Last days at MCC and a romantic inclination

The Board exams of 10th Standard were fast approaching. There were special classes galore to complete the syllabus in time. After three years, the first of which was spent in creating a foothold in Shahabad society, and the second in consolidating, the third was a time when we from Wadi were fairly established and were blooming. While during 1977-78 (incidentally it was in June 1977 that I got my glasses for myopia with a strength of -4.5 dioptres for each eye) we felt like outsiders and often longed to go back home, in 1979-80, we wanted to stay back in Shahabad and MCC forever. By February, we got out old diaries, in which we sought autographs from all. Most wrote clichéd phrases and some wrote brilliant ones. NRB wrote in my diary “He knows enough who knows how to learn”. How true!

I must now mention at least in passing about a romantic inclination – purely on my part -that developed during my 9th and 10th standards. It wasn’t very overpowering but it gives rise to pleasant memories even to this day. There were many of us who associated themselves with girls and boasted about it. With my powerful glasses, I was already branded a nerd. I was dubbed the Principal. Only of late, when everyone my age wears glasses, has the opinion that I, the wearer of glasses, might be more academically inclined, has declined. But back then, I was considered a sort of Rishyashringa, with scant sexual leanings. This blight of a reputation continued through my productive - or shall I call them my reproductive years – years, accentuated by my weak, non atheletic looks (I weighed a paltry 35 kgs then with patchy facial hair and pimples) to my detriment. Seeing that it worked to my advantage, I worked on my nerdy image by carrying around encyclopediae and actually reading them and making notes.

Janaki’s parents arrived at Wadi in 1976. They had four children, Suryanarayana, Janaki, Bhavani and Arunakanti. Suri was a friend to whom I will be eternally grateful for pointing me towards science. Had I shaped up better and - ahem- won a Nobel for instance, I would have acknowledged his influence in my acceptance speech. I read a lot of books under his direction, like Gamow’s 1.2.3 Infinity and the like. I started on Wodehouse. He had a decent collection of books and naturally, I was a regular visitor to their home. Suri being the eldest, and a son to boot, was the star child of their home and Arunakanti the youngest, was a pet. Janaki was a little gawky back then, but age is a great leveler, especially among adolescent girls. She was beginning to look very attractive indeed to me. To be honest she was very friendly but she did nothing to encourage my fantasies but as the lead actors in Ishquiya sing, “Dil to bachha hai ji, thoda kacha hai ji”, I was rather enamoured of this gawky, outgoing beauty of Janaki.

Those were heady times. I was one of the favoured students of the sisters of MCC, and had a good home. I was poised to do well in the 10th Standard Boards. The threat of Gita Menon as a competitor had receded and though Ramprasad was one step ahead of me, I was sure of becoming a matriculate with distinction. Combined with the warmth I felt towards Janaki, as I said these were heady times. What was to come was of little concern. The thought that very soon we will be scattered like a handful of mustard seeds all over India and may not see each other again in our lives didn’t even occur. I wouldn’t still go so far as to call it a besottement, but the feelings I harboured for Janaki drove me to excel and we had many an argument of the intellectual kind. The less sophisticated but braver ones like Santhanam and to some extent JC, took concrete steps towards persons of the opposite sex that they fancied but not me. I took the intellectual route which was to prove to be my weakness for years to come. However, lest I offend sensibilities of many concerned, I am not writing more on this, but God bless us all, now it is out and on the records that I harboured very soft and warm feelings for Janaki starting 1977.

One morning Sr.Angelita came in with the application forms for the Boards and for the first time I accurately deduced my date of birth as 18th September 1964, which I duly filled in in the form. The exams soon came and were held in March 1980 in the Government High School in Shahabad. It was the last exam for which I was fully prepared and hence attempted without any fear. I scored decent marks and for the records, I secured the 16th position in Karnataka State in the results that were announced in May 1980 scoring 496 out of 600.