Innocent exploration of life

[JUSTIFY]Those days there were no play or kinder garden schools. I was 4 years old and I wanted to go to a school. My parents decided to take me to a school and see whether I would be admitted into a school at that age. They took me to the Ramakrishna Mission Elementary school. When they started talking to the Head Master, he politely declined admission as I was too young. Watching this, I decided to find a short cut. I picked up a coin in my pocket and offered it to the Head Master seeking my admission. My parents were alarmed by this action and started apologizing profusely. However, Head Master after understanding my keenness to learn decided to admit me into the school. Mission accomplished.

I managed to buy a slate and a box full of slate stick to take it to the school on the first day. I was all dressed up to go to the school. My mother took me to the school and handed me over to the class teacher promising him to pick me up later in the afternoon. I was so excited to attend a class and happy to meet class room full of friends. They were all very kind to accept the youngest kid in the class warmly. Most of them knew to write a few numbers and a few alphabets. I didn’t know any alphabets but the teacher was patient to teach me alphabets and numbers all day. At the end of the day, he decided to test how many students knew a few alphabets and numbers. He came to each desk and reviewed the slates. My friends did well and I did not even write a single number or alphabet in my slate. My teacher graded my slate as -0-/100. It is very common those days to put a dash next to a number on either side. I visualized as a picture and was very happy that my teacher had drawn something in my slate out of love.

As I was always adventurous, I decided to explore to walk to my house from the school on my own. When my mom saw me returning from school on my own to our house, she was shocked. Then, she took my slate to find out what I learned that day and was again shocked to look at the grade. I was kind enough to explain to my mom what I learned that day but told her politely that I was not able to write it in my slate as I was not able to memorize the shape of numbers and alphabets. My mother understood that I was able to write it when I see a shape in the blackboard but could not memorize that shape and repeat it when a test was conducted. She diplomatically told me that I scored a zero out of 100 and it was not a picture as I imagined.

Then she asked me whether I showed it to anyone on my way. I told her that I was able to not only show to many of my friends but also to their moms as I genuinely thought it was a picture. Then my fast track training started at home to catch up with big boys and girls in the school. Towards the end of the year, I made substantial catching up and respectable level of knowledge for a first grader. I was promoted to Grade 2. Now published books are to be bought and I have to begin reading some books and learn things at home. My dad bought some brown color wrappers for my book and nicely covered them up. Then systematically put labels at the middle of the wrapper and wrote nicely my name “Viswa” followed by class “2” and section “C”. I watched him do all that.

Then a visitor came to our house in the evening and I was inside the bedroom. My father called me to proudly introduce me to his friend and I reluctantly came out. The visitor hugged me and asked me politely, “What is your name?” and I immediately responded, “Viswa 2-C” as written in the label by my dad. My mom, dad and his friend started laughing aloud and I stood smiling not knowing why they laughed.

Note: This has happened in the year 1958 when I started to go to school and eventually I went to S.S.L.C. when I was 14 years. I had to get under age exemption to sit in the public exam. I will write more about my catching up experience later in other posts.
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Dear Insha,

Thank you for your first response to this post. I was a hyperactive child and I am sure that my parents had tough time managing me. I experienced that myself after my son was born. It is interesting that you had a natural tendency to grasp and learn things even though you had no interest to go to school. You prove without debate that "a genius is born and not made".

Viswa