Memories - Back To School

Oh my Good old school days.. got to say i love those brown paper cover all in uniform way.. now they got so many varities.. hahaha 3 different colors of uniform.. we have 2 kind must and should white on friday, other days blue and white, schools are just squeezing from parents for every silly thing.

 

Kudos to sister @umaakumar for nostalgia. This post transports mind of the aged reader to the era during which previous to previous generation of students in school. She had brought before my eyes school days of mine and my sister when there was no co-education.

Boys school separated from girls’ and there were many boy schools in a given locality. While i had no prescribed uniform, my sister was wearing uniform to school. I remember pink colour of her மேலாக்கு-தாவணி
Uniform in that halfsaree.

For me in school i had no uniform which was a great relief to me and my parents as well. For many years i went to school barefoot. I remember mom when with great difficulty she purchased that canvas shoe for use when i joined the Club And later in Scouts.

As a brother, many days i used to electric iron my sisters washed uniform. For few years, she had to wash her uniform daily immediately after her return from school and mother would insist her to change to normal dress only her washing uniform and taking bath.

Plastic coated brown wrapping paper was then not available rather not invented and so there was no question of compulsory covering of text books and note books.

I have a penchant even now for wrapping any book new or old - the moment I see it lying without cover. I took great pleasure in wrapping my sister’s and my children text and note books. I used thick calendar sheets for covering books in my library. Stout-books i break them into handable volumes and bind and wrap it. Wrapping lead to learn to bind the books old and new. I did for many of my friends- of course for a price.

In the name of inculcating discipline among students, many middlemen, educationist, administrators, agents of stationers and textile manufacturers and suppliers of other accessories introduced corrupt practices in the elementary education and the cut for every one adds to the final price making schooling a costly affair for parents.

 

But then i suppose i enjoyed walking to school barefoot. Because i never missed a pair of footwear either at school or from entrance to pillair koil close proximity to school & home.

I enjoyed playing in open-vast-school-sand-filled-ground without any bother of losing chappal. Great days playing for sadu-gudu teams and hopping too. Outdoor activity naturally under-sun-shine helped body processing vitamin D.

Attending school and classes, puntuality, standing outside the class or on bench or impositions never impelled to runaway from school. Articulated oratorical competition, moral science, an hour class weekly once to read stories from library, tutions to juniors in neighbourhood, school dramas in open auditorium etc floods my mind with sweet thoughts that i enjoyed.

Many activity or affronts that i encountered during school days when compared with today’s school atmosphere, i deemed to have suffered Himalayan size but then i never felt any hardship at all!

That was the result i believe in simple living & high thinking.

I recollect a similar thread by @iyerviji
School Days Were The Best

Thanks to @umaakumar once again that propelled me to revisit the page here.

 

Interesting write-up, Uma. Yes, times are so different now from what the were in our days. Our parents used to tell us how they had to walk miles to school and back, how they ate last night's rice soaked in water overnignt for breakfast, had fresh food when they got back home and the same thing at night.

We had to wear uniform Mon-Thu, a P.T. uniform on Monday, wear black shoes to school, carry a pair of canvas shoes for P.T. periods. Yes, books were covered in newspaper or brown paper. No stickers, no plastic cover etc.

Every generation's life requirements keep getting more and more complex. Sometimes I wonder if all this is really necessary. Bringing up kids is certainly a very expensive matter for parents!

 

A LIKE here to my feedback from my revered ever Guru @Cheeniya offers great hope for future contribution in IL forums.
Thank you Sir with Love!
Regards.

 

This brings back so many memories.
My father would go to this small shop in Mylapore tank. He would have to tell the syllabus and standard and they would give him the bundle of textbooks. Our school insisted that we buy notebooks only from a particular shop.
Then we would have to put the brown paper covers and labels, and then make sure everything fit into the school bag.
One of my teachers was raising her family on a limited income, so she would always ask me and my brother to save the textbooks for her children, as they were exactly one class behind us. So we would have to be careful not to make any notes or markings in the textbook itself.
Our uniform was a simple white and navy cotton. We would wear white canvas shoes and apply white shoe polish. There were hardly 4-5 kids in the whole school who had relatives abroad and they would wear Nike or Reebok shoes. We would look enviously at them.
For girls we had the option of shirt and skirt, shirt and trousers, salwar kameez or half-saree. Almost all the girls chose shirt-skirt. For sports day once a week we would wear all white. We only had 2-3 sets of uniform and 1 pair of shoes so we had to take good care of everything.

 

I used to collect from my juniors & seniors all their text & note books. Left over blank pages in note books would be my fair note books for next academic year. Text books so collected would be given to the needy.

Even after distribution so collected text books, still i used to have few more sets which i exchange for new or second hand text books for the succeeding academic year in the then Moore Market now turned into booking office at central railway station (MGR RAILWAY STATION). I used to walk to & fro to Moore Market from Triplicane, Chennai. Bus fare one anna was considered expensive for me.