, apart from just the exam-lessons, from these programs.
I thank all of my teachers who made these moments momentous and confidence building moments.
Then the college, National College Basavanagudi. I think its better to keep quiet than go in detail about each and every person who made an impression there. It was everyone who made it a great stay in that college, In spite of tough competitions from the private tuitions, we used to go there just to attend classes,
U would've all read their text books, PL Seetharam(PLS, Zoology) and Y Tulajappa(YT, Botany), there was one Anantha Rangan(AR, Math), one MSVR, one SVSubba Rao(SVSR, chemistry), one SBalachandra Rao(SBR, Maths), one ShakuntaLa(English), one DShashidhar(DS, English)....list grows...
Best part of my stay in NCB was the NSS activities, dramas apart from other things.
I will leave out my Engineering days to be listed on some other occasion. The post is already a Hanuman tail(hanumanthana baladante agide).
