KVIIT revisited -Part 1

One of my blogger friends (Mrs.Pushkala) had suggested earlier that I write about my childhood, education, initiation into music, my concert experiences and so on, here on my blog.

I thought I would make a beginning now and gradually write about these various topics.

The first thing that comes to mind is my life inside the IIT campus (Chennai) as a kid !

My father was working with the Computer Science Department in IIT and hence we lived inside the campus for about eight years.

I vividly remember my days as a school-going kid inside the campus, with its calm and serene atmosphere. The huge IIT park (which had only trees,trees and trees) was just behind our house and hence we had frequent visitors in the form of snakes,spiders and what not:-)

I happened to meet one of my teachers,Krishnamurthy Sir a few days back and asked him if he would be interested in visiting the school sometime this week. He immediately agreed and we met at school yesterday.

On the way to school I stopped at the house in which we lived all those years and took a photo there. (I was very reluctant to move away from there- I was filled with old memories- how my brother and I would go cycling merrily round the campus and how my brother and his gang would invariably be outside the house playing cricket..)



















This was the house where we lived- C-6/13, 2nd Link Road,IIT..

[If you might notice in the photo, there are small square windows from the first floor landing upto the terrace level..One incident that immediately comes to my mind is this: The festival of Holi is always celebrated in a grand manner by the IIT students staying in the hostels. My brother and I would be terrified by the sight of these colors splashed on everyone's faces and every year, on the day of Holi, we used to get up early, shut all doors and windows in the house, stuff those small square windows with newspaper (we used to think that these students would somehow find their way even through these windows to throw colors on us!!) and leave just one window open, so that we could silently stand there and peer through it stealthily to see if any students approached our house !! ]

From here, I proceeded to school and here are a few snaps that I took at the entrance.





























(That's Krishnamurthy Sir in the photo. He had been a teacher here for 27 years he said !!! Isn't that a great achievement?! He was one of the best teachers whom I have had in school.)







Proceeding chronologically, I first went to the Primary School wing and took a photo outside my 1st standard classroom :-)





(This is currently the "Primary Resource Room" I was told.)












This is the classroom in which I sat and sang in a music competition for the very first time in my life-when I was in class 2. I sang mahAgaNapatE in the raga natanArAyaNi that day and I also remember that it was the first time in my life that I got a spanking from my mother that evening because I sang without putting the tALam that day:-).(That I got the first prize in the competition is another matter-but the spanking still stays in my mind- and this was the first and last time that I forgot to put the tALam while singing :-))







This photo was taken when I was in class 5 and received the "Best Student Award" at the Primary School level.














This photo was taken when I was in class 11 and appointed as Assistant Captain of "Nethaji House":-) (wearing the red badge).(I wore spectacles while I was in my Class 11 and Class 12 :-))









(Rest to be continued in my next post....)