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The final exams of SSLC in our High School at Muthukur in 1957 were full of rituals.
We would all take our allotted seats in the Exam Hall 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the exam...no student would be allowed to enter after that. And in a few minutes the Peon with the dawal-belt wrapped around his proud shoulder would arrive ceremoniously carrying bundles of blank answer scripts and place them on the presiding table.
And then the Junior Invigilator would arrive and start distributing the blank scripts to the students with the loud admonition that they shouldn't write their names (which would reveal their caste and religion a la GP Sastry or Md Ibrahim), but only their Roll Numbers....failing which their scripts would be 'scratched'.
And then the Senior Invigilator would walk in armed with bundles of question papers in sealed packets with their seals intact. These printed things used to come in bundles of 10, 15 and 20. And would look at his watch. And as soon as it was 2 minutes to 9 AM (no sooner than that), he would break the seals in public and pull the QPs out.
That was the instant when the whole Hall would be seething with silent prayers, each student praying that the questions for which he was 'prepared' (mugged up) would be there on the QP.
Within a minute the two invigilators would finish distributing the QPs to the students and the Hall would be filled with smiles and frowns.
After 3 hours, the invigilators would collect and pack up the answer scripts and carry them to the Office of the HM.
Apparently the HM would insert the bundles into awaiting cloth covers and seal them and post them to the Controller of SSLC Exams at Hyderabad.
This guy would send each packet to one of the several school teachers in the State for evaluation. After 10 days the marked scripts would get back to Hyderabad and then the Controller would send each packet to the DEO (District Education Officer) of each district which had about 35 schools at various villages.
He would then appoint one HM of a chosen school as the Chief Examiner for each subject and send the 35 'evaluated' scripts of that subject to him by post for Revaluation. And give him 10 days to complete his job of re-checking 'sample' scripts from each bundle and checking the 'totaling' and 'docketing' of each script in each bundle...a mammoth job for which the HM would be allowed 10 or 12 Assistants who would do the job under the supervision of the HM. A tiny amount of money would be compensation for the Assistants who would all assemble in the front verandah of the HM for the next 10 days.
The added sweetener was the free 'tiffin' and 'coffee' twice a day, in the morning and evening sessions. And 'sodas' in between.
I got to know of all this drill when I was in my IV Form (Class 9) at Muthukur.
One afternoon during the summer vacation when I was playing golies with my friends, my HM Father sent for me via his peon. And when I arrived at our home, I found the 'grilled' verndah teeming with about 10 of my teachers, each squatting on the floor and awaiting allotment of their jobs by Father. And there were 35 odd bundles from different villages of our Nellore District like Kovur, Kandukur and Kavali...Father happened to be the Chief Examiner for Science that year.
Father told me that my job would henceforth be to distribute bundles to each teacher at 9 and collect them at 12....and again at 2 in the post-lunch session and 5 at the evenfall for the next 10 days.
And accompany our Peon to the Soda Shop and Iyyer Hotel as and when required and see that the Peon doesn't pocket the money.
The Soda bottles were packed in their deal-wood boxes and I would be given an Opener which would squeal aloud when it did its job of pushing in the glass balls that plugged the mouths of the bottles. And Iyyer's daughter would pack the Alu Bondas and Mysorepaks in paper bags.
The sweetener for me was that I too would partake of the sodas and tiffins....apart from the privilege of ogling at Iyyer's cute daughter from close quarters.
Within 2 days I found that many turbaned alien villagers were crowding the soda shop and Iyyer Hotel awaiting my trips there. And as soon as they saw me, they would crowd around me and pass on chits on which were scribbled the Roll Numbers of their sons. And wink. And would unpack their waist-band dhotis and pull Rs 10 Notes and try to hand them over to me...
I was of course too scared to take the money but found it best to collect the chits and ask them to go home, with reciprocating winks that meant that 'all would be well'.
And I would tear up the slips and throw them away as soon as the rustics were out of sight...
A couple of decades later, in 1975, I happened to be visiting Hyderabad from KGP and was received at the Secunderabad Station by two of my sisters who were visiting from Nellore where they were teachers in their colleges. And they told me that they were there in Hyderabad for 15 days for what they called: "Spot"
This was news to me since I never heard of any spots other than the things that used to appear on our bodies when we got chicken pox invariably.
I soon learned that 'Spot' was an abbreviation for the newfangled 'Spot Valuation' that replaced the earlier ritual of sending and receiving and re-sending and re-receiving answer script bundles by post. The new system was that the bundles would be collected and stored at a huge Hall in Hyderabad and teachers from various schools would be called to Hyderabad to do their evaluation and revaluation in situ.
The sweetener for the selected teachers from all schools was the paid travel to the Capital, housing, transport, tiffins and meals and shopping and sightseeing sessions in between, apart from a fancy remuneration.
In other words:
The Mohammeds went to the Mountain instead of the other way round.
The idea was to prevent cheating by teachers and bribing by the villagers.
My sisters asked me where I was thinking of putting up for the next 4 days of my business. I told them:
"At some hotel"
"Why waste money? Come and stay in our Ladies Hostel Common Room where we are staying"
"Wouldn't there be objection for males entering the harem?"
"No, not at all...who cares? Many husbands of our colleagues have accompanied their wives and are staying here sleeping on the floor of the dorm along with us at night. Early every morning they go forth after their toilets and roam around and return by the evening"
I was stunned but they dragged me to their Ladies' Hostel where I was shown my nook on the floor...both of my sisters were unmarried then.
It was fun time for me since I had male company...
On the second day, eyes were watching me as I went out of the Hostel, and I felt under the scrutiny of several rustics in dhotis.
And some of them crowded me and tried to push their chits along with cash. But I was too scared and walked away as fast as I could.
The Village Mohammeds too traveled to the Mountain...this 'Spot' was far easier for them and more fun...
...Posted by Ishani
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The final exams of SSLC in our High School at Muthukur in 1957 were full of rituals.
We would all take our allotted seats in the Exam Hall 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the exam...no student would be allowed to enter after that. And in a few minutes the Peon with the dawal-belt wrapped around his proud shoulder would arrive ceremoniously carrying bundles of blank answer scripts and place them on the presiding table.
And then the Junior Invigilator would arrive and start distributing the blank scripts to the students with the loud admonition that they shouldn't write their names (which would reveal their caste and religion a la GP Sastry or Md Ibrahim), but only their Roll Numbers....failing which their scripts would be 'scratched'.
And then the Senior Invigilator would walk in armed with bundles of question papers in sealed packets with their seals intact. These printed things used to come in bundles of 10, 15 and 20. And would look at his watch. And as soon as it was 2 minutes to 9 AM (no sooner than that), he would break the seals in public and pull the QPs out.
That was the instant when the whole Hall would be seething with silent prayers, each student praying that the questions for which he was 'prepared' (mugged up) would be there on the QP.
Within a minute the two invigilators would finish distributing the QPs to the students and the Hall would be filled with smiles and frowns.
After 3 hours, the invigilators would collect and pack up the answer scripts and carry them to the Office of the HM.
Apparently the HM would insert the bundles into awaiting cloth covers and seal them and post them to the Controller of SSLC Exams at Hyderabad.
This guy would send each packet to one of the several school teachers in the State for evaluation. After 10 days the marked scripts would get back to Hyderabad and then the Controller would send each packet to the DEO (District Education Officer) of each district which had about 35 schools at various villages.
He would then appoint one HM of a chosen school as the Chief Examiner for each subject and send the 35 'evaluated' scripts of that subject to him by post for Revaluation. And give him 10 days to complete his job of re-checking 'sample' scripts from each bundle and checking the 'totaling' and 'docketing' of each script in each bundle...a mammoth job for which the HM would be allowed 10 or 12 Assistants who would do the job under the supervision of the HM. A tiny amount of money would be compensation for the Assistants who would all assemble in the front verandah of the HM for the next 10 days.
The added sweetener was the free 'tiffin' and 'coffee' twice a day, in the morning and evening sessions. And 'sodas' in between.
I got to know of all this drill when I was in my IV Form (Class 9) at Muthukur.
One afternoon during the summer vacation when I was playing golies with my friends, my HM Father sent for me via his peon. And when I arrived at our home, I found the 'grilled' verndah teeming with about 10 of my teachers, each squatting on the floor and awaiting allotment of their jobs by Father. And there were 35 odd bundles from different villages of our Nellore District like Kovur, Kandukur and Kavali...Father happened to be the Chief Examiner for Science that year.
Father told me that my job would henceforth be to distribute bundles to each teacher at 9 and collect them at 12....and again at 2 in the post-lunch session and 5 at the evenfall for the next 10 days.
And accompany our Peon to the Soda Shop and Iyyer Hotel as and when required and see that the Peon doesn't pocket the money.
The Soda bottles were packed in their deal-wood boxes and I would be given an Opener which would squeal aloud when it did its job of pushing in the glass balls that plugged the mouths of the bottles. And Iyyer's daughter would pack the Alu Bondas and Mysorepaks in paper bags.
The sweetener for me was that I too would partake of the sodas and tiffins....apart from the privilege of ogling at Iyyer's cute daughter from close quarters.
Within 2 days I found that many turbaned alien villagers were crowding the soda shop and Iyyer Hotel awaiting my trips there. And as soon as they saw me, they would crowd around me and pass on chits on which were scribbled the Roll Numbers of their sons. And wink. And would unpack their waist-band dhotis and pull Rs 10 Notes and try to hand them over to me...
I was of course too scared to take the money but found it best to collect the chits and ask them to go home, with reciprocating winks that meant that 'all would be well'.
And I would tear up the slips and throw them away as soon as the rustics were out of sight...
A couple of decades later, in 1975, I happened to be visiting Hyderabad from KGP and was received at the Secunderabad Station by two of my sisters who were visiting from Nellore where they were teachers in their colleges. And they told me that they were there in Hyderabad for 15 days for what they called: "Spot"
This was news to me since I never heard of any spots other than the things that used to appear on our bodies when we got chicken pox invariably.
I soon learned that 'Spot' was an abbreviation for the newfangled 'Spot Valuation' that replaced the earlier ritual of sending and receiving and re-sending and re-receiving answer script bundles by post. The new system was that the bundles would be collected and stored at a huge Hall in Hyderabad and teachers from various schools would be called to Hyderabad to do their evaluation and revaluation in situ.
The sweetener for the selected teachers from all schools was the paid travel to the Capital, housing, transport, tiffins and meals and shopping and sightseeing sessions in between, apart from a fancy remuneration.
In other words:
The Mohammeds went to the Mountain instead of the other way round.
The idea was to prevent cheating by teachers and bribing by the villagers.
My sisters asked me where I was thinking of putting up for the next 4 days of my business. I told them:
"At some hotel"
"Why waste money? Come and stay in our Ladies Hostel Common Room where we are staying"
"Wouldn't there be objection for males entering the harem?"
"No, not at all...who cares? Many husbands of our colleagues have accompanied their wives and are staying here sleeping on the floor of the dorm along with us at night. Early every morning they go forth after their toilets and roam around and return by the evening"
I was stunned but they dragged me to their Ladies' Hostel where I was shown my nook on the floor...both of my sisters were unmarried then.
It was fun time for me since I had male company...
On the second day, eyes were watching me as I went out of the Hostel, and I felt under the scrutiny of several rustics in dhotis.
And some of them crowded me and tried to push their chits along with cash. But I was too scared and walked away as fast as I could.
The Village Mohammeds too traveled to the Mountain...this 'Spot' was far easier for them and more fun...
...Posted by Ishani
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