Continuing from where I left here, I was put in a local convent in my village, Bala bharathi school. There were very few students, so all of us sat together without any class/age/sex discrimination. I remember few people like Bhagya Sri, Kanaka Maha Lakshmi and their gang, steeling away my sweets and other edible stuff I took to school :P I used to flee away to home whenever there was a break kind of thing, as my home is very near to that school. There wasn't much difficulty for my parents in getting me to school, as with many kids of my age. It was very informal kind of education there.

At the age of 8, someone told my mother about a missionary school in a near by semi-urban village, Dondapudi. That's the biggest change in the environment I had ever been through in my life. Not a single familiar soul! That school had a rule that everyone MUST speak in English, only thing for which I hated missionaries. For the first month or so, the only words I learnt and spoke at school were, "yes" and "no". Slowly, the school principal and one of those teachers I adore the most, Sister Margaret, came to know this difficulty and had called in, me and the then topper in the class, Sudhir, and made us friends. He taught me the basics of the language to, at least, least communicate. He also sings well, especially, 'pachani chilukalu todunte..' from a then 'new film', Bharateeyudu. By the end of that year, class III, with Sudhir's help, I stood 3rd or 4th in a class of about 40 and received a big applause.

I can never forget those words of Sister Anslet, Elsy and Sister Margaret, the summary of which boils down to, "Just keep going, don't panic, don't get demotivated, there's a better learning oppurtunity in things we are least familiar with, keep going!". My best criticizer is Sister Anslet. I can't remember which subject she taught me, it was social studies, I guess, but I remember she was the best critic of my language, back then. I had made lots of friends by the end of the year, almost all the class, except Sandeep, the tarzan! He was so fierce and I really avoided him. My 'gang' primarily consisted of Satish, Sudhir, Rambabu, Pratap. If there was some event the next day, we stayed back at school, helping Sister Elsy. Satish was the main organizer of almost all the events. He was also a good dancer. Rambabu played dolak/tabala on the benches while Sudhir sang, and he was really very good at that. I enjoyed those chit chat sessions very much! It was at least an impressive place, if not so beautiful, in and around the school. It was located beside a very big church of marble, which stands on the banks of a little canal, kovvaada, which was & is very fierce in rainy seasons. This canal bestows us with plenty of holidays in that season as people from other side aren't allowed to cross it whenever there was a rain. We used to roam a lot in the mangroves in church's farm land. There was an young priest in the church from whom I borrowed a habit of listening to radio news early in the morning. He's the one who taught me riding bicycle. He also taught us proper rules of, and played with us, games like cricket, kabaddi. I tried hard, but couldn't remember his name, though.

There were only three girls in all; Sri lalitha, Bala and Manasa. We boys had an inferior feeling of and were always embarassed by, the 'tallest' girl Sri lalitha, taller than the tallest boy, Aravind Geda. Bala was nick named 'black beauty', which I remember, was a title of a story from english text book, which ofcourse suited her :P Manasa always had a ready excuse for her brother's absence, Mahesh. He used to give surprise visits and guest appearences to school and that was an auspicious day for all of us :)

By the end of class V, my health deteriorated like hell. People, and doctors who treated me say, 'it's equals to saying your mother has born you the second time!'. I owe two life times to her! There was a gap of over six months while I recovered. At the same time, I also heard a good news that I was the school topper for class V. The next phase of journey is at a different place, with new surroundings, unfamiliar again, but for Sister Elsy and Sister Mary.

contd here