My cousin sister had the reputation of being known as an all time scholar whom no one could beat (at studies that is, physically she was frail then and would cry at being touched), she had the impeccable performance of scoring straight A’s throughout her school education.
No only was she talented in her studies but she also used to dance and sing well. She was one favorite cousin of mine, probably because of the fact that we spent most of our childhood together.
My cousin brother bettered my cousin sister, but his problem was that he was forced to study, he had a strict dad. His dad was my dads younger brother who was of the idea that you cannot achieve anything without studies and even went to the extent of putting ideas into my dads head. A result of which was whip lashing me with a belt if I failed to score ranks.
At least my dad was reasonable, he would belt me only if I did not get a rank (which seldom happened until I reached my 5th standard) on the other hand my cousin would face the belt if he scored any rank below 1st. Such was the ordeal that he had to face. So getting the first rank for my cousin brother was a matter of survival, whereas my sister did it out of her love for studies.
I am being so forthright about my cousins because I never made it to the premier ranks after I joined FHS, the reason was partly that the new building that I moved into had many children belonging to the same age group as mine and my inner child woke up and wanted to do things that it never did get a chance to, and partly because the teachers in this new school were all grumpy, no one bothered to find out if you really did understand something, they were all of the types “copy from the board and ask ur parents for help… and if you are rich enough hire a tutor”, there were a few exceptions to these, but I am classifying the vast majority.
Now my parents were of the idea that if you are smart and intelligent you should not be going to tuitions, the T-word was dreaded in my family and was regarded to as a shame equivalent to getting ones daughter gang raped. The fact that the teaching abilities of the teachers should be taken into account before drawing a conclusion never crossed their minds once, and my ranks took a beating. They forever believed that teacher is an all knowing guru who thinks its his prime responsibility to impart knowledge and shape tender minds, it is what a teacher should ideally be, but the naïve minds of my parents fails to accept the reality over idealism, and they still think the same.
My ranks did take a dip in FHS, and I was never the same person again personally. I had immatured (I know that this is not a word), people mature with time, but for once I immatured and enjoyed every single moment. Now that I look back at it I realize that I have had the best life to my siblings envy.
I will take this up in detail in my concluding chapters, for now its my Chembur residence that gets the spotlight.
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