Blog # 2 Dated: 18 April 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

Dear Reader,

Hello, I have received very nice and positive response to my first blog. I will not disappoint you in days to come. Thank you every one. Some of you have made observations and suggested incorporation of additional information related to my Blog and Profile. I have started taking action and you will notice some changes. More are on the way. Mr. Neelesh Jee, my grandson studying at Waterloo University, Ontario, Canada is assisting me with all this refining of the site. If you like the changes, please give him the credit. Meanwhile please check and click the right boxes so that you may be able to get the notifications as soon as a blog has been posted. 

Here I am with the second blog. In the first blog, I opened the window a bit and wrote about my birth and birth date plus my first five years of school. You may be curious about my name. In my early years, I was called Bala. As would be usual with most people in the place of my birth, everyone had also a  nickname to be called in anger and another name to be called with affection. So in addition to my normal name - Bala, my siblings would call me Gopi Nath during angry episodes. When the anger intensity would not get mellowed with calling me by that name, it would get changed to "Gopa Gus." This one would be called to retaliate against anything bad that the caller would perceive about me or my attitude during any episode or incident. With the increase in age and maturity level of nickname callers, this name-calling subsided.  As I was approaching manhood, my mother impressed upon everyone to call me Baijana.  The literal meaning of Baijana is a brother who is as dear as life. This name stayed on and I would be called "Baijana" by everyone in place of Bala. Then I married and I got children. They call me Papa. Some children of my siblings call me Baijan Papa too.  I have grandchildren too. Some call me Nana, some more call me Chota nana, yet some more Big Papa. To cap it, the two youngest ones call me Bada. 

There was a problem with my pet name, Baijana in my "matamaal " (A mother's home before she got married is called matamaal by her children) There in my matamaal, they already had this as a pet name for my maternal uncle. So to distinguish me from their own Baijana, they would refer to me as Baijana of Khazanchi's. (Khazanchi was the family name of my father)  

In my previous blog, I had mentioned that the Date of Birth record was not being maintained in Kashmir in those days. However, in the Hindu community, this was done meticulously. As a routine, the record of birth correct, to the nearest minute, and also the place of birth would be maintained in each and every case.  There were two classes of the Hindu community. One was called "Karkun" and the other "Non-Karkun". Karkun was the normal community whereas the Non-Karkun was the priestly class of the community.   Every Karkun family had a dedicated Non-Karkun family member as assistance for the performance of all priestly duties. This Non-Karkun member would be called Gurujee. At the time of birth of a child, he would make a document called Tekni wherein, he would record the birth date, time, and place of birth. Then he would relate this data with the planetary position of stars and make a birth chart. He would then make a detailed document with predictions for each person. This would be called "Jatuk" . Some day in future, I shall provide more information on this subject. Now I shall move on with my narrative.

Having passed Grade 5, I became a primary pass. Next step was to clear Grade 8. Passing Grade 8 would make me Middle Pass. Then I could attach my Middle degree to my name as we do it with BA, MA, MBBS etc. these days. We had one Shiv Jee a teacher in school. He had passed Middle exams and then discontinued his studies. He would be called Shava Middle by every one in the city. If I had not continued my studies beyond Grade 8, I could also have been called Bala Middle. 

Promotion to Grade 6, meant change of school. Here it was a bigger one with different teachers for different subjects. All teachers were bad. In fact those days, if a person could not get any job, a teacher's job was assured to any one who had passed grade 10. So the teacher lot would be worst of the job seekers. They would join the profession only after trying for other jobs and fail to get any. 

We started English Alphabet learning first time in Grade 6. For all other subjects, Urdu was the medium of study. Hindi was an optional subject, whereas Urdu was a compulsory subject. I remember one teacher Mr. Sham Lal. He would teach us math and geometry. He would solve all the questions on the blackboard and we would copy on our notebooks. He would never give us any home work. So when preparing for the exams, I would read my notes the same way one would remember history by rote. The result was that during exams time, I was able to solve only one question correctly out of a total of twenty questions. (Any twelve questions had to be picked up for solving to obtain 100% marks) I got seven out of hundred. The saving grace was that I got 60 out of hundred in the Geometry paper. The combined marks (7+60 = 67) out of 200 was just enough to declare me a pass in the exams. (33% was the passing mark) I was happy that I had passed. But a great humiliation was waiting for me. There would be a report card for Middle Pass post exams. The teacher did not give it to me. He gave it to one of my class mates living near our house. He was asked to get it signed by my father and return the same to the school next day. I did not know all that. Next day early in the morning, I saw this boy entering the room of my uncle and showed him my performance card and got it signed. On the way out, he let me know that he had shown my performance card to my uncle. All this was too much of a humiliation to me and all day, I did not show my face to anyone. One good thing resulted from this episode. I took my Math studies more seriously and started solving than remembering the math questions. The result - Next exams in Grade 9, I got 99 out of hundred.

I stop here. It may be getting too long. Tomorrow, I shall march further ahead and probably end up as Matric Pass. I would request feedback about the length of the blog post. Should I maintain it like yesterday / today? It is probably 1200-1500 words long.