Dunces & Devils

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Kids can be charming. And weird.

This is what a sweet girl of 8 did last week (Don't miss! Watch her cute face and naughty smile!) :

This kid was enrolled into her online classes via Zoom. 

And then she reported that her Zoom was not working and she couldn't log in.

Mother tried to log her in by entering the right password. But was getting the message: "Incorrect Password".

After trying for an hour mother gave up and tried next day. Same story. Many tried: mother, next door neighbor, teacher, Zoom tech support...

Weeks passed and the kid was happy...she got what she wanted...'cutting' her online school.

And then one day she was caught red-handed:

She was typing a wrong password deliberately all of 20 times (that was by when, as she had researched and discovered,  Zoom has a built-in safety feature to lock the user out for a whole week)!

Again and Again....

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/brilliant-kid-skips-school-weeks-194518450.html

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The following events happened in a remote village called Kurichedu where my father was posted as a headmaster of its primitive high school as a punishment first posting (blooding) 71 years ago when I was a kid of 6:

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That school had a thatched shed by its boundary wall within which lower classes were held...upper classes and the HM's office were housed in a semi-pucca building.

One hot noon, the thatched shed caught fire. Luckily the students and teachers rushed out promptly and were saved.

The shed was reduced to ashes (there was no furniture save a few blackboards. Teachers had to stand and teach and students squatted on the sandy floor happily).

Police inquiry was held and it was revealed that a kid of 8 who hated schooling was loitering and climbed the boundary wall and threw a lighted matchstick. 

He was warned and let off as a juvenile delinquent.

Father was transferred (luckily) to a school near his home town Nellore :)

Def: Juvenile Delinquent: Kid who killed both his parents and pleaded he was an orphan now.

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Father had a Favre-Leuba wrist watch (dowry). But I was not allowed to touch it. Prize Possession.

Therefore, that watch fascinated me.

I watched Father keying it up daily by hand. The watch had a tiny knurled knob for this purpose on its side.

Occasionally he was pulling that knob out and turning it. And lo and behold! its two hands turned amazingly. And he was pushing it back. 

And I was charmed.

One evening when no one was watching, I took that watch out from its table-drawer, pulled the knob out and turned it to my heart's content and pushed the knob back and replaced the watch in its place.

And Father re-adjusted the time thinking that it was going slow.

Next day he discovered that it was going fast.

And this went on for a week.

Father was intrigued and worried. There was no watch-repairer in that village.

The next day, during my sport with that watch, I heard footsteps, and had no time to push the knob back...just dumped it as it was into its drawer and closed it.

;)

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There was this hamlet Potlapadu 5 miles away from Kurichedu. It had a renowned temple. And one of our teachers was commuting from that hamlet to Kurichedu daily by walk.

He once invited our family to Potlapadu on a sight-seeing trip (free hospitality and overnight stay in his mud-house).

Father hired a bullock-cart for my mother and her 3 girl-kids, and me..  And he was walking by its side.

And I felt shamed to be among the ladies. I got down and started walking by Father's side. He thought it was pure bravado and I would get tired and get back into the cart after a furlong or two.

But I kept him company all the way.

And everyone praised me and I felt proud.

Our trip went well and we returned the next morning but one...the same way.

That evening I was playing with my classmates.

Suddenly I had this urge to walk to Potlapadu.

And without informing anyone I slipped out and began my journey.

On the outskirts of Kurichedu, I was discovered walking alone by half a dozen of my school-leaving seniors, all of them tall and well-built, on their evening stroll.

One of them asked me:

"Where are you going?"

"Potlapadu"

"This late in the evening?"

"Yes"

"Did you tell  your parents?"

"No"

They consulted among themselves, lifted me bodily, and launched me on to the neck of the stoutest among them.

And they brought me back and dumped me in their headmaster's home in a wild procession, singing comic songs and dancing...

:)

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Obiter Dictum:

Kurichedu, I hear, is no longer that remote village that it was during my time there.. It rose to be a candidate for the capital of Andhra Pradesh some years ago.

Before that punishment-posting in Kurichedu, Father was working as a senior teacher in Buchireddy Palem. That village happens to be the most fertile in the entire Nellore District. It is on the banks of the Pennar river. And close to it is the vast Kanigiri Reservoir fed by the Somasila Project.

It was famous as the home of Sri Bezawada Gopala Reddy who was a Chief Minister of Andhra State and Governor of Uttar Pradesh. He and his wife were students of Vishwabharati at Shantinketan (Tagore's University).

And he translated some of Tagore's works into Telugu. And was thereby called: "Andhra Tagore"

I tried to read his drama "Visarjana" (విసర్జన).

And couldn't get past the first two pages even after repeated attempts.

Tagore is worshipped as an idol in my erstwhile native place...West Bengal.

He was a writer of short stories, novels, dramas, songs, national anthems of two countries, Nobel-winning Gitanjali; and in addition he was a painter, and perhaps a sculptor too...I don't know...

...And Khushwant Singh, the crazy Sardarji, had the gumption to say, in 1995:

"Tagore was a writer of no great merit"..."A writer is meant to be read, not worshipped"...

And thereby earned the unique distinction of uniting the Congress and Communists (in condemning him) :)

https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19950815-khushwant-singhs-remark-on-tagores-work-creates-furore-in-west-bengal-807632-1995-08-31

He was lucky...Didi was a kid then... now calling herself, for votes, "Daughter of Bengal" (and BJP calling her "Old Pishie of Bengal...they having several daughters):

"The poster has the faces of nine female BJP leaders from Bengal, including Rupa Ganguly, Deboshree Chaudhary , Locket Chatterjee, Bharti Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, among others."

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