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Experiences which I would like to share

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My School days ( continued)

SECOND WORLD WAR ENDS
Another unforgettable incident during my school days was when the world war II ended in 1945. That meant no more air raids, no more blackouts and no more ARP sirens. Sweets were distributed to all students and the occasion was celebrated in the Union Club with great gusto with each student carrying the union Jack flag pinned in his shirt. We were all happy that the war has ended and that the day for us to get our freedom from the British was not far off.

OUR WAR HERO
It was then that one of our uncles, who was a prison of war (PoW) was released by the defeated Japanese from Singapore, who came direct to our village Ariyalur. He used to narrate his thrilling and hair raising experiences of his life and how he very narrowly escaped death and how much he suffered at the hands of the draconian Japanese. From what he said, we could understand how gruesome the war was. Thus we had a first hand account of the second world war from him. And needless to say , he became a hero amidst all the youngsters in our place.


INDEPENDENCE
At last came our independence on August 15th, 1947 and our joy knew no bounds. Our school arranged a special free show for all the students and we were taken to the first and the new permanent theatre in Ariyalur Nataraja. We were all seated on the floor while our teachers were seated in chairs.

FREE FILM SHOW
The picture that was shown that day for us was Sri Valli ( ஶ்ரீ வள்ளி) by T.R. Mahalingam and Rukmini ( Mother of actor Lakshmi). Needless to say we were doubly thrilled, first because of our independence and secondly because of a free film show at our new permanent theatre, but which one was a greater thrill, I couldn't say.

FAMILY CELEBRATION
There was also a celebration of the occasion by our uncles organised and arranged on that night. It was a great grand affair and everyone of us from children to the aged enjoyed it to the brim.


GANDHIJI’S ASSASSINATION
The most shocking news of my school life was when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30th,1948 in New Delhi Birla Mandir, when I was doing my ninth standard. We were completely taken aback. Even though they were pro british, our uncles were also shocked and this incidence gave scope for one of the uncles to criticise Indians as being misfit to rule the country.
Again our first republic day on January 26th,1950 was another landmark in my school days. So my entire school life was closely linked with major political developments in the country and in the world.

These few incidents associated with my school days could never be forgotten. This is probably one of the main reasons for people of my age getting interested in politics.
( Continued)
 
My School days (continued)
SECOND WORLD WAR ENDS
Another unforgettable incident during my school days was when the world war II ended in 1945. That meant no more air raids, no more blackouts and no more ARP sirens. Sweets were distributed to all students and the occasion was celebrated in the Union Club with great gusto with each student carrying the union Jack flag pinned in his shirt. We were all happy that the war has ended and that the day for us to get our freedom from the British was not far off.

It was then that one of my uncles, who was a prison of war (PoW), was released by the defeated Japanese from Singapore, who came direct to our village, Ariyalur. He used to narrate his thrilling and hair raising experiences of his life and how he very narrowly escaped death and how much he suffered at the hands of the draconian Japanese. From what he said, we could understand how gruesome the war was. Thus we had a first hand account of the second world war from him. And needless to say , he became a hero amidst all the youngsters in our village.



INDEPENDENCE
At last came our independence on August 15th, 1947 and our joy knew no bounds. Our school arranged a special free show for all the students and we were taken to the first and the new permanent theater in Ariyalur Nataraja. ( till then there were only touring talkies in our place which means a temporary tent will be erected as is done even today for circuses where pictures will be shown just as in any regular theatre. The seating arrangement will be the floor( the lowest class), benches, galleries and chairs ( the highest class). We were all seated on the floor while our teachers were seated in chairs.

The picture that was shown that day for us was Sri Valli ( ஶ்ரீ வள்ளி) by T.R. Mahalingam and Rukmini ( Mother of actor Lakshmi). Needless to say we were doubly thrilled, first because of our independence and secondly because of a free film show at our new permanent theatre, but which one was a greater thrill, I couldn't say.
There was also a celebration organised and arranged by one of our grand uncles.


GANDHIJI’S ASSASSINATION
The most shocking news of my school life was when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30th,1948 in New Delhi Birla Mandir, when I was doing my ninth standard. We were completely taken aback. Even though they were pro british, our uncles were also shocked and this incidence gave scope for one of the uncles to criticise Indians as being misfit to rule the country.

Again our first republic day on January 26th,1950 was another landmark in my school days.
So my entire school life was closely linked with major political developments in the country and in the world. These few incidents associated with my school days could never be forgotten. This was probably the main reason for me to get interested in politics. ( continued)
 
My School days ( continued)
GAMES
We never had video games then. The games that we played could be classified as school games and out of school games, that is the games that we played outside the school, mostly in roads.
In addition we had our own indoor games , the participants of which will be all our kith and kin including Aunts, grandmas and a few uncles.
The popular indoor games were Pallanguzhi ( பல்லாங்குழி) in which the elderly ladies were experts.
Sorga Padam ( சொர்க்கப் படம்-snakes and ladders-probably this originated in India), Jacks or Ammanai (அம்மானை), playing with a few pebbles throwing them up one by one alternately and catching them without letting them down,
carom,
chess ( சதுரங்கம்),
Aadu Puli Aattam ( ஆடுபுலி ஆட்டம்) , that is the game of sheep and the tiger,
Hop scotch or Pondi (பாண்டி),
Aeroplane PondI ( throwing a chip facing the opposite direction into the squares marked so that the chip ( சில்லு) falls within the squares without touching the marked lines and then moving along the squares limping with one leg without stepping on the lines)
Avadhara Bett ( அவதார பெட்),
Dhaya Kattam ( தாயக் கட்டம்) ,
Kichu Kichu Thambalam, Kiya kiya Thambalam ( கிச்சுக் கிச்சுத் தாம்பாளம், கியா கியா தாம்பாளம்) a game in which a small object like a stone will be tactfully buried inside an artificially made longitudinal mound of sand by making too and fro hand movements inside it and asking the opponent to locate the spot of the object that is hidden),
Monopoly,
Chaat Poot Three,
Naalu Moolai Thachi ( நாலு மூலைத் தாச்சி),
Blinding ( கண்ணாமூச்சி)and so on.
Besides the above which was common for both boys and girls, the exclusive games played by boys were hide and seek ( hiding anywhere, entering any house within the village, a prerogative which we had those days),
Toys (பம்பரம்),
Baling Chadu Gudu now known as Kabaddi ( கபடி) ,
coco (கோகோ)
KittyPull ( கிட்டிப்புள்),
Pay ball ( must be playball) ( பேப்பந்து), street hockey,
Goli Gundu (கோலி குண்டு that is, the game of marbles),
பட்டம் ( kite flying)
காத்தாடி ( pinwheel) etc.
The list is in no way complete.
Cards
As we moved to higher standards we used to play cards without the knowledge of our uncles, since they felt that it was a game not meant for young boys and girls. They were very strict about it. But our curiosity drove us to the extent of playing the game incognito in the terrace of one of the uncles houses and locked houses by scaling walls and getting into the houses stealthily,
our topes/ lands owned by uncles,
inside silos or Kudirs ( குதிர்) and so on.
Once we completed our schooling, we became qualified to play cards with the uncles as special invitees. ( continued)
 
My School days ( continued)
SCHOOL GAMES
The games listed previously were home and street games.
In addition, some of us used to go to School in the evenings to play football, which was my favourite game those days. I was a regular football player. I was the captain of the junior team and became winner once. (Even at Coimbatore when I was doing my BE, I was an active football player and in the intramural games in my third year, I was responsible for hitting a goal that made our side a runner).
In our school at our times CRICKET WAS NOT PLAYED EVEN THOUGH WE HAD A VAST OPEN GROUND IN OUR SCHOOL.
( TODAY CRICKET HAS ALMOST KILLED ALL OTHER GAMES)
You may be surprised to know that we played baseball, a game of America, now totally forgotten in India.
Coco, that is how we pronounce it in Tamil, was another favourite game of the school in our times.
Other games such as hockey ( reserved as a street game by us), volleyball etc were there, but I kept them at a distance because there was heavy competition to those games in our school from hefty students. .
Hockey as a street game
Suitably bent wooden sticks pilfered from Uncle Ramu mama’s fuel depot constituted our hockey sticks and a ball of wood which we managed to loot from the very same depot was the ball and the entire Perumal koil street was our playground. The street will be under our siege and the local people won’t complain about it and the only person who raised objection was one of our grand uncles, but he too got vexed when nothing tangible resulted from his shoutings. If any pedestrian was by any chance injured, we will ask him politely to excuse us and since most people knew each other and since the uncles commanded respect, we were excused with an enigmatic smile like that of Mono Lesa.
I was too small to play volleyball and my service won’t cross even the midline.
Tennis was a rich man's game and there was no provision for it in our school.
Tennis and Ping Pong ( Table Tennis ) were available in the Union Club and was open to those members, the elites of the village. We were all too small not only physically but also financially for that purpose. Even though I loved these games, I have to be satisfied by being a spectator of these games.
We had a physical Training (PT) class once a week ( one afternoon), when we underwent drill and other exercises.
I was also taking part in sports and competed in sports day competitions. I was a poor runner who took 14 seconds to finish 100 meters. I was a mile runner and I felt proud about it. Even though I didn’t come first or second, I never gave up in the middle.
I got for my age group a winner’s certificate in high jump. I was interested in long jump and hop, step and jump but never risked Pole Vault.
Discus, javelins and Shot Put throws were not meant for me. And I never tried them.
The above is a list of games and sport activities during our school days.
When we kept ourselves so busy with the home, street and school games,were we left with anytime to read? Most teachers won’t bother us with homework and our parents also won’t interfere and trouble us to study. In spite of all these things, WE ALSO STUDIED. ( continued)
 
My School days
CONCLUSION
Parents and teachers giving corporal punishment to their children and students and abusing them was very common, but there was not a single case of boys or girls any where in the state committing suicide because of this, as is happening today, a trend very disturbing that needs immediate correction. In fact today, teachers are scared of punishing their students either orally or physically. Higher studies were not possible for many students then in villages at that time ,dince the nearest college was at least forty to fifty miles away from the village and even if the boys were interested, they had to stop with SSLC and then try for a job, because of family compulsions. The world of the village elders was really small, ambitions limited and their aspirations restricted and they believed in the dictum that one should be happy with what one had and not aim for the sky and must learn to live within his or her means without comparing with the more affluent. They had no great ambitions about themselves and about their children, but wanted to live with what they could, than how they should. Sending girl students to college was out of question then but allowing them to pursue their studies upto SSLC itself was a great improvement which we witnessed in the fifties. Once their children got married and settled, they felt that their purpose in life was over.
After 1950 there was a sea change in their attitude and a better exposure to outside world caused a visible and phenomenal change in them but by then I had left Ariyalur for my college studies and I had no opportunity to study them at close quarters. Thereafter I became a casual visitor to Ariyalur during my vacations. Even though I moved away from Ariyalur, till date, I am not able to move Ariyalur away from my heart. The Ariyalur school days will remain ever etched in my memory however old and crippled I might have become now.
 
My first day at St Joseph’s College


When I passed my SSLC, my aggregate was 450 out of 600 which was a record for the school at that time since its inception 70 years back . All my teachers were all praise for me. All my friends and relatives were mighty happy that I have made a mark. I became the man of the day there when I got my SSLC book with my marks recorded therein. Everyone congratulated me saying that a seat in any college in first group was assured for me.


It was very difficult to score marks those days and the only subject in which one can hope for a centum was general maths, and optional maths. It was well nigh impossible to score more than 70 in languages and in history and geography. So at that time 450 was considered a high end mark to secure admission in any college. I got a centum in maths even though I couldn't complete one problem which had a flaw in it.

There was no college in our village to pursue my intermediate course and the nearest one was at Thiruchy, 40 miles away from my village. There were two colleges there then, one St Joseph's and the other National. Admission in what was supposed to be the prestigious college, namely St Joseph’s college was difficult and candidates with high marks could only hope for a seat there. I went to the college escorted by my cousin who was senior to me by one year who was already a student there. He took me to the Principal who was also the warden of Clive's hostel where he was staying and introduced me to him. The principal received the SSLC book, verified the marks statement with the application and immediately allotted a seat to me on the spot in first group (MPC- Maths, Physics and Chemistry). I was also allotted a room close to my cousin in Clive's hostel. When I returned home with the admission card, everyone was happy that I got my due.

On the first working day when I attended the class, principal entered the classroom with a register and after congratulating all those selected and wishing us a good stay in the college, started asking all those students who scored more than 510 to stand up. About a dozen students stood up. Next he asked those who scored between 500 and 510 to stand up. Now about fifteen stood up. Next when he asked all those between 450 and 500 to stand up, nearly more than half the class stood up.

With 450 marks, I was a first rank student in my school, whereas now in this college, there are about 100 students who have scored above me. When my school felt very happy about my performance, I felt tall, but now I felt too small here, embarrassed and disheartened, my first ever such experience, because I have always been a topper in my school in all my classes. (Continued)
 
My first day at St Joseph's college
After the Principal left, our regular classes started. That was an English class and my lecturer started teaching in English. That was my first experience of my ever listening to a full hour of lecture in English. That was both thrilling and frightening. The first lesson was "On books " by Hillary Bellock, (text book : Many Voices) supposed to be a humorous piece, but I could follow very little of it that day

Once the English class was over, we were supposed to go to another room for our next class. In my high school, we students will be in the same room, while the teacher for each subject will be coming to our room, whereas here in the college, we have to move from room to room for various subjects and the college and the entire environment being new, we had to search and find out our classroom every time by asking our seniors who were more interested in teasing us rather than guiding us properly.
One man with a topi from my English class was moving before me and I was scrupulously following him amidst the criss cross moving crowd with the hope that he might be knowing the room.
In the melee, as he entered a room, I also followed him much to my disappointment, only to be teased by those sitting in the class room there. As soon as they saw me entering the room, they all raised in one voice IUC, an uncomplimentary, mocking and derisive term for a fresher. One man shouted at me saying " You, IUC, do you want to attend the maths honours class with us as soon as you got admission in IUC?"
Then only I realised that I missed the original topi whom I was following in the crowd and have mistakenly followed a duplicate topi and I had come to a wrong room, and quickly retreated and with the help of some staff at last located my new classroom. But this was enough for many of the seniors to tease me for the next few days. I was one of those who attended classes with dhothi and shirt while most others wore a pant and shirt and this was an added point for them to jape and bully at me.
All classes there were handled in English be it English or Sanskrit, Maths, Physics, or Chemistry and I was surprised to see a few students conversing in English and that caused jitters in me. I really felt fish out of water for one full term. (I could understand the plight of those students who study in Tamil medium joining colleges in English medium).
After the classes were over on the first day, I returned to my hostel with two of my cousins, who were two rooms away from me ( room no.88) in the New block of Clive's hostel and after heaving a sigh of relief, I happily settled down in my room ( no. 90) not knowing that I am going to create history that night in the hostel ( continued)
 
St Joseph's college ( continued)
My first night in the hostel:
Don't let your imagination run riot. This is just a narration of my experience on the first night of my stay at Clive's Hostel at Thiruchy, which is an out and out Agmark male hostel.

I have already said that when I got admission for my intermediate at St Joseph's College, Thiruchy, I was offered a seat at Clive's Hostel. The college and the hostel were well known for discipline and students of our time in the fifties didn't have even a ghost of an idea of going on strike or protest as we witness today, even though there might have been genuine reasons for that. 'There is no question why, there is but to do and die' was the type of discipline that was expected. Implicit obedience was the only thing known to these St Josephians and even a semblance of disobedience by students would be viewed seriously, severe warning would be issued and at times ( not just at times; more often) fined with a notice sent to the parents of the trouble mongers with threat of dismissal in extreme cases.

Clive's hostel had its own set of rules and the principal of the college was the warden. Silence hour extending from 8:00 P.M to next day 8:30A.M was strictly observed and any body indulging in talking with his room mate or his neighbour during the period would be warned and fined. No hosteler was permitted to stay outside the hostel without the express permission of the warden. All the hostelers should be back in the hostel before 8:00 P.M. Any late comer stood the chance of expulsion from the hostel.


In spite of the strict enforcement of discipline, during the non silence and noncollege hours, the students however ventured to indulge in jibes silently within themselves and one such joke was that the buildings at the college were fine buildings because they were all constructed using funds raised from students by way of fines!

When the bell rang at 8:30A.M , it meant that the silence hour was over and within the next one hour the wards could get ready and go to their mess for morning food or breakfast as the case might be. Similarly the bell at 7:00P.M was to draw the attention of the students that it was time for night meals. (continued)
 
St Joseph's college

My first night at hostel( continued)

But as a fresher, I had some misconceptions about these rules and regulations but as one, very docile and disciplined, I didn't have anything to fear. I was allotted room number 90 in the New Block which was a 6 seater room.

There were some seniors with me and one was my classmate from my village Ariyalur. That night being the first night, I finished my meal and from 8:00 P.M, I didn't have anything to prepare or study and so didn't know what to do. My seniors had already warned me that the warden would come on a roll call at 10:00P.M and till then I had to keep myself awake. Nobody was allowed to go to bed before then and if any one was found sleeping, the warden would pull him up, warn him and then ask him to go to bed and sleep.


So I was waiting for the roll call and when that was over, for some reason, I didn't get sleep and so started talking with my Ariyalur friend thinking that once the roll call was over, we were free. As the talk proceeded unhampered, I put a puzzle to my friend and asked him to give me the right answer. He thought for a while, blinked for a while and then gave up.


When I gave him the answer, he said that it was silly. Then the argument grew, me calling him silly and he calling me silly. Normally even if I whisper, people hundred feet away from me could here me ( not now). During the argument my voice gradually picked up decibels and became so loud with the tempo increasing minute by minute that the warden who was in the old block some five hundred feet away came to my room and knocked it loud, but that got subdued in the den that we created.
Meanwhile my other room mates who could hear the tapping of the door opened it only to see a fiery red eyed warden losing his temper with his already red face becoming redder (!) like a red hot iron and in all his fury started bombarding us for nearly more than fifteen minutes, but one good thing was that I couldn't follow anything of what he said. I could only guess that he was furious and admonishing us in the strongest of terms with a warning which I later on understood from my other friends and seniors that it being the first night we were excused and if a repeat performance occurred we would be summarily dismissed from the hostel.
There was dead silence in the hostel thereafter while many inquisitive heads were found outside their rooms eager to know who those dare devils were who made history in the hostel.
The next day morning once the silence hour broke, a whole lot of people from the old, middle and the new blocks came, some to condole, some to console and some to condemn me wondering all the while how such a small fellow could make such a big noise, while even the diehards in the hostel dared not make noise during silence hours. From that day ( night) onwards, I became one of the most scrupulous observer of rules but became a hero for some and a villain for many for a few more weeks to come
That was my first night experience and thereafter I became warden's one of the pet students.
 
Dear Gurus Sir...nice to read your "1st night" stay at your hostel.

I still remember my 1st day going to class at my college.

I opened my hostel room door and standing right in front of me was a huge cow!
It blocked my way and kept looking at me.

I was slightly scared cos it had already put its head into my room and I could not close the door.

Then I finally told it..please let me go for class..I will be late and only then the cow left.

In 1990 the hostel didnt really have fences or gates..everything from boys to cows hang around outside the hostel but only cows walked in to the corridor and in front of rooms.


In 1991 a wall was built and boys and cows had to be outside!!LOL
 
Thank you madam. It is funny to know about your Gomatha experience. We had a different experience in our Sanskrit class which I am narrating under Sanskrit class
 
St Joseph's college
Sanskrit class hullabaloo
My second language was Sanskrit in my high school as well as in intermediate. 'Mudhra Rakshasa Nataka Katha' was our prose and 'Kumarasambava' of Kalidasa was our poetry prescribed for the course. Usually in all schools and colleges, Sanskrit teachers are the 'taken for granted tribes' generally ignored by the faculty and pooh poohed by the student community. Our Sanskrit teacher at the college was a lean figure with a tuft that would immediately create a revulsion among the students even in those days. He was handling Kumarasambhava for us. As per our syllabus we had the first three cantos i.e., up to the birth of Kumara for our course.

" Kumarasambhava essentially talks about the courtship of Lord Shiva and Parvati. of course all of us or at least most of us are aware of the story and so there is no need for me to narrate it.

The first three cantos deal mainly with description of Himalayas, Devas appeal to Parvathi, penance of lord Siva, burning of Manmatha by opening the third eye of Siva, restoration of Manmatha visible to only Rathi, courtship between Parvathi and Siva, how Parvathi wins over Siva and takes his hand and the birth of Kumara.

In the canto that deals with the romance of Siva and Parvathi, there comes the 'Padhathikesa description of Parvathi running to over, may be a dozen slokas.

Every sloka of Kalidasa is beautiful beyond words. Our Sanskrit pandit would read out the sloka first, then give word by word meaning, elaborating the overall meaning of the sloka, the grammatical peculiarities involved, vigrahavakyas of important words, the details of the tenses involved, roots of some of the words and the different forms it will assume, the similies and metaphors therein, a complete analysis of words based on Panini Sutra and so on, thus spending about thirty minutes for each sloka.

So in each class he would cover at the most two slokas. No student ever cared to interrupt his lectures for asking any doubt or clarification not because they didn't have any doubt, but because of their inherent inertia and disinterest. Everything went on well till we reached the canto describing Parvathi from foot to head. He was trying to go fast to cover these slokas without spending as much time as he used to for the other slokas.

Students who never stood up in the class to ask doubts started standing up and asking doubts on certain delicate points pertaining to the description of Parvathi's Angalakshanam. In literature these are all very common, but to tackle it in a class room to young students becomes very embarrassing to anybody. Those who have read this part of Kumarasambhava will understand the delicacy involved in dealing with it and in teaching it to the youngsters, all being males (fortunately there were no girl students, since the college was a men's college).

Every one started asking as many doubts as possible just for the fun of it and to put the teacher in an embarrassment. Pandit said that these were not very important and that the students could read this part themselves and tried to skip it.

There was huge protest from all corners of the hall with thumping of desks and floor, saying that the teacher should explain them in detail as he had done so far. He paid no heed to these requests(!) and covered the description part of it in just three classes. I leave it to the imagination of the readers the rest of the thing. But students did not relent and put spokes in his lectures. Somehow he managed these few classes with great difficulty and ultimately proceeded forward.

Within a week after this hullabaloo, he was dealing with Cupid shooting the arrow on Lord Siva and the devas from the sky were shouting at Siva requesting him to please stop and cried U MA. (Please 'Don't), but by then it was late. Manmatha was reduced to ashes.

As the Sanskrit pandit was explaining the term UMA, there was a sound from some corner of the lecture room 'Maa, Maa' like the bleating of a goat. The noise started increasing and we saw a goat emanating from one corner of the hall getting trapped on all sides by unwary students not knowing the way out.

Immediately there was a chorus from the entire class which grew louder and louder with every one shouting 'Maa, Maa' and the entire hall was reverberating with that sound. Sanskrit pandit was at first flabbergasted not knowing the reason for the chorus , but later when he saw the helpless goat in the corner of the hall getting cornered not knowing how to escape and go out, the pandit asked the students in that part of the hall to give way and allow the goat to go away.

Bleating Maa,Maa, the goat ran out of the hall with the entire hall reverberating with that sound. This drama lasted for more than thirty minutes.

Nobody knew till date how the goat managed to come to the hall in the first floor of the building. The class was over by then and everybody vacated the hall shouting Maa, Maa and a few shouting U Maa, U Maa. Whether this was the climax in Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa or not, this was the climax for the entire class which I couldn't forget till date!
 
rgurus said:
St Joseph's college
Sanskrit class hullabaloo
My second language was Sanskrit in my high school as well as in intermediate. 'Mudhra Rakshasa Nataka Katha' was our prose and 'Kumarasambava' of Kalidasa was our poetry prescribed for the course. Usually in all schools and colleges, Sanskrit teachers are the 'taken for granted tribes' generally ignored by the faculty and pooh poohed by the student community. Our Sanskrit teacher at the college was a lean figure with a tuft that would immediately create a revulsion among the students even in those days. He was handling Kumarasambhava for us. As per our syllabus we had the first three cantos i.e., up to the birth of Kumara for our course.

" Kumarasambhava essentially talks about the courtship of Lord Shiva and Parvati. of course all of us or at least most of us are aware of the story and so there is no need for me to narrate it.

The first three cantos deal mainly with description of Himalayas, Devas appeal to Parvathi, penance of lord Siva, burning of Manmatha by opening the third eye of Siva, restoration of Manmatha visible to only Rathi, courtship between Parvathi and Siva, how Parvathi wins over Siva and takes his hand and the birth of Kumara.

In the canto that deals with the romance of Siva and Parvathi, there comes the 'Padhathikesa description of Parvathi running to over, may be a dozen slokas.

Every sloka of Kalidasa is beautiful beyond words. Our Sanskrit pandit would read out the sloka first, then give word by word meaning, elaborating the overall meaning of the sloka, the grammatical peculiarities involved, vigrahavakyas of important words, the details of the tenses involved, roots of some of the words and the different forms it will assume, the similies and metaphors therein, a complete analysis of words based on Panini Sutra and so on, thus spending about thirty minutes for each sloka.

So in each class he would cover at the most two slokas. No student ever cared to interrupt his lectures for asking any doubt or clarification not because they didn't have any doubt, but because of their inherent inertia and disinterest. Everything went on well till we reached the canto describing Parvathi from foot to head. He was trying to go fast to cover these slokas without spending as much time as he used to for the other slokas.

Students who never stood up in the class to ask doubts started standing up and asking doubts on certain delicate points pertaining to the description of Parvathi's Angalakshanam. In literature these are all very common, but to tackle it in a class room to young students becomes very embarrassing to anybody. Those who have read this part of Kumarasambhava will understand the delicacy involved in dealing with it and in teaching it to the youngsters, all being males (fortunately there were no girl students, since the college was a men's college).

Every one started asking as many doubts as possible just for the fun of it and to put the teacher in an embarrassment. Pandit said that these were not very important and that the students could read this part themselves and tried to skip it.

There was huge protest from all corners of the hall with thumping of desks and floor, saying that the teacher should explain them in detail as he had done so far. He paid no heed to these requests(!) and covered the description part of it in just three classes. I leave it to the imagination of the readers the rest of the thing. But students did not relent and put spokes in his lectures. Somehow he managed these few classes with great difficulty and ultimately proceeded forward.

Within a week after this hullabaloo, he was dealing with Cupid shooting the arrow on Lord Siva and the devas from the sky were shouting at Siva requesting him to please stop and cried U MA. (Please 'Don't), but by then it was late. Manmatha was reduced to ashes.

As the Sanskrit pandit was explaining the term UMA, there was a sound from some corner of the lecture room 'Maa, Maa' like the bleating of a goat. The noise started increasing and we saw a goat emanating from one corner of the hall getting trapped on all sides by unwary students not knowing the way out.

Immediately there was a chorus from the entire class which grew louder and louder with every one shouting 'Maa, Maa' and the entire hall was reverberating with that sound. Sanskrit pandit was at first flabbergasted not knowing the reason for the chorus , but later when he saw the helpless goat in the corner of the hall getting cornered not knowing how to escape and go out, the pandit asked the students in that part of the hall to give way and allow the goat to go away.

Bleating Maa,Maa, the goat ran out of the hall with the entire hall reverberating with that sound. This drama lasted for more than thirty minutes.

Nobody knew till date how the goat managed to come to the hall in the first floor of the building. The class was over by then and everybody vacated the hall shouting Maa, Maa and a few shouting U Maa, U Maa. Whether this was the climax in Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa or not, this was the climax for the entire class which I couldn't forget till date!
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Ha ha ha...so you have a goat story Maa Maa Maa!LOL

Come to think of it UMA does not seem too good a name to keep.

Elsewhere I read that U Ma(O' Dont) was uttered by Parvati's mother when she wanted to dissuade Parvati from taking severe penance to win over Shiva.

But whatever the story behind the name it just means O' Dont.

How good can that be when a name just means O' Don't?
 
Dear Sir...when I was in final year we had a wonderful lady proff an intelligent Tamil Brahmin lady ..she had some real crazy streak in her.

Once in class she suddenly said today she wants to dance and sing instead of teaching!LOL

So she asked the guys to sing a Tamil song and one guy sang "Surangani Surangani" using the lecture tables as drums and she started dancing Dapangkuttu with some male students and also wanted us females to join.

The class was roaring in laughter and then guys also sang Tu Cheez Badi Mast Mast and it was utter chaos and the one more lecturer from the other class came to see what was going on.

He got a shock of his life when he saw that it was the lady proff who was dancing with everyone.

It was near exams and she said she wanted to make everyone happy and relaxed..she wanted us to remember her forever and I sure remember her till today.

A very traditional looking lady but totally unconventional in methodology...a gem if you ask me.
 
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renuka said:
Ha ha ha...so you have a goat story Maa Maa Maa!LOL

Come to think of it UMA does not seem too good a name to keep.

Elsewhere I read that U Ma(O' Dont) was uttered by Parvati's mother when she wanted to dissuade Parvati from taking severe penance to win over Shiva.

But whatever the story behind the name it just means O' Dont.

How good can that be when a name just means O' Don't?
Click to expand...


I am not a Sanskrit scholar. But my Sister and my wife are named UMA and I am very partial to that name.


  • Indian Meaning: Uma (goddess) is the name of a Hindu goddess (Parvati) and also means "Mother" or "Lady of the Mountains". The name also means "tranquility" in Sanskrit and "bright" in Hindi/Sanskrit.
In Sanskrit the word umā can further mean "tranquillity", "splendour", "fame" and "night".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uma_(given_name)
 
prasad1 said:
I am not a Sanskrit scholar. But my Sister and my wife are named UMA and I am very partial to that name.


  • Indian Meaning: Uma (goddess) is the name of a Hindu goddess (Parvati) and also means "Mother" or "Lady of the Mountains". The name also means "tranquility" in Sanskrit and "bright" in Hindi/Sanskrit.
In Sanskrit the word umā can further mean "tranquillity", "splendour", "fame" and "night".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uma_(given_name)
Click to expand...

Dear Prasad ji...take my name for instance
Renuka..from the word Renu which means dust or minute particle..
Sometimes used to denote micro as in Tsarenu(micro measurement of time).

Frankly even my name does not have all great a meaning.


But when you look up the meaning of Renuka online.
It says name of Mother of Parasurama.

No detail meaning is given.

Likewise when you look up online for Uma.
All just talk about Parvati.
but the literal meaning is O' Dont.

Ma in Sanskrit means Dont...eg in Geeta we see Krishna say Ma Suchah..meaning Dont Worry.


Why go so far..Seeta means Furrow but look online you wil find explanations linking it to Seeta and making the name sound Holy.


Literal meanings of names at times might not be all that what we were conditioned to believe.
 
While the Sanskrit word रेणु means fine dust, the story of Renuka has nothing to do with it.

The (puranic) story told since time immemorial is that she was the chaste and pious wife of sage Jamadaagni, child of Richika and Satyavati. He was a Brahma-rishi, a pious sage, deeply engaged in Vedic studies, utterly devoted to the proper and timely performance of yagnams and other religious rites.

His wife was Renuka. On account of her exemplary chastity, unflagging devotion to pathi-vrathaa dharmam and fidelity to husband and home, he had conferred on her the unique power to roll up pure river water into a ball and to transport it without resorting to containers.

She did this daily, leaving the rishi-aashramam before dawn, bathing in the nearby river, and bringing home abhishega-theertham for her husband's own bath and performance of nithya-karmam and other regular religious rites.

According to one version, early one day when she went to the river for her ablutions, she beheld a pair of nude Gandharva couple sporting and playing uninhibited in the water and engaging in rasa leela. The sight excited and aroused her and made her envious of their pleasure. According to another version, while bathing in the river before dawn one morning she saw flying overhead the young and handsome demon Kaarthaveeraarjunan and momentarily was thrilled by his manly muscular physique and flying skill.

After her bath, Renuka found she had lost her power to gather water into a ball, no matter how hard she tried. She hurried home to fetch a pair of large kudams, filled them with river water and brought them home.

Husband Jamadaagni who had been waiting, asked her why the kudams instead of the usual ball of pure river water. She stammered some excuse. But the sage, through his powers of doora-dhrishti, saw exactly what had happened, said she had lost her chastity and violated her pathi-vrathaa-dharmam.

He called the eldest of his five sons and ordered him to take Renuka to the forest and kill her. The son refused, citing "sthree-hathhi dosham". He did not accept that the father's command overrode any dosham. The second, third and fourth sons did the same.

Jamadaagni finally called on his youngest son, Brahmachaari Parashuraama, the one with the axe. That son obediently took Renuka to the forest, and executed her with his axe, severing head from body. He then went to the river, washed his axe, bathed, did his pithru karma for his mother's soul and salvation, and prescribed expiatory rites for his own act. (In Raamaayanam, Sree Raama did the same after killing Braahmana king Raavana in Lanka.)

Jamadaagni hugged his son Parashuraaama and kissed him on the top of his head for having duly carried out his father's orders faithfully. Then he asked his son what boon he could give in return. The son asked that his mother be restored to life. Jasmadaagni agreed; and son and father set out to the forest in search of the severed body of Renuka.

They found the severed body minus the head, which apparently had been carried away by some wild animal. Hunting hither and thither, no head could be found. The sun was about to set, and after sunset Jamadaagni's powers to restore life would have ceased. The situation became desperate.

They finally came to the outskirts of a Dalit village. As per that village's custom, the body of a dead Dalit woman was thrown outside the limits of the village. On his father's orders, Parashuraama cut off the corpse's head. Jamadaagni then fixed the dead Dalit woman's severed head on to the lifeless body of Renuka, sprinkled sacred water and pronounced the
requisite manthrams.

The corpse with Renuka's body affixed to the Dalit woman's head sprang to life.

Jamadagni told his son to embrace his re-created mother. Woman and boy rushed towards each other. The boy looked at the woman's face, stopped suddenly and said, "This is NOT my mother: this is someone else," and turned away.

The woman was also disappointed, and asked Sage Jamadaagni what she should do since the boy had rejected her and it was the sage who had brought her to life.

Jamadaagni said she would be a "kaaval deivam", with shrines located outside Dalit villages. As she was a "changed mother", she would be known as மாறின அம்மா or மாரியம்மா ("Maariamma"). She would have power to cause and to cure infants' aliments, especially smallpox. She would be called in Sanskrit "Seethalaa-devi" (Goddess of Smallpox).

Wherever you go to Maariamman temples, usually served by pandaarams and not by Brahmin priests, you can see the figure in the central shrine is that of a being with a black face and head and the body of a white woman. The severed white head of Renuka will be found on the ground nearby. The same with pictures of Maariamman.

So, the Renuka of long ago, is the Maariamman of today.

S Narayanaswamy Iyer
 
S Narayanaswamy Iyer said:
While the Sanskrit word रेणु means fine dust, the story of Renuka has nothing to do with it.

The (puranic) story told since time immemorial is that she was the chaste and pious wife of sage Jamadaagni, child of Richika and Satyavati. He was a Brahma-rishi, a pious sage, deeply engaged in Vedic studies, utterly devoted to the proper and timely performance of yagnams and other religious rites.

His wife was Renuka. On account of her exemplary chastity, unflagging devotion to pathi-vrathaa dharmam and fidelity to husband and home, he had conferred on her the unique power to roll up pure river water into a ball and to transport it without resorting to containers.

She did this daily, leaving the rishi-aashramam before dawn, bathing in the nearby river, and bringing home abhishega-theertham for her husband's own bath and performance of nithya-karmam and other regular religious rites.

According to one version, early one day when she went to the river for her ablutions, she beheld a pair of nude Gandharva couple sporting and playing uninhibited in the water and engaging in rasa leela. The sight excited and aroused her and made her envious of their pleasure. According to another version, while bathing in the river before dawn one morning she saw flying overhead the young and handsome demon Kaarthaveeraarjunan and momentarily was thrilled by his manly muscular physique and flying skill.

After her bath, Renuka found she had lost her power to gather water into a ball, no matter how hard she tried. She hurried home to fetch a pair of large kudams, filled them with river water and brought them home.

Husband Jamadaagni who had been waiting, asked her why the kudams instead of the usual ball of pure river water. She stammered some excuse. But the sage, through his powers of doora-dhrishti, saw exactly what had happened, said she had lost her chastity and violated her pathi-vrathaa-dharmam.

He called the eldest of his five sons and ordered him to take Renuka to the forest and kill her. The son refused, citing "sthree-hathhi dosham". He did not accept that the father's command overrode any dosham. The second, third and fourth sons did the same.

Jamadaagni finally called on his youngest son, Brahmachaari Parashuraama, the one with the axe. That son obediently took Renuka to the forest, and executed her with his axe, severing head from body. He then went to the river, washed his axe, bathed, did his pithru karma for his mother's soul and salvation, and prescribed expiatory rites for his own act. (In Raamaayanam, Sree Raama did the same after killing Braahmana king Raavana in Lanka.)

Jamadaagni hugged his son Parashuraaama and kissed him on the top of his head for having duly carried out his father's orders faithfully. Then he asked his son what boon he could give in return. The son asked that his mother be restored to life. Jasmadaagni agreed; and son and father set out to the forest in search of the severed body of Renuka.

They found the severed body minus the head, which apparently had been carried away by some wild animal. Hunting hither and thither, no head could be found. The sun was about to set, and after sunset Jamadaagni's powers to restore life would have ceased. The situation became desperate.

They finally came to the outskirts of a Dalit village. As per that village's custom, the body of a dead Dalit woman was thrown outside the limits of the village. On his father's orders, Parashuraama cut off the corpse's head. Jamadaagni then fixed the dead Dalit woman's severed head on to the lifeless body of Renuka, sprinkled sacred water and pronounced the
requisite manthrams.

The corpse with Renuka's body affixed to the Dalit woman's head sprang to life.

Jamadagni told his son to embrace his re-created mother. Woman and boy rushed towards each other. The boy looked at the woman's face, stopped suddenly and said, "This is NOT my mother: this is someone else," and turned away.

The woman was also disappointed, and asked Sage Jamadaagni what she should do since the boy had rejected her and it was the sage who had brought her to life.

Jamadaagni said she would be a "kaaval deivam", with shrines located outside Dalit villages. As she was a "changed mother", she would be known as மாறின அம்மா or மாரியம்மா ("Maariamma"). She would have power to cause and to cure infants' aliments, especially smallpox. She would be called in Sanskrit "Seethalaa-devi" (Goddess of Smallpox).

Wherever you go to Maariamman temples, usually served by pandaarams and not by Brahmin priests, you can see the figure in the central shrine is that of a being with a black face and head and the body of a white woman. The severed white head of Renuka will be found on the ground nearby. The same with pictures of Maariamman.

So, the Renuka of long ago, is the Maariamman of today.

S Narayanaswamy Iyer
Click to expand...

Arey yaar..this is a Purana story..the literal meaning of Renu is dust.

Btw why are you using the word Loss of Chastity for Parashuramas mother?

All she did was admire the looks of another male
.its not as if she had any physical contact with any other male.

That way so many married women admired Prabhas and Rana in Bahubali...does that amount to loss of chastity and off with their heads?LOL


Btw Jamadagni being a sage seemed to have poor judgment..beheading for looking at another man?
Why so much anger yet called Rishi..at least Sage Gautama didnt kill Ahalya.

This is all male chavinistics stories.
 
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I would like to say this though it may have nothing to do with the main thrust of the posts so far in the thread.

Renu means dust in Sanskrit.

Dust is the irreducible visible particle of matter.

There are families where boys and girls (even after they become grown up and having their own children)are called குழந்தே, செல்லக்குட்டி etc., by elders. So Renuka is just a குழந்தை or a செல்லக்குட்டி.

For those with an intellectual or picturesque bent of mind, irreducible last unit in the art of communication is alphabet (aksharam) and the irreducible single aksharam with an ocean full of meaning is அ the first letter making the vyAhruthi Aum. It stands for God. So Renuka in six letters is what God is indicated in just one letter from the Om. Howzaat? LOL.

I asked my wife to hold the empty cup and saucer so that I can pat myself on my own back. LOL.
 
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Vaagmi said:
I would like to say this though it may have nothing to do with the main thrust of the posts so far in the thread.

Renu means dust in Sanskrit.

Dust is the irreducible visible particle of matter.

There are families where boys and girls (even after they become grown up and having their own children)are called குழந்தே, செல்லக்குட்டி etc., by elders. So Renuka is just a குழந்தை or a செல்லக்குட்டி.

For those with an intellectual or picturesque bent of mind, irreducible last unit in the art of communication is alphabet (aksharam) and the irreducible single aksharam with an ocean full of meaning is அ the first letter making the vyAhruthi Aum. It stands for God. So Renuka in six letters is what God is indicated in just one letter from the Om. Howzaat? LOL.

I asked my wife to hold the empty cup and saucer so that I can pat myself on my own back. LOL.
Click to expand...

Anyway..Venur Madhuro, Renur Madhurah..so everything is Madhuram!
 
St Joseph's college
Intermediate final examination fiasco:
I had already said that intermediate was a two year course after eleven years of schooling before going in for any undergraduate course. I don't understand why we call these courses undergraduate courses. (we don't have any course in our system which we call "Graduate Courses".) Then after completing the undergraduate course , one joins a postgraduate course. Of course, now we don't have intermediate which is replaced by plus one and plus two of the higher secondary courses after only 10 years of schooling.

Taking you back to my days, the exam at the end of first year was a class exam while the second year exam was a university exam common to all colleges in the University, like SSLC exam being common to the entire state. While most people were aspiring to join Engineering after completion of their intermediate, I had a strong desire to join mathematics honours course of three years duration equivalent to M.Sc. The honours courses have since been abolished.

Question paper leakage
Our intermediate university exam was notified, and we were in right earnest preparing for the exams. On the previous day of the examination , we got a copy of the so called leaked paper for English 2 but there was a confusion regarding English paper 1. It seemed that Paper 1 also had leaked out, but we didn't get a copy of it while some people claimed to have got it.

Next morning, exam on English paper 1 went on without any incidents and in the afternoon paper 2 was scheduled. During the mid interval, suddenly there was a spate of rumours to the effect that ALL the intermediate examination papers were "OUT ". We were given the copy of the question papers by students who got such information from their friends and relatives at Madras. Some students got these papers the previous night itself and a few of us were unaware of it.

There was all round confusion. If I prepared for the fake question paper only, and in case the same questions appeared in the exam, definitely it was an indication that the paper was out and in that case there was bound to be a re-exam and hence all our present preparation would be a waste. Otherwise if the question paper which we got was spurious, then those questions were not going to appear in the genuine question paper and therefore it was of no use preparing for those questions. With this logic, I omitted those portions pertaining to the leaked questions.
When I entered the exam hall, everyone was tense, with hopes and doubts in equal measure. All of us occupied our respective seats and were ready to take English paper 2. Answer papers were already kept in our seats and the invigilators started distributing the question paper.
As soon as the first student received the question, paper, he stood up and told the invigilator that the question paper was out. The teacher asked him to sit down and write the exam and within a few minutes all the students stood up and said in a chorus that the paper was "out". But the staff in charge firmly and bluntly said that irrespective of the fact whether the paper was "out" or not, we had to answer the paper. ( continued)
 
Prasad1 Veteran: "Did she not have children? Wasn't chastity lost for the that?"

Perverse/sick minds would call rendering husband his marital rights loss of chastity. (Is the critic accusing his mother of losing her chastity in conceiving him?)

Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God, of hallowed Christian legend,had several children, both boys and girls, after giving birth to Jesus the Christ, as the sacred Gospels themselves attest. Did she lose her chastity thereby? Why is she still called Virgin by Christian worshippers?

Adverts in English-language newspapers in India announce "married virgin-widows" ready for re-marriage. These women hadn't lost their chastity during wifehood?

Our daily praatha-smarana slokams include --

ahalya draupathi seethaa thaara mandodaree thathaa
pancha kanyaahaha smarennithym mahaapaathaka naashanam.

These five are chaste virgins?

S Narayanaswamy Iyer
 
Chastity is an English word. It is not from Hindu Texts. So Mr. Iyer, please understand the context of the post.

chas·ti·ty

(chăs′tĭ-tē)n.The condition or quality of being chaste, especially the condition of not having had sexual intercourse or of abstaining from sexual relations.

chastity

(ˈtʃæstɪtɪ)n1. the state of being chaste; purity
2. abstention from sexual intercourse; virginity or celibacy: a vow of chastity.

[C13: from Old French chasteté, from Latin castitās, from castus chaste]


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chastity

This is one of the definitions, you can always find other definitions in another dictionary.

Classical origin

The word derives from the Latin castitas, the abstract form of castus, which originally meant a pure state of conformity with the Greco-Roman religion. As the etymological link suggests, castigation, chastisement, and in the extreme case, even castration originally relate to the use of harsh means to preserve or restore this state of purity. This meaning is preserved fully in the parallel term "chastening."


http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Chastity
 
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