One of my most vivid memories of the beginning of school year is the buying of school supplies.
In my school we had to buy text books and note books.
We had to study English, malayalam, Hindi, science, social studies, and arithmetic. Hindi started from grade five. Before that there is no Hindi.
General science was split into physics, chemistry and biology from grade viii.
Social studies was split into history, geography and civics from grade viii.
Before, grade viii, that we had only one text book for social studies and one text book for science.
We had to buy notebooks for each of these subjects. We had to buy text books for each subject.
In addition we had to buy composition books, diagram books, monthly test books and transcription books.
After we buy all our books we are supposed to cover all the books with brown paper.
Detour Thought:
We had such a thing called transcription.
We had transcription for English, Hindi and malayalam.
We had a book for transcription
The malayalam transcription book had two lines close to each other.
We had to write in the space between these two lines.
Hindi transcription was the same.
English transcription had four lines close to each other.
We had to write in those four lines.
Each day we had to write one page of transcription.
We can take a proverb and repeated ly wrote that proverb in that page.
Or we can copy a passage from our text book.
Then before the teacher came we have to place the book open to the page we wrote the previous day on the table.
By the time the teacher arrived there would be a pile of open notebooks on the teachers table.
At some point the teacher would look through each book and by end of class I would get my book.
Sometimes there was check mark and initials.
Some times the word good, check mark and initials.
Sometimes the word Fair, check mark and initials.
If the teacher wrote good on my transcription page it made my day.
If it was fair I was reasonably happy.
If it was just check mark we just mechanically wrote for the next day.
Detour Thought on Detour Thought.
The advantage of writing with good handwriting in the books carefully forming the letters and words with our hand.
Was it a lot of labour with no reward.
The obvious reward of this training is the formation of a good handwriting or an aesthetically appealing handwriting.
Were there other advantages?
One day long after I left my school days behind I was a grown woman leading a life full of responsibilities without much leisure for thinking and I had a sudden memory.
The memory was about a friend who wrote down in all her notebooks in the exact same way we wrote in our transcription books.
Laboriously forming the letters the sentences the paragraphs all that the teacher wrote on the black board.
If you borrow her book for a day and take it home and if you flip the pages backward you will see every page neatly and carefully written.
There are no scrawl handwriting no hurried twirls of the pen on the page no smudging of the ink.
All you see is pages and pages of neatly written notes from the teacher.
If you think of each day in your life as a page in the book of your life or think of your life as a book and a page as a day then how you live out each day is the way you write in the book.
If you live out your life carefully the pages are all neat and pure.
If you live out your life carelessly speaking angry words you will have pages with smudged ink.
So it was helpful to write the transcription pages in three different languages to form the words and letters carefully and slowly.
Detour Thought is over.
After we buy all our books we are supposed to cover all the books with brown paper.
There is a method to covering the books.
Covering the books gives a neat appearance.
Uncrumpled crisp unmarked pristine brown paper is available to buy in all stores.
After the long summer vacation as the days inch closer toward the new school year the lazy days of summer feel like a memory and you are in a mindset to start the new school year.
Then one afternoon or morning we spread the brown paper on the floor dining table because it is the largest table in the house.
Then we cover each book.
It may take several hours.
We also have labels.
The labels had place to write my name, class, division, and subject.
So we fill in all these details and stick the label on the book and the book is ready.
There are piles of notebooks and the piles of text books.
In school I noticed the brown paper covered books of other students.
Not everyone had covered their books in paper which were in the same shade of brown.
All covered in crisp brown paper.
The brown paper with which we wrapped our books came in different shades of brown.
Some were dark brown.
Some were light brown.
Some had thin brown lines subtly drawn through out the paper.
If you examine carefully the texture of a newspaper you would see grains.
Similar grains were visible on some types of brown paper.
On the first day of school we take it to school.
English composition, malayalam composition, biology diagram, physics diagram, and chemistry diagram books were given to the teacher.
The teacher placed it in the cupboard.
The rest we lug back and forth every day to school and back from school.
For monthly test also we had books.
Detour thought
Every month we had a test.
For each test we are supposed to study the lessons we studied during that month.
The lessons we are supposed to study for a test is called portion. Or portions for that test.
In addition we had quarterly or onam exams.
Half yearly or Christmas exams.
And the final or annual exams.
In class x before the all important class x we had model exam.
This was a mock exam before the real exam and gave us an idea where we stood in terms of preparation.
Then we had study holidays in class x.
Because after the holidays we would have the all important annual final sslc exam.
This is the final point of all the effort or all the years from lkg to class x.
During study holidays we don't have to go to school.
But we had to study at home.
We should not waste our time.
Detour thought
In malayalam if we are studying a lesson which is an essay then in our notebooks we write the meanings of the difficult or unusual words. We studied synonyms, antonyms, and use in sentences.
Then we had questions and answers.
We will be asked questions based on the essays we had to study.
The questions are given by the teachers.
The answers are given by the teachers.
For the monthly test we have to just memorize the meanings, synonyms the antonyms the use in sentences the questions and answers.
For the test a few of the words are given from the list we studied.
A few questions are given and we just have to write the answers the teacher gave.
Detour thought. It is so nice to be able to rely on the answer given by the teacher. If all we have to do is write the answer given by the teacher it is so much easier than having to come up with answers of our own. These are some of my memories of my school.
