And with that gap of six months, I have to wait for another academic year to get into a new school, as my previous school holds till Vth std. So, for half the other six months, I'm put in a coaching center for Sainik school of Vizianagaram. That's the creepiest, god damn place on the planet! For the first time ever since I'm self-conscious, there in that hell, I cried of pain, pain off love withered life! If I ever happen to run into head(s) of that coaching insti, I'll sure teach them a good lesson on how and why to behave like humans. I don't want to write more than this. But as you can realize, that's a disgusting and disturbing experience. I remember, my temper, was tested on every stand on a regular basis. They fed it and turned it a monster! One example suffices to bring out the uncivilized, brutal methods they followed; Few children, not mere one or two by mistake, broke their fingers from punishment, which is caning the hands reverse. Idiots!

With that unpleasant experience, I was back home, and soon there was another good news, saying I wasn't qualified in that Entrance. Rest of those holidays were spent learning various things in farming, including milking the cattle(thanks to veerayya :P), అంట్లు కట్టడం etc. My father is a very good story teller. He used to tell me interesting parts from Ramayana, Mahabharatha and Kasi Majili kathalu, as bed time stories. After holidays, I met my teachers, Sister Elsy and Sister Mary, both of them said they were shifting to a new school nearby. On the same day, I, with Sister Mary went to that school, St.Joseph's, and took an admission into class VII jumping off class VI, with a test on her recommendation. I was very very happy to be back in their companionship.

I had some initial difficulties with coping up with class VII maths. And there comes one of my best friends in that school, Chiranjeevi(it's not a nickname). His initial support has been a great help. Here, my gang primarily had Chiranjeevi, Charan raj, Teja and ofcourse, me. My nightmare is, Hindi! I knew nothing, not even the letters! Sister Janet took good care and I was well off, ah, only with marks though. Anitha, Charan, Sri lakshmi and Vijay are my rivals in academics. I had a decent enough place at top 5 that year. I managed to secure first position in VIII and IX.

There were some interesting funny stories and incidents. I couldn't share them with names as some of those girls are married/engaged. FYI, I wasn't involved in any of them :P But for me, they are the first insights into the role of gender :D We played Kabaddi at primary school with girls, but you see, it's never seen from any other perspective. Here, it's little different. Obviously it can't be kabaddi! So, our P.E.T scheduled some games like Kho-Kho, throw ball between us. I had a *small* crush on two girls, but never revealed it to them. And today, I can not, for few reasons :P Subhadra is the best track runner, apart from her other good participations. Chiru is a good bowler and Charan, an aggressive one. Teja has always faced that 'throw bowling' mark. M.Sri Krishna(MSK) is the wicky. Anyways, I can't list down all of them. You know what, I was remembered as hitting left handed batsmen, especially for beautiful leg side sixers :D One such six went straight into our Princi's class :P She just nodded her head then, but later that evening, we received enough :( Oh man! I still feel that pulse of pain, when Sister Janet pinched my ear!

There are few embarrassing moments, but funny, in that school. In the first month of class VII, in a drill hour, we were asked to do some garden work, which my gang said, is nothing but a free chatting time. We were chatting as usual, when all of a sudden, a girl, pulled me off from where I'm sitting and almost dragged me to the garden just for asking to water the plants! I'm speechless. I didn't understand what made her do that. More over, she's smiling and cursing others who are sitting and chatting! And In class VIII, I was the class leader. I was also in charge of home works for few subjects. One day, Mr.Sabastein, who taught geography & civics has given some homework and the great in-charge, myself, forgot it. In the class, all of them are handing over their homeworks to me. Finally, he came, called me and asked who were the victims? I read, without much hesitation, the list which included me. Upon punishing all of them, he turned to me and said these words, "punishment is punishment for everyone", in his own Amrish Puri style! And thats it!! btw, he's an ever green bachelor and we used to have some fun on that too :P I liked his philosophy of living. In an another incident, I was the one, the class leader, to compile a list of people chattering. It so happened that Sri Lakshmi and other girls talked for some genuine, *acads* purpose. But my gang, whose names I enjoyed seeing in every list, started doing all kind of silly things till I agreed to put those girls names on the list. And I never forget those helpless, *how-and-why-did-you-do-that* looks of girls when the teacher made them kneel down, an hour! I just couldn't digest it. I have never been a class leader ever since. I din't realize what Mrs.Sujatha tol me that time, but I do agree totally with it today. She remarked, after a similar incident, "అవ్వా కావాలి, బువ్వా కావాలి అంటే ఇప్పుడు కుదరొచ్చు, కుదరని సమయం ఒకటొస్తుంది, అప్పుడేంచేస్తావ్?" :)

Here, teachers I was very close to were Mrs.Sharada, Mrs.Sujatha, Sister Vincy. I never talked to Sharada ma'm in a formal tone. It's more like a kid to his mother. Prompted by my gang and more of my natural tint, I borrowed many of her telugu-class hours to play cricket. I liked Mrs.Sujatha's way of teaching mathematics.

Towards the end of class VIII, Sister Elsy told me that my old school friend, Rambabu passed away due to kidney problems. It took a while before I could take it. The fact that I din't even know he was suffering, made me feel very sad.

Back in my village, I was seen as a first kid to top in an English medium school. But that more than often, put me in an uneasy corner. I haven't that big circle in my village except for 2-3 friends from same school, Raja and PKC. I spent most of my time playing with my sister or learning something from my father, in gardening. My garden was a beautiful one, laid with red soil, with lots of kanakambaram, jasmine, rose, lilly, chamanthi, mandaram etc, with some banana plantations as well. It's now a deep forest without my sister and me to take care of :(

I skipped many other incidents for fear of making it too long(yeah, already it was!).

Last week I was home for Dussera, and luckily I met few of my friends in that school :)