Part 12 of my life in Wadi

Lakshmi Pathy was a popular teacher. It may be remembered that my grandmother Thangi was the aunt of S V Pathy, Lakshmi’s father. Pathy’s mother Naani had passed away. So, had his father. Thangi therefore regarded herself as a guardian and mother figure of Pathy and his family. When my father got into ACC and went to Dwaraka alone on his first posting, it was in Pathy’s house that he stayed initially, because Dwaraka was a strange place for a 17 year old lad from Kerala, and Pathy was already married and settled. Also, when the Pathys were away from Wadi for some reason – I don’t remember why, Lakshmi and Sashi who were in High School in Shahabad, used to stay in our house. Sometime during this period Pathy had some health problem. The incidents following this are rather vague in my mind, and except for a very few people who were concerned, I am not sure many people knew what happened. Having looked after her own self and her fatherless son all her life, Thangi was bold and courageous to the point of being extremely acrid when she wants to. I was not privy to what transpired but for some reason, there was some bitterness between our family and that of Pathy’s. We were not on talking terms for over five years I believe. It was during this period that Lakshmi finished her teacher’s training course and joined St. Ambrose Convent as our class teacher in 6th standard. That was 1975. Unlike untrained teachers and nuns, who used to teach us till then, Lakshmi was young and trained and secular (I mean not a nun), and hence her teaching methods were bold and interesting. We all therefore liked her. After timid Thavaseeli and lethargic Syeris, Lakshmi was fresh and popular and different. Now my relations with her as a cousin, complicated by the bitterness between our families, combined with her capabilities and skills as a teacher was a cocktail that stimulated me. In fact she was one of the first teachers I remember to have shaped my thinking and created an impression that teachers can be interesting.

SACS then had only seven classes and after the next year we were to leave for Shahabad for further education. Our seniors had already taken that path, and the class just senior to us would be doing so soon. We had, what we called Board exams in 7th standard then, which was a big deal. The question papers were set by the Board, in Bangalore (or was it Gulbarga?) and evaluation was also done elsewhere. So there was no question of familiarity between teacher and pupil, influencing evaluation. So we were all afraid of the Boards. As is normal, we the juniors were supposed to give a farewell party to our seniors before the board. This was the first instance when we did it. March 1976. Thirty years ago. I recently read newspaper reports of similar farewell parties in Delhi, where lakhs were spent, and liquor, drugs, cigarettes and even condoms flowing freely in late night orgies. I am not being judgemental – times have changed - but we didn’t do such parties. Under strict supervision of nuns, we wished the seniors well for their forthcoming exams, played some very sober games, gave them gifts, ate small pieces of cakes and sang in groups. Above all we said prayers to Jesus, Mary and Joseph asking for our seniors good performance. I remember a song Lakshmy Pathy composed for this occasion and taught us.

“Hurry Burry dash and Bang, We now introduce our 7th Standard Gang” it went. The song then listed out humorous peculiarities of each of the seventh standard students. Some of those guys were particularly colourless, and I appreciate the work and imagination Lakshmi Pathy must have put into composing the song.

Another reason why I remember the Sixth standard was that, it was then that a new doctor came and joined the ACC Hospital. He was transferred from the ACC factory at Mancherial in Andhra Pradesh. His name was Pudipedda Surya Rao. He had a big family. His parents, wife and 4 children. Now a doctor in the ACC hierarchy is high above a clerk, which my father was. They stayed in SSQ (refer my earlier posts in the blog for what an SSQ is). Also doctors came and went, but except that we went to them for treatment, there was no other connection between us guys and doctors. But what made Dr. Surya Rao particularly interesting to me was, his children or atleast 2 of them. His eldest was P V R Suryanarayana, who was my senior by one year. The next was Janaki, my junior by one year. The next were Bhavani and Arunakanti. The influence Suryanarayana and Janaki had on me directly for the next several years – say a decade- and indirectly, even today deserves several posts. I will be coming back to them time and again in the blog.