Wednesday, February 01, 2012

School....

I happened to catch up with a few of my school-friends over dinner. More often than not, when I am probably given a notice of say, a week or 10 days, for such a rendezvous, I usually don't make it. But this was fixed in a 2 hour notice and thankfully I wasn't expected to be at some studio yesterday and finally made it to probably one of the nicest evenings I have had. 

Talking of school, my best times were at Hindu Senior, Indira Nagar. Our Principal then, Mr V Venkatachalam, IMO was super dynamic, let us be what we wanted to be. He would allow one of my classmates to come 3 hours late to school because he was training to be a tennis player. I can't think of any other school that would allow that. He let me go to an All India level competition with barely a couple of weeks left to go for the board exam. I came first in that thankfully but I appreciate his vision even more now. 

Somehow, the best memories are of school for me. Maybe it is true for a lot of people. I remember one of our classmates was really good at imitating teachers and hence when my Physics teacher, Swarna ma'am came to know of it she asked him to come forward and perform, for the benefit of the entire class and herself. We were initially scared but it was even more fun when our teacher joined in and laughed when she saw her student imitate her. 

Last night we spoke of a whole lot of things, school, classes, the super performers, sports day and PE teachers, throwball teams A and B, who was brilliant, who broke fingers and throw ball was the one sport I was actively involved in school. And the HSSS hosted the SDK Throwball cup and somehow Hindu won each year coz we were the best. Quite proud of this. :D I have romanced the idea of some sort of a throw ball match reunion but God knows if that will ever happen. The throw ball matches were fun for the boys in school basically because they got to see entertaining games between girls of various schools who would land up in our playground. And we perhaps had one of the biggest playgrounds then. I hear the ground isn't there anymore and I can't bear to go back and see it. 

We had a basketball court and a superb gallery. And, every Friday it would be the responsibility of some class/section to decorate the Ganesh temple in our premises. Kolam and Sundal, Bhajan and the entire post noon session off :)

Probably at that age, we would split hair about who got more marks or who performed better in some sport. But looking back, for me, it was a beautiful phase in my life. And as my classmate told me, we were all friends with each other in the purest form. No ulterior motives. She said by the time we are in college the friendships that forge there are very different from the ones forged at school. 

Over the dinner table, watching my friends talk of career, family, parenthood, school, college, home, cleaning, gardening I wondered how and when time flew. It seemed like yesterday that we were in eighth standard. Staircases and corridors, blackboards and chalk pieces, question papers and answer sheets and the red numerators and denominators within a circle. 

Looking out of the window before I type this line, I don't wish to go back to that time. It has served its purpose.

There will always be a part of me that is frozen in that 8th standard. An age of innocence, simple joys and simple sadnesses, simple challenges and simple solutions. No matter how grown-up and adult the society expects me to be. The child in me is forever alive and kicking.

Perhaps at the end of the journey of living as Chinmayi I hope to figure out the reason behind it all. And I hope it would end with a relaxed smile. 

17 comments:

Sindhuja Bhakthavatsalam said...

Hi Chinmayi, read your blog regularly but haven't left many comments. Nice post. School days will always be dear to me too. It's interesting that you say you don't want to go back though - probably shows you're happy being where you are now, which is great :)

Keep blogging!

Best
Sindhuja

PS: Sara sara saarakaathu has been playing in a loop on my ipod for a very long time now.

RajaPriyan said...

yen College ellaam Enjoy pannaliya...?Illa Sweet memories ethuvum Illaya mam..?

Anonymous said...

We generally have a good opinion about school days because we were provided with everything we wanted, by our parents. All we were expected to do was play and study (a little bit of it).

But its really good to know of your principal who was flexible enough to encourage talents in students, beyond studies. If we had ten prinicipals like that in each major city, we would be counting Olympic Gold medals like China. That country (along with Australia) is getting the basics right. We in India are more focused on how to 'settle down' by getting a secure job.

ES

NARAYANAN SRINIVASAN said...

Hi Chinmayi,

Nice post. It is very important to carry a child like innocence attitude which would enable u to always learn with curiosity. But there is very thin line between, being child like / being childish.

One more info. is I am happy to state, I am also an alumini of Hindu Senior ( Triplicane Branch. Keep blogging.

sundar said...

For anyone, the memories related with school days will be evergreen and precious and generally I have seen people who yearn to go back to those days.

You are different in that case.

You are self-content. Great

Cheers

Sundar

Unknown said...

Liked this the most !

"Looking out of the window before I type this line, I don't wish to go back to that time. It has served its purpose."

Reminded me of some of the memorable lines:

"What happened, happened and could not have happened any other way" from Matrix reloaded

and

"Edhu nadandhadho adhu nanraagave nadandhadhu" from our own Gita saaram

Nimmy said...

Agreed, Hindu school was one of THE best in Throwball and also in music. We (from Vidya Mandir Adyar) were always amazed at Hindu's performance at Bakthaswara Bhajan competition. Your music teacher and team were fabulous.

Maheswari said...

Great that you still keep in touch with your school friends...
I had been transferring to many schools in many places - due to my father's work. So I dont have much contact with them. But college - we were 81 in class...and I have contact with more than half of them - thanks to FB. When 2/3 of us meet (occured twice/thrice only) - we keep talking of our present day - kids, work and other problems and not much about our college days...but now and then my thoughts will fly back to those days....now again it occured reading your blog...Thanks...
Sorry for having my comments so long - just shared my thots...
Godspeed good people,
Maheswari

A Fan who wanted to call you 'The Singing CEO' said...

Chinmayi,

Did your friends ask you to sing? Or would you say 'Obvious!'. Just curious :-)

Kalyan said...

nice post. reminded me of my school days

cutest lines i loved in the post - "Looking out of the window before I type this line, I don't wish to go back to that time. It has served its purpose.


There will always be a part of me that is frozen in that 8th standard. An age of innocence, simple joys and simple sadnesses, simple challenges and simple solutions. No matter how grown-up and adult the society expects me to be. The child in me is forever alive and kicking."

Amritavarshini said...

That's a beautiful perspective.. Something that Kamalhassan said when he was asked if he misses his Moondram Pirai days.. And if he wishes to go back to those times.. He said the same thing.. That life does move on, and he doesnt wish to back, but yes, those days will always remain to be the most special of his life :)

We sure need to know what the climax is.. :)

PS: Yenna Ithu is one of my most favourites.. :)

Vasanth Natarajan said...

Hi Chinmayi,

I follow your blog regularly and this post caught my attention to leave a comment:)My father was the Tamil teacher in HSSS,Indira Nagar from '77-'90. Principal, VP and my dad were very good friends then.But,my dad had to move to some other place for his government job.He used to tell a lot of stories about HSSS because he loved HSSS. Me n my brother were the students of Hindu too until 1990:)

If my dad had continued his work in HSSS, he would have been a proud teacher of u, my bro might have been ur class mate and myself,your junior:)Ha ha ha!

Anyways,your are such a great human and a fabulous singer :)

PS: The comment might be so random,sorry for spamming ur blog :)


Cheers,
Vasanth

Cosmos said...

Blog-க்கு தான் பெயர் வைக்கலன்னு நெனைச்சா, இப்போ posts-க்கும் பெயர் வைக்கறதில்ல .. என்ன கொடுமை சரவணன் இது?

Really enjoyed reading your recent posts. Very mature thinking shines through in your writing. Like the way you refrain from critizing your critics, awesome.

Have you hired some hi-tech writer (Shelly, Wordsworth, Wodehouse, etc) to write your blogs? ;-)

Wanderer said...

A friend of mine always asks me, " what do you get from reading blogs?, it is someone else's ramblings about his/her life usually..how does it connect to you". I have never answered him properly till now and I think I have found an answer in this post of yours, Thanks.

All of our lives are similar and different at the same time, and this interplay of what we share in common and what you have seen different from me is what makes us enjoy these words.

Thanks once again for such a beautiful post.

Padma said...

People keep telling that school days are always an era of wanna-go back to.But I have always had the same idea of yours.First time hearing the same opinion about school days!!!Good n elaborate writeup though.Keep up.

Priya said...

Hi Chinmayi,

I happened to read ur blog now and was really surprised or rather moved. After having become such a popular singer and achieving great heights u ve spoken about ur,sorry our school & princi. I was ur junior in HSSS (2 yrs younger i suppose) & my mother still works there ( Prema - Science teacher). I ve such a close feeling towards that school. Ur words about the grounds & throwball tournament were just apt. Swarna Maam was one of my favs too. The way she taught was really different. Not the run of the mills. For u to remember and mention their names is such a great act. Hats off to u!!!!

Whenever i see u on TV or Hear ur songs i used to lament to everyone near me that u were my senior. My husband and in laws must ve heard it a zillion times by now and i dont think i m gonna stop it in the future too.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo happy for u and wish u a great life ahead.


Cheers
Priya

Viji said...

Wow.. great post Chinmayi.. reading it reminded me of a whole bunch of our 'Hindu' school memories. Wonderful times!!!
-Viji.