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And there was our Drill Teacher, Jessee, a friendly soul rather addicted to spirits. And Lakshmaiah, the Crafts teacher, a hefty chap whose rotund figure rather frightened all of us.
For a few months we had this Kanakavalli, a buxom, youthful, fair, lady who taught us Science in our Fifth Form. All of us were in love with her but she vanished before we could take steps.
We knew the two ladies were Christians since they didn't wear the default bindi on their foreheads. And had a thin cute chain round their necks with a Cross as its pendant.
I recall this strange encounter of mine with Christianity:
When I was in my Third Form, Father gave me a Book-Post addressed to:
That was the first time I got a letter by post addressed to me and felt big.
As I opened it, I found a cute booklet titled:
"Yohanu Suvarta" (Telugu for Gospel of St John).
I read the booklet in half an hour and liked it. And attached with it was a printed questionnaire on the booklet with instructions that I should answer all its questions and send the answer sheet in the enclosed self-addressed envelope.
I took my pen and answered all the questions in a jiffy...they were all objective types and as easy as:
"Jesus Christ was crucified/hanged"
or
"Jesus gave his sermon from the mount/valley"
And I sent the filled in form by post and felt great. Within a few days I got another book-post enclosing another booklet titled:
"Matthaiah Suvarta" (Telugu for Gospel of St Matthew)
And another questionnaire.
After a few of these Suvartas I got an envelope with a Form which I was asked to sign and send back. And I didn't understand the language or content in the form. So I showed it to Father and asked him what to do.
And he snatched the Form from my hands and tore it off.
I couldn't follow why he did that...now I can guess that the sender was asking me to sign in for conversion to Christianity or something like that.
Although there were these few Christian teachers in our school, there were no Christian students...I don't know why...perhaps they were sent to convents run by missionaries in Nellore...
On the other hand we had a large number of Muslim students. They were all very friendly chaps and great sportsmen. All of them had names starting with either Sk (for Sheik) or Sd (for Sayyed).
But no Muslim teachers.
I didn't feel any overt anti-brahminism in school. It was taken for granted that higher education was littered with Brahmins. Indeed the first three Bharat Ratnas awarded in 1954 were all to South Indian Brahmins:
1. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
2. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
3. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
The celebrated nephew of C. V. Raman, who too won a Nobel, was our Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
Talking of family politics, I read that S. Chandrasekhar's mom cautioned him not to work under his uncle C. V. Raman!
And talking of politics in acads I recall reading this anecdote from the Univ of Chicago:
Once the young son of his neighbor was visiting S. Chandrasekhar's home in the campus. And after playing for a while, he asked Chandra a query on observational astronomy like, say, the orbit of Ganymede. And Chandra replied:
"I don't know the answer...you see I don't know much of astronomy"
And the urchin shot back with:
"That's what my dad also says"
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...Ours was a Lutheran Mission School --- mostly for boarders who were Christian converts. The teachers were all converts, and, towards the few non-Christian students like me, they displayed a lot of hatred. Most of the Christian students also detested us. The scripture classes were mostly devoted to attacking and lampooning the Hindu gods, and violent abuses were heaped on idol-worshippers as a prelude to glorifying Jesus. Among the non-Christians in our class I was the only Brahmin boy, and received special attention; the whole class would turn in my direction when the teacher said that Brahmins claiming to be vegetarians ate fish and meat in secret, in a sneaky way, and were responsible for the soaring price of those commodities. In spite of the uneasy time during the lessons, the Biblical stories themselves enchanted me. Especially the Old Testament seemed to be full of fascinating characters --- I loved the Rebeccas and Ruths one came across. When one or the other filled her pitcher from the well and poured water into the mouth of Lazarus or someone racked with thirst, I became thirsty too, and longed for a draught of that crystal-clear, icy water. I stood up to go out for a drink of water at the back-yard tap. When Jesus said, "I shall make you fishers of men," I felt embarrassed lest they should be reminded of fish and Brahmins again. I bowed my head apprehensively at such moments....
...RKN in My Days
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Well, I didn't study in a Christian Missionary School...so I missed the 'enchanting' experiences of RKN.
Our school at Muthukur where Father was our HM was called S. I. I. B. H. School...short for "Srimati Iduru Iswaramma Board High School"...a mouthful for all of us.
We did have a few Christian teachers in the lower classes. Our Classes were called Forms, starting from First Form (Class VI) and ending in SSLC (the Sixth Form). The student strength never exceeded 200 in all...with a dozen or so girls.
I still recall names of our Christian teachers. There was this Raanemma, a fortyish lady with specs and teeth. She taught us English in our First and Second Forms. I rather liked her...every Christmas Day she used to visit our home with a bunch of flowers to the HM and a cute X-mas Card which had pics of candles, roses, cakes, snow, and a star, surrounding the face of Jesus looking heavenwards.
And as I opened it there was this message:
"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"
I still don't know why Christmas is merry and New Year happy rather than the other way round. I guess one can't make merry the whole year.
For a few months we had this Kanakavalli, a buxom, youthful, fair, lady who taught us Science in our Fifth Form. All of us were in love with her but she vanished before we could take steps.
We knew the two ladies were Christians since they didn't wear the default bindi on their foreheads. And had a thin cute chain round their necks with a Cross as its pendant.
I recall this strange encounter of mine with Christianity:
When I was in my Third Form, Father gave me a Book-Post addressed to:
G. PrbahakaraSastry
C/O G. Radhakrishnaiah
Head Master
SIIBH School
Muthukur.
That was the first time I got a letter by post addressed to me and felt big.
As I opened it, I found a cute booklet titled:
"Yohanu Suvarta" (Telugu for Gospel of St John).
I read the booklet in half an hour and liked it. And attached with it was a printed questionnaire on the booklet with instructions that I should answer all its questions and send the answer sheet in the enclosed self-addressed envelope.
I took my pen and answered all the questions in a jiffy...they were all objective types and as easy as:
"Jesus Christ was crucified/hanged"
or
"Jesus gave his sermon from the mount/valley"
And I sent the filled in form by post and felt great. Within a few days I got another book-post enclosing another booklet titled:
"Matthaiah Suvarta" (Telugu for Gospel of St Matthew)
And another questionnaire.
After a few of these Suvartas I got an envelope with a Form which I was asked to sign and send back. And I didn't understand the language or content in the form. So I showed it to Father and asked him what to do.
And he snatched the Form from my hands and tore it off.
I couldn't follow why he did that...now I can guess that the sender was asking me to sign in for conversion to Christianity or something like that.
Although there were these few Christian teachers in our school, there were no Christian students...I don't know why...perhaps they were sent to convents run by missionaries in Nellore...
On the other hand we had a large number of Muslim students. They were all very friendly chaps and great sportsmen. All of them had names starting with either Sk (for Sheik) or Sd (for Sayyed).
But no Muslim teachers.
I didn't feel any overt anti-brahminism in school. It was taken for granted that higher education was littered with Brahmins. Indeed the first three Bharat Ratnas awarded in 1954 were all to South Indian Brahmins:
1. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
2. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
3. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
The celebrated nephew of C. V. Raman, who too won a Nobel, was our Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
Talking of family politics, I read that S. Chandrasekhar's mom cautioned him not to work under his uncle C. V. Raman!
And talking of politics in acads I recall reading this anecdote from the Univ of Chicago:
Once the young son of his neighbor was visiting S. Chandrasekhar's home in the campus. And after playing for a while, he asked Chandra a query on observational astronomy like, say, the orbit of Ganymede. And Chandra replied:
"I don't know the answer...you see I don't know much of astronomy"
And the urchin shot back with:
"That's what my dad also says"
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