Dear, ........... ,
Hello. I voluntarily decided to have a break from posting a blog on Saturdays. And here I did not post a blog on Sunday too. The weather is slowly warming up and I am daring to go out and do some preparation for the oncoming gardening season. Last week there was a little set back with the plants that I had been growing in doors since last two months. I had taken some of these them out and placed in the makeshift greenhouse in the backyard. There occurred a mild frost and some of the plants got damaged. I had to take measures that the plants would be safe in case another frost episode happens. My Sunday blog thus did not happen.
Before I continue with my narration describing my teaching at S.P.School and related stories, I will go back to the events that happened at Mission School during the two months that I worked there. It was summer time and they had an annual Dal Cross event scheduled. Although we had rivers and lakes in Kashmir, most of us particularly from the Hindu community would never learn to swim. Thus the English teachers had essentially started training its students in swimming as an extracurricular activity. Dal Cross was an event where the children would swim from Nehru Park in Dal Lake to Voonta Kadal near Nishat Bagh. A total of about five kilometers between the two points as a crow would fly. A line about Voonta Kadal. It was an arched bridge and from a distance it looked like the hump on the camel's back. Voont in the local language is the name for a camel. Thus it was famously called Voonta Kadal.
The school had about two dozen boats that would always remain parked at the Nehru Park, a small island near the road skirting the lake. These boats were used by the school for boat racing and also to assist during Dal Cross activities. These boats would be rowed by the students and would follow the students swimming. There would be a teacher as a leader in each of these boats. There would be dozens of baker's bread called "chochu warru" in the boat. These would be, one by one thrown to the swimmers in the water in case they felt hungry. In case of tiredness when the swimmer would feel that he could no longer continue to swim, he would be helped onto the boat. For him, making a Dal Cross would be unsuccessful. (He would have to try next year) There would be some swimmers, who on completing the swim would have energy to return back to the starting point in Nehru Park. All those who would would do it, would be called Dal Recross.
I was assigned to a boat. Pandit Samsar Chand who was already an old man then, was the senior most official conducting the swimming event. He would be standing in one boat with a battery powered megaphone cone in one hand. He would issue instructions and procedures. After the race had reached the mid way point, one kashmiri pandit boy that our boat was following showed signs of fatigue. He was encouraged to continue. We were following closely. The boy pleaded that he be allowed to hold the boat so that he could move along without getting out of water. This would mean breach and he would have to be hauled up. Pandit Samsar Chand was at a distance and suspected that we were helping the boy to hold the boat. He shouted in our direction. The boy disengaged from the boat. But after some time, he again held on to the boat. I was a soft minded person and continued helping him this way till he reached the end point. On reaching the end point, this boy expressed a wish to go for the recross. When I heard it, I was angry and told him that on his own he had not even done half the Dal Cross and here he was saying that he would do Dal Recross. I threatened him that I would report the fact. He had thought that I would help him. His hope having been dashed with my attitude, he did not press for Recross.
Luck was on my side. I was a non swimmer (I continue to be a non swimmer even today. People here in Foreign countries do not believe that anyone would not be knowing how to swim) I did not have a life saving jacket. The boat did not rock nor did it turn upside down. Otherwise I would not have been here to tell you this story. Nor would I have been alive to accept a science teachers job in S.P.School.
Bye for today. Shall move to S.P.School related stories tomorrow.
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