Kamlas India

From my various trips to India it sounds like the school structure has undergone quite a bit of change. In fact, it has become quite Americanized. I don’t hear kids talk about quarterly, half-yearly and annual exams. Instead, I hear them discussing about their unit tests, weekly tests and semester exams. Quite a few of them have computer classes from their primary class! By the way, have you seen those mini-suitcases that these kids haul to their classes? The bags these kids carry rival the roll-on carts that I have spotted in various school corridors in Silicon Valley.

I also noticed that there is an absence of fear among many of the young students. There is no fear of that dreaded progress report card, and whether that promotion to the next standard has come through.

As kids our lives were structured around these dreaded exams and quizzes. These exams were punctuated by well-deserved holidays. Right after quarterly exams we had the Navaratri and Diwali holidays. New clothes, good food and cash gifts from our parents made us happy campers during this festive season.

But, all good things have to come to an end, and it was back to school and getting our act together for the half-yearly exams. Our maths teacher who was always behind her schedule would fret about completing x, y, z chapters before the exams, and we would be asked to do extra homework or “sums homework,” as we called them.

On the bright side, some of us were able to bunk classes the legit way. The reason? The annual Christmas play and Christmas carols show. I always managed to land a role in the play and was a member of the choir. This was a perfect excuse for me not to attend those dreaded ‘maths” classes, and in the last minute I could be seen busily cramming the formulae without a clue on how to apply them to the problems and solve them!

I would be off to the roof or “terrace” of the house to study. And guess what? Every terrace in the neighborhood had kids like me cramming for exams. We could be seen pacing back and forth on the terrace and busy “mugging” and learning things “by heart.” Our parents kept a scorecard by pointing out so and so was up studying in the terrace at such a such a time. Believe me there was a lot of competition and pressure to do well in the exams.

The half-yearly exams were typically held in the second-third week of December, and by 20th of December or thereabouts we would have the Christmas Play. Generally the last day of school would be half-a-day, which meant that we could go home by 2 pm or so. For two weeks we had our winter hols, and this was the time for us to goof off. But forces outside our control conspired against us and invariably we would be stuck inside the house.

What were these forces? The first was the fact that December was the tail end of the retreating monsoon and the potential for heavy showers and thunderstorms. I am not a rain-person and don’t enjoy sloshing around in the rain- clogged streets. And traveling to our favorite destination Bangalore was out of the question since it was typically very cold during that time of the year. So, we generally did not travel during the month of December at all.

The second factor was that December was some kind of “masam” or religious season –the month before Pongal-- when religiosity was its peak. (I don’t remember the exact name for this “masam.”) We would be woken up every morning at 5 am sharp with the muezzin’s call for prayers. I did not need any alarm or wake-up call, the muezzin’s call for prayers was sufficient to wake me up. This was just the beginning of the day. There was more in store for us. Starting at 5.45 am we were subjected to loud Tamil religious songs from various loud-speakers. You could listen to MS, and others sing holy bhajans and other religious songs. And the few times that I stepped out of the house, I vividly recollect our neighbors busy sweeping their front-yards and drawing kolam on the cleaned surface. And mind you it was still dark outside at this time of the year.

By 6.15 am the milkman would come with his cows and buffalos and shout, “Ma, pal, ma!” This was a signal for my mother to step out and watch him milk the cow. The goal was there would be no “kalapaddam” or adulteration of the milk. My parents resisted buying the “packet milk” from Aavin for the longest time. We were probably one of the last ones in our block who finally caved and started buying Aavin milk.

Unlike in the US, we did not exchange gifts for Christmas. Our biggest treat was New Year’s Eve when we would be allowed to watch TV until midnight. This was the time when Doordarshan had finally started showing programs from other TV channels. What this meant was we could see Surendernath (I think that is his name) the famous Hindi/Rajasthani “hasia kavi,” and other Hindi programs. This is when we got to see a good portion of Hindi programs in Madras.

And the day after New Year’s was our last day of hols before school opened on 3rd January.

If you cut to the present situation -- many schools have shortened their December hols to just a week. I found out from the kids in my extended family that their schools will stay open until December 24th.

And for me hols has become “vacation.” Christmas time means flying home for “hols” for many desis in the USA. I am going off on a vacation to catch some rays and bask in the sun, and not wear all these layers of clothes to ward off the bitter winter of New York.