Chapter 11

                                                              My Days in My Years

I do not remember when I was enrolled in the school. It was a village school. Only thing I recollect about the first standard was about my classmates. Also, later I realized that the age entered at the time of enrollment was wrong. Perhaps, that was to conform to the regulations prevalent at that time. Only those who had completed five years  were allowed to join the first standard. Of course, that time there was no concept of nursery or play school. First standard was the entry point. There was also a system of sending the children below five years to village teacher called (Asan) who taught them the basics like alphabets in Malayalam and some numbers. Some of the students used to continue their education in those informal schools till  they get enrolled inot  higher classes like third or fourth standard . I do not know why I was not sent to such informal school. Perhaps, such schools were non-existent at that point of time.

Our village school was antithetical to the present schooling system. All children irrespective of  their class, religion, affluence etc.   cut their initial years there. There is no class difference or segregation of students. All of them were to sit in the same bench, listen to the same teacher, played in the same court or picked up quarrels and small skirmishes withe the same set of pupils.The school used to start at 10 AM and there will be regular intervals after every period. That is the time the children used to go to toilets, if they want. In between if they want to go to toilet, they had to get the permission from the teacher. The same teacher used to teach  through out the year. There was no system of different teachers taking different subjects. From Malayalam to Mathematics, the same teacher taught the class till you are graduated to the sixth standard. Our primary school had only classes till fifth standard and for higher classes one had to traverse quite a distance, say three kilometers or so.
I must say that primary school education had a telling effect on my character later. It is not because that it shaped my quest for knowledge for I remember I was not a great shake in my studies. it is more because of the composition of pupils in the class. Because of that education, I never felt in my life any class difference. I was mostly easy with all groups of people and my friends are  from all walks of life. Neither I got attached to any religious congregations or social groups  any  assemblage of people like clubs or things of that ilk. I vividly remember  my classmates whom I will describe briefly to give the readers an idea about what were they and how they had influenced my social outlook.
The first name that comes to my mind is one Thresia. She was a few years  elder to me. Her parents were our tenants. On has to understand the term tenant in contemporary Kerala context. Some forty fifty years back, when feudalism was writ large in Kerala societal fabric, tenants were considered to be a sort of your bonded labor. They would be given  a piece of land in your field or inside a coconut grove or plantations of similar nature. They need not have to give any rent; but had to give their labor. In return, they would get wages either in kind or cash, whichever was convenient to the master. Their life was misearble and exploitation was very rampant.
Thresia's forefathers were staying in our land for a long time. Her father's name was Paulose-a stocky short gentleman, whose skin texture was one of the blackest that I had ever seen. Since her family was staying in our land, they also carried the same family name. Thresia, before she started going to school, had worked in our household. She used to come with her mother and do some menial jobs. That way, we were known to each other and used to play together. I always thought  that she was a dare devil. Her father Paulose was known in our village as a man specialized in  catching snakes. The more poisonous the snake,  more his enthusiasm. He used to get calls from nearby places, if they spotted any snakes. He always wanted to have attention. That he got in abundance after killing the snakes. He used to display his catch with great pomp and show. The dead snake would be carried to assemblage of people in the village and he would display it to the public view and explained to the people how  deadly the venom of the snake was. Also, he used to give a lesson or two about the snakes and his exploits. The reward for killing the snake was in kind and most often it will be a lavish treat with arrack (country liquor) or toddy (a white intoxicant liquid  collected from coconut trees).
Thresia was not less fierce in her exploits. She used to boast about the snake killings that she had done and the sightings of the poisonous snakes. She used to frighten us by telling snake sightings in nearby places if she wanted us not to go to such places.
We were together in the first standard. The year I joined the school, it was her third year in the class. It was not that she failed in the class. Her parents should inssit her to be at  home to look after her younger siblings whenever they goout  for works in the farm. Once given that responsibility she would abstain from the class for the rest of the year. When the new academic session starts, she would jon again. That was why she still studied in the same class.
Thresia had thrown a protective ring around me. She would tell me what to play in school and what not to play. She would tell me who was the good teacher. For her the good teacher was one who did not beat in the school. Caning was very common in our school that time and everybody took that as a routine one. Some parents would recommend the teachers to discipline their wards by caning and admonishing them. There were stray incidents when an agitated parent confronting the teacher when caning went to the extreme leaving marks on the body.
Thresia also used to carry things about me to home. She would tell my siblings that I did not answer the question posed by the teacher; I was very weak in spellings and got impositions, I talked to the student sitting next to me while the class was going on etc. She trailed me and even my shadow and diligently reported about me back at home, which she visited almost everyday. She also used to frighten me by telling to disclose things which I had not done.
Once an interesting thing had happened. Some backdrop information is needed to understand the situation. In those times, there was no toilet in village schools,  at least in ours.  During the intervals, children used to come out in hordes and relieve them. That was true for girls also. Once she complained to my mother I tried to see how she was pizzing. Till date, I do not know whether I tried it or not.Next day when she met me she had asked me how many beatings that I got me from my mother. I did not reply to her.
That year also she did not complete the year. I do not know whether she got enrolled again. What I remember is that she was packed with  one of our relations as a maid. She must have spent a few years there. Next time, when they came home, she refused to go despite heavy pressure from her parents, for whom, it was a monthly  revenue. Next I heard about her was when she was married off  a few years later and her husband was settled in high ranges (hilly area). Such hilly places normally not not referred with their names and most often were terrains in accessible.  I have not met Thresia ever since. I must admit that she was the first courageous girl I had seen in my life. Every time,  I see that school, which has not changed in its exterior, the first name that comes to mind is Thresia's.
Next post is about another childhood friend....