A typical day in the life of a student of SACS in 1975 AD
As I have often said before, there wasn’t much by way of entertainment in Wadi in those days. Our routine was something like this. We got up and got ready for school and by 8:45 AM were in school. SACS was a 2 minute walk from my home. Past STRT 32 where JC stayed, on to the main road, cross it, enter the ACC football ground, walk across its width and you were at the gates of SACS. The students gathered outside for the Assembly from 8:50 to 9:00 where we sang prayer songs, wished our teachers in a singsong voice, took the ‘Pledge’ which started with “India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage………..” and so on. (this pledge is on the agenda of most schools. I would like to learn of its origin and history if anyone can tell me) Most of the words in the pledge like heritage did not make much sense at that time. We then sang the National Anthem and filed to our classes which started at 9:00 AM.
There was what was called an interval at about 11:00. Then at 12:50 or so we were excused for lunch. Most of us, living as near the school as we did, didn’t carry lunch boxes. We ran home, had lunch and ran back to school and were back by 1:30 PM. School then went on till 4:10 PM whereafter we left for home. Most serious subjects were taught in the pre lunch session. Afternoons were for lighter subjects. I remember we learnt many interesting things like grafting of rose plants, embroidery, gardening etc. Except for some strict disciplining, if we did our work well, studying per se in SACS, was a pleasant experience.
Evenings were mostly spent on playing. India was not yet shining, and most of us had, apart from our school uniforms, just a pair or two of dresses, mostly sewn by the tailors Ghanate out of clothes brought from the Kankurtes to wear for the evenings. Shoes were strictly for school. There was just one shop of everything on Wadi. Gaurishankar Pyarelal Khandelwal for grocery, Kankurte for clothes etc. We had one Sanjay in SACS in our class during 4th and 5th who was from a Marwari family of Sedam, who also had grocery and stationary shops in the Bajaar. I forget the name of their shop. Maybe JC can nudge my memory. Thanx JC, it was Sanjay Sutrawe. There were also two old brothers called Poonamchand Something-or-the-other Jain who dealt in grocery. But these shops slowly declined giving way to G P Khandelwal.
We didn’t have much to play with, so one game that was popular among us, was called Lagori. Variations of this game are played all over India with different names. It consisted of making a pile of flat chips of stones in the middle and attempting to dislodge the pile by throwing a ball on it. While the team which dislodged the pile rebuilt the pile, opponents tried hitting the members of the team with the ball. The goal was to rebuild the pile without getting hit by the ball. Srinivas and Hariprasad who came from Andhra while we were in 7th Standard informed us that the game was called Lingocha in their part of the country.
After the game some of us went home, some went to the Club. I was to reach home before 7 PM, where I bathed and was to chant the Vishnu Sahasranaman. Afterwards it was dinner and bed. A dull but very healthy way of life for a kid. No Pokemon, no Kurkure, no ice creams, no malls or multiplexes, no shopping. We ate what the adults ate.
There was what was called an interval at about 11:00. Then at 12:50 or so we were excused for lunch. Most of us, living as near the school as we did, didn’t carry lunch boxes. We ran home, had lunch and ran back to school and were back by 1:30 PM. School then went on till 4:10 PM whereafter we left for home. Most serious subjects were taught in the pre lunch session. Afternoons were for lighter subjects. I remember we learnt many interesting things like grafting of rose plants, embroidery, gardening etc. Except for some strict disciplining, if we did our work well, studying per se in SACS, was a pleasant experience.
Evenings were mostly spent on playing. India was not yet shining, and most of us had, apart from our school uniforms, just a pair or two of dresses, mostly sewn by the tailors Ghanate out of clothes brought from the Kankurtes to wear for the evenings. Shoes were strictly for school. There was just one shop of everything on Wadi. Gaurishankar Pyarelal Khandelwal for grocery, Kankurte for clothes etc. We had one Sanjay in SACS in our class during 4th and 5th who was from a Marwari family of Sedam, who also had grocery and stationary shops in the Bajaar. I forget the name of their shop. Maybe JC can nudge my memory. Thanx JC, it was Sanjay Sutrawe. There were also two old brothers called Poonamchand Something-or-the-other Jain who dealt in grocery. But these shops slowly declined giving way to G P Khandelwal.
We didn’t have much to play with, so one game that was popular among us, was called Lagori. Variations of this game are played all over India with different names. It consisted of making a pile of flat chips of stones in the middle and attempting to dislodge the pile by throwing a ball on it. While the team which dislodged the pile rebuilt the pile, opponents tried hitting the members of the team with the ball. The goal was to rebuild the pile without getting hit by the ball. Srinivas and Hariprasad who came from Andhra while we were in 7th Standard informed us that the game was called Lingocha in their part of the country.
After the game some of us went home, some went to the Club. I was to reach home before 7 PM, where I bathed and was to chant the Vishnu Sahasranaman. Afterwards it was dinner and bed. A dull but very healthy way of life for a kid. No Pokemon, no Kurkure, no ice creams, no malls or multiplexes, no shopping. We ate what the adults ate.
posted by Ramdas Iyer at 4:54 PM
4 Comments:
Boss Sanjay's stores was a stationary store and was called Sutrave Stores. Typical marwari by all means.
I dont know the school name... but i do remember that i did my preKG / or is it LKG.. at a nearby school..
All i remeber is that.. i could see the school from our balcony
If my memmory serves right i think i attended school with my upstairs neighbour parvati.
I used to be a habitual pencil-looser. so Grandpa used to tie the pencil around my neck and i will be given a new pencil only if i presented the old one (which must be in a conditon no longer worthy of usage... almost the size of cigrate butt)
at this point i would like to add that most of the girls in strt used to gather beside out building and make a house with what ever things we can collect from our house which was considered waste. once the house was made. ( it fact it would take only 1/2 hour to contruct it) once done we would go searching of make believe vegetables in the nearby bushes which we use for cooking. we would divide the work among us, one will sell vegetable,one would cook, and some would act a children. our alloted time for play was only two hours. so all the activity would be completed by then. Another game was langadi, gilli danda, chor police etc.
that was nice and parents and kids were together be it prayer time or meal time but now?
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