First Post - The Wonderful school life I will miss - Part 1

I wanted to write something special in my first blog post. Various topics occurred to me, but few of them appealed to me, finally it occurred, I decided to write about something that will have a place in my heart forever - my school life in PSBB.

It was in June 2000 (4th Standard ) when my tryst with PSBB started, when I entered the school i felt nervous, I knew no-one in my class except for Ajay, my relative who happened to be in the same class, I got to know Cia ( Aravind ) and Namitha as we went to school in the same van that year. I was more of the silent type those days and thanks to that attribute of mine, I got to know most of my classmates only towards the year-end.

5th Standard was more fun, because the school was no longer alien to me. It also marked the beginning of my craze in quizzing. A craze that still lives in me. It all started with the small quiz that BQC conducted, in which I managed to win the 1st prize in my class, it took me by surprise. :)). It was the year I started reading Hp. We also did a computer science project at the year end in pairs decided by the teachers, they would set the team and the topics depending on the marks we got in our subjects. Abhinaya and myself were to do a presentation on a topic in Social Studies, I remember spoiling the project by giving an unnecessary effect in the presentation, which made 1 slide run for 15 minutes :| , We were taken to a field trip to Ramachandra Medical Centre and given a free glass of Horlicks there :d !!

6th Standard marked the beginning of the football craze in my class, it was the starting of those matches we played on the school ground during the breaks and we used to have fights among each other while supporting for our favorite clubs and players !! I remember my class having many Man U and Liverpool fans, Cia, Harihar and myself were perhaps the only fans of Chelsea in my class. I managed to win that BQC Quiz again and played the Veena for the first time in the String Instruments G.A. I didn't win any prize though thanks to a lousy performance !! I had an avid reader of HP sitting next to me that year, Ysh ( Vaishnavi ), we used to discuss a lot about the books. Nishant almost created an electrical accident in the class, by inserting the wires, meant for connecting a small bulb to a battery, to the switch board on the wall :| and got a big scolding from the teacher =)) . It was also the year Amrith and Adi entered the class. We were made to sing a song made by our class teacher, Mrs. Devika Raman, with lyrics that tell students to behave well, I wonder how she would have reacted if she saw the trouble we caused in the 7th standard. School was now like a place that was a second home to me.

7th Standard saw a marked change in my behavior and academics, both went for the worse :d .Especially academics, my parents couldn't believe the marks I had got when they saw the report card. That year had changed the behavior of the class from being a relatively silent one to one of the most mischievous classes of the batch.( We started those pairing games then :d). The mischief was mainly due to the class's new entries, Rat ( Sarath ) and Praketh, and soon Sundar Ram would also start his pranks and it was complete mayhem in class. Harish used to wish teachers in a tune only he can sing :| . Bharat Ram was my partner in the class that year and he would continue to be for 8th as well as 9th when he left the school to pursue his tennis, he was an interesting person to know and had an extensive knowledge about various sports. That year marked my entry into chatting and social networking on the internet thanks to Maama (Nishant) !! . I represented the school for the first time in city level quiz competition of BQC, but we didn't qualify thanks to my mistakes. The class teacher that year for us, Mrs. Akila Raman was truly a superb teacher, she made a dull subject like Social Studies interesting for me and encouraged me in my quizzing interests, she remains one of the best teachers I have known.

8th Standard raced away leaving a few memories, I represented the school in the BQC city level competition again, this time I was determined to win it somehow, because it would be my last chance at it. However, we failed to make the mark this time as well, and to think that we lost by just a place saddened me. In the String Instruments G.A, I managed to get the 3rd prize thanks to a far better performance than the one I made during the 6th standard. Again Mrs. Devika Raman was our class teacher and she couldn't believe that our class was behaving so bad compared to our behavior when we were in the sixth. There wasn't much the teachers could do about our behavior during the 8th (which got real bad during 9th and 10th). Sarath and me used to fight in the computer science lab regarding Vijay vs Ajith, it would continue till 10th Standard with Shrawan siding with me and Shruti shouting at us in vain asking us to stop !! ( Even in a reunion we had last year, the topic of conversation between Rat and me was Vijay vs Ajith !! ) . We got two field trips, one to Mayajaal where we saw a animation feature about Buddha and played sum games. The other one was to Dakshina Chitra.

Enter 9th Standard, it was complete mayhem in the class. All sorts of mischief you can think of would happen in the classroom and sometimes even outside it. Sundar Ram rarely allowed a class to take place in peace. Even I, (of all people) got caught sometimes, ( 2 times for no reason at all ) :| . There were a few comic scenes as well , like Harihar jumping around in the class when 2 teachers were there because a bee had entered the class =)), Cia, Sundar Ram and myself almost earned ourselves a visit to the principal's office ( Not posting the reason :D) . Academics got worser and I touched the 50's for the first time. The DEAS Trip to Kallar was a memory of a lifetime, we had the time of our life and there wasn't even a single dull moment in the trip, the activities there were fun ( though I injured my leg rather badly while rappelling and broke my old camera while trekking ). I also made new friends during the trip from other classes. I flopped big time in the string instruments G.A this time around, then I decided to participate in the Bharat Kalachar Scholarship Competition from next year. We were also taken to Sathyam Cinemas for watching a documentary on saving tigers. We voted in the School Elections for the first time. And finally the Radio Show !! We were made to do a radio show in English and were divided into 4 groups. My group had Adi, Cia, Harish, Ajay, Vikram , myself and 2 others ( forgot who it was :D ) . The whole day was spent vetti in the name of recording in Adi's house and I doubt whether we showed the cassette to the teacher !!

10th Standard had all the action. The school time was rather short, only till December as we had to prepare for our board exams from January. However, it still had all the action from previous classes and even more in the form of 'raids' by the senior students. Adish, who sat next to me and myself did manage to escape all the raids though :D. Only the two of us and a few others knew what we brought to school !! :D. The teachers were pretty much clueless against our mischief and sometimes even the principal had to be called to give us lectures, unfortunately for them, nothing worked at all in my class. Not a single day passed without its daily dose of fun. We had another DEAS Trip in Mysore, it was another enjoyable trip in all, however I wouldn't rate it better than the one in Kallar as I personally feel the Kallar Trip was more exciting and fewer people had comes this year to Mysore when compared to last year in Kallar. To write full details about both these trips would require separate blog posts !! Academics took another downturn and I just passed in Sanskrit most of the time and was inconsistent in the other subjects, making me all the more tense before the boards. I couldn't participate in the Bharat Kalachar because the competition dates were near my exam dates and my low marks in the exams meant I had to study harder for them, I had very little time for practicing and so I decided to give it a go next year. I had managed to practice enough for the String instruments G.A though and gave my best, this time I managed to win the first prize and it was the right motivation for me to enter the Bharat Kalachar Competition next year. The Board Exams went off smoothly, I surprised myself by getting 449/500 and couldn't believe that I got 89 in Sanskrit ( My highest in the subject since 6th !! ) , 77 in English however pulled my total down( my unrecognizable handwriting definitely played a part in that). However, I was happy with the marks overall (though I regret missing that 1 extra mark for exact 90 % !!). Praveena Ma'am definitely played a huge role in me getting good marks in Biology, a subject I regularly fail to do well, it is sad to think that she is no more, RIP Ma'am.

The end of the 10th Standard meant that it was the last year I would be with the class I had been a part of since 4th Standard, a superb class at that, missing you all :(

10fians rock !!

Will write about my experiences in 11th and 12th in the next post.

( And yeah, there were many more memories till 10th, but posting everything would take a lot of time, that's why I didn't post them . )