Blog # 3 Dated: 19 April 2022 (See Blog # 74 for details contained in this Blog)

 Dear Reader,

Hello. Picking up the thread from where I let it off yesterday, I will dwell on the period when I was in Grade 6 to Grade 8. As I have said in my last posts, the quality of teachers, teaching methods and quality of schools on the whole was poor. The main purpose was for parents to have some relief from taking care of children during the day that they were sent to schools. And for educated parents, the purpose was to get their children educated. In our case, the purpose was definitely getting educated so that we would also not get trapped in poverty like most of the community. Remember I am referring to education in early 1950's in Srinagar, Kashmir, which was then the best education standard in the valley. 

There were some private schools too but the fees for studies and extra curricular activities would be beyond the means for parents with limited resources. I was very poor at sports and extra curricular activities too. This was in sharp contrast to my brothers and sister. My eldest brother was cricket captain, my younger one was excellent in table tennis, the next one excelled in Badminton. Our sister won the top award in college debate. My elder brother would lead the school squad during parade on National Festivals. The school squad under his leadership would always be adjusted first among a dozen or so participants.  I would play low quality soccer, cricket and hockey in our home compound. I was a very poor fielder. I would miss even dolly catches. On one occasion, while fielding, a ball was hit in air in my direction. I was almost in the position to catch the ball when for no reason, I panicked and let the ball go through hitting me on the forehead. It caused some swelling at the spot it hit me. The forehead was normal in a few days. No one would get scared those days and fear of concussion was unknown. The other players had nicknamed me "hoof-hander" on the field. I may add here that other players would scare me with cries and caution every time the ball would be coming over to me that I would miss to catch it. My ground fielding was no better too. I would compensate with playing rough with them during soccer and hockey. I would aim more at the opponents legs than the ball. This in the local language would be called "nalla taas".

Meanwhile the education aspect in the school would roll on. Six months after the start of the term, there would be tests in all subjects. There would be question papers and we were to put our answers on answer sheets. We had to bring our own paper for this purpose. There would be a small fees charged as exams fees to cover the cost of printing of question papers. Same process would be repeated at the end of the yearly term. Passing the term would promote us to the next class. the pass marks percentage was 33%. I remember that there was a question in the history paper as follows. "Sher Shah Suri key daure hukumat mey kya kya kaam huea" I wrote in answer, "Bahut Hua" Then I passed on to the next question. Only after I had returned home and one of elder cousins took a look at my question paper and asked me what I had replied against each question. For this particular question, when I said that I had replied "Bahut Hua" Then he asked what did I write after that, I said nothing because my answer was complete. He made fun of me and this story got circulated in our large family for years. It took me many years to understand that my answer was not correct or appropriate. All the same, I had passed this subject and I was in the next grade. This incident made me a smarter guy in following exams. After answering the questions and comparing with others after the exams would be over, I would find that I had done some questions wrong. I would learn from them the correct answers. After the return to home, when we would get checked about our performance, we would do the cheating. Only when the results would get declared, the cheating would get exposed. In short, the system was creating crooks in us.    

Some teachers would take monthly tests for some subjects. Usually they would prescribe one or two question and write them on the board. We would work out the answers on a sheet of paper and return the same to him. The teacher would handover the complete bunch to one of his trusted students and instruct him to take it to a loose tabaco seller. The shopkeeper would retain the papers and give a portion of tobacco placed on a folded paper in exchange. The teacher would take it home. Not even one child would ever ask the teacher about the test results. We were happy because we had fears that we would have failed the test. I have done this job a number of times for my maths teacher.  (The tobacco seller would use the answer sheets to pack loose tabaco for his customers.)  

There was one aspect in education which would escape every one's attention. Only half the syllabus would be covered by the time of Final promotion exams. Thus if there would be twenty chapters in a subject book, only ten would be covered. The questions were set only from the first ten chapters. This was happening in all subjects. So this would cause learning problems for the students in their next grade. It took the system many many years to correct. The system made a centralized Grade 8 exams board, which would set the paper and mark the answer sheets. But this happened much after I had cleared Middle Exams. 

We used to have one annual picnic called "excursion" in the school. Excursion fees would be collected from each student. The excursion would mean hiring a bus or boat and all the children would be taken to a local park or a national garden. We would carry our own home cooked lunch with delicacies. Our parents would give us some pocket money to spend on anything that we would like at the picnic spot. I have noticed that a number of children would start their first smoke at the picnic spot. Most felt that taking a smoke was a enjoyable activity. On one occasion, I was almost ready to smoke. The cigarette was in my mouth and was ready to get lit. Then I felt that it is not normal for children to do it. I discarded the idea. I am very pleased to say that I have never ever smoked in all my life.

So we come to the end of Blog three. Tomorrow, I shall move to events beyond my passing "Middle".