Catch the Positive - The Home Work Book - ಮನೆಕೆಲಸದ ಪುಸ್ತಕ

The primary school in which I studied was very unique. St. Philomena's School was a Convent Girls school. We had many sisters as teachers and all the subjects were taught by a single teacher who was also the Class teacher. So as students we would interface only with seven teachers during our time in the school. In total there were only 14 teachers/sisters for 1 to 7th std. This was one of the ways the school had optimized the expenses hence we had very low School Fees. 

Here are some of the rare practices of the school:

• Every day as homework we had to write multiplication tables on one side of the slate and some diction words on the other side. Other school children did not even know what a slate is!
• At school once a week there will be a dictation given for the tables and words. The slates from Section A are corrected by Section B and Vice versa. Whichever section gets the highest marks is the winner. This happed every week all the years!
• There were no uniform shoes, belts, and ties. Just plain Green pinafore and a yellow shirt! Bare simple!
• Every year the school day performance happened twice. One performance for school kids and again once more for the parents. This was they avoided the crowds and also rehearsal for the performance in front of the parents
• For the school day, students got a Puff and honey cake from a bakery about a Kilo Meter away.
• Children made a chain from school to the bakery and passed the trays to each other. This is how these bakery items reached school! Very cost-effective at the same time a superb team building activity.
• Independence day, Gandhi Jayathi, Republic day was never celebrated. I wonder why?
• It was a Kannada medium school where A, B, C, D was introduced at Class 5.
• Class Room Maintenance was done by the school children during the last period of the school. Each class was divided into 5-6 groups. In a round-robin fashion, each group had to sweep and mop their own classroom for a week. As I remember the whole school had hardly 2 support staff.
• During this time others had to sit outside but near the classroom and have to complete the home assignments!

These practices helped to shape me up in some way and at the same time denied few joys of life. Maybe life became too academic and creativity was hit hard!

But one thing which undoubtedly was helpful was the Home workbook. This had to be done at home. Here we had to write in a sentence what is the good work that we did the previous day. Like how did we help others at home, in the neighborhood, or at school? I remember as a young girl, I was always searching for ways to help someone. My Grandma, Grandfather, parents, and siblings. Even I looked out if people needed help to cross the road so that I can write in that book.

I stopped writing this after I left the school, in a subconscious way it has stuck to me. I look for ways I can be of help to someone. I constantly, look for the Good and positive in People which I can adopt- which I note as 'Catch the Positive' - ನನ್ನ ಹೊಸ ಮನೆಕೆಲಸದ ಪುಸ್ತಕ.

My Childhood Google - The Central Library

The library has been my favorite place ever since I was little. One of the first places I started to visit ever since I started cycling was the Central Library at Hassan! My father made me two library cards. For me, my bicycle and the library were intertwined.

It was a very serene place in my hometown. As you enter there was a large hall, with a huge table. There were newspapers all around the table, on either side of this hall were racks of books segregated according to the subject. There were many people who visited to sit and read the newspaper. But there were hardly any ladies in the library. That was a huge letdown.

There were all sorts of books in the reference section. Particularly many fat ones. My favorite among them was Children Encyclopaedia, Balaprapancha – Makkalavishwakosha by Dr. Shivarama Karath. Other books were arranged on neat shelves. There were books on different subjects. Religious, spiritual, literature, history, culture, and many more. If there was any competition at school, the first stop would be the Library. 

This Library was my childhood "Google”.  I have spent most of my holidays here. The librarian here was Venu, who had a good taste for the books. He helped me with identifying good books by his review before checking out. Since I was very new to English books those days, the only source of the review was the scribble that was done by the previous readers. I have issued books many times based on these scribblings only. I have thanked the writer if I found the book good else of course criticized it!

I can never forget Central Library at Hassan since this place brings out many tender memories and made me an ardent reader!