My India 3 - 1950-55

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Socialism was in the air. Very much.

The first time I heard this buzz-word was in my Class IX Social Studies from our Teacher: SST.

To this day I recall his face, features and rather 'lost' expression.

It is my thesis that after 5 or 6 decades, we remember our teachers by their wild expressions and one or two lessons that stuck (Aniket and Vineet just a decade or two later told me that they remember me by 'Thomas Precession' and 'Soldering' respectively).

Well, our SST was a troubled soul: he was hounded by the DEO Office at our District HQ, Nellore and the HM (my father) at our School in Muthukur where he was posted for a couple of years.

It was this way: SST had his own house and family and perhaps Missionary-School-going kids at the town Nellore. But, for some reason or the other he was 'transferred' to our village Muthukur 12 miles away.

He preferred to commute between the two. But there was a GO (Government Order) which said that teachers posted to villages should live there. He didn't bother to do that.

Those days, Bus Services were in Private hands and not 'Nationalized' as of now when every driver, conductor and cleaner is a Govt Employee who needn't bother about anything but running the buses on time, maybe.

But, the KVR Bros who monopolized the fleet had only one thing in their minds: the Bus Staff should fetch a certain minimum amount at the end of the day, period.

So they were run along the lines of the seven-seater-autos of Hyderabad; they won't start unless a minimum of seven were 'seated'.

With the result that our SST missed the Assembly on most days and Classes every other day. The HM would naturally be upset and throw the Rule Book at him. He would promise to be more punctual henceforth and that was that.

Meanwhile, there were two 'clerks' at the DEO's Office at Nellore. One would periodically ask the HM to implement the Rule (citing the violators) and the other listening to their Appeals (a neat division of labor). As the HM issues 'charge memos' and the SST visits the DEO Office periodically with 'explanations', both the clerks would be 'pleased' for a month, after which the game starts again.

Either Sherlock Holmes or Perry Mason or both sai: "Once you start yielding to blackmail, the end would be cold-blooded murder".

Anyway, before it came to that, our SST managed to get himself transferred back to Nellore, for a while at least.

But while he was at our School, all of us had a field day. To make up for the missed portions before the Exams, he would announce 'weekly extra Classes' on every coming Sunday and promise to come to School by the 12 noon Bus.

We knew the routine, so, we would gather at the sandy Bus Stand and play 'kabaid-kabadi-kabadi' till the bus leisurely arrived at 3 PM. And then he would 'shepherd' us all to our Class Room. I am exaggerating a bit; there was no room like: 'House No 54, a roof and a bamboo door'. We just had a thatched shed, with no door. And no lock or watchman. And some desks, and the rest would sit gladly on the sand floor.

But once he was in, he was a fantastic teacher and I guess our School repeatedly topped in the SS Paper in the entire District.

I remember 3 of his lessons with great joy:

(1) Multi-Purpose Projects

(2) Montague-Chelmsford Reforms

(3) Socialistic Pattern of Society

On Multi-Puopsoe Projects, he was eloquent about Nehru as the architect of Modern India and Bhakra-Nangal Dam as the Temple of Modern India.

He would dictate all the 'Multi' Purposes about it: like Power Generation, Irrigation, Fish-Mongering etc. And would insist that we mention TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) if we wished to score that extra mark, which makes or breaks the rankings.

But he would be annoyed if anyone asked what was Bhakra or Nangal about it, with the quiet remark that such meaningless questions are out of syllabus as they are not in the 'officially prescribed' text book.

Regarding reforms of all kinds he would dictate Tables, but would end up with his favorite bete noire Jinnah, who apparently said; "Laughing we got Pakistan, fighting we'll get Hindustan". Every lesson of his on India's Independence would end with this attributed quote of Jinnah, which would twist his face with impotent rage. Our SST would now be hundred or more, but I would like to assure him: "Not yet, but they DO try".

His most passionate lesson was of course the 'Socialistic Pattern of Society'. He wanted justice for the aam admi like himself who was needlessly troubled by the 'system', perhaps.

Now, this lesson was hastily pushed into our new Edition of the Approved Text Book, soon after Nehru unveiled this as an Instrument of his State Policy at the Avadi Congress, by an super-enthusiastic Babu.

With the blessed result that he didn't have time to translate it into Telugu. Small mercies descend from great ambitions.

I always abhorred the Telugu translations of our Science Books. Even at that tender age, I could see that English would soon be the Ultimate Leveler after 'Death'. But our Chemistry authors were blind in their enthusiasm for their Mother Tongue: Hydrogen would be 'Udajani'. Nitrogen would be 'Nathrajani' . Oxygen would be 'Amlajani'. They would go so far as Carbon Dioxide as the repulsive: 'Karbanadwiamlajanidamu' . But they luckily wrung their hands and gave up when it came to 'Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloro-Ethane', and just rendered it: DDT, thanks.

Now, this DDT was all over our lives. We ate it, drank it, and breathed it. For, the rice and vegetable fields were 'sprayed' with this Universal Pesticide, wells and water bodies were 'chlorinated' with this Insecticide, and the air we breathed was 'fumigated' with this 'Disinfectant'. All our lives were touched by this 'miracle' invention, that gave a Nobel for its inventor. American surpluses of WW II were dumped on our Muthukur with a vengeance.

A decade later, the first 'environmental awareness campaigns' took birth and it was claimed that DDT was the root cause of all cancers, except maybe tobacco, but not yet.....the Tobacco Companies then and now are more resistant than DDT. And it just disappeared. I miss it badly.

But it was replaced by vocal environmental 'bodies' which hound meek Narendro of our Sardar Sarovar Dam, not allowing him to raise an inch of its height for the betterment of the Gujerati aam admi of R K Laxman (who is remembered before every 'General Election' by every Party); a strong group of gray eminences, failed authors and aging film-stars.

The boot has come squarely on the other leg in 60 years; Circus Buffoons and Circular Buffaloes are not allowed to fart for fear of Global Warming to which their Green-House Methane enormously contributes, threatening drowning of coastal villages from Calcutta to Madras, via Muthukur.

I think the thin dividing line between sanity and otherwise is just a 'sense of proportion'.




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