As I begin my first blog here, I'd like to stress the
importance of parents and their dedication and support to their children, in
the child's life. Everyone has it in them to be hardworking, focussed and
successful. The early stages in a child's life require the utmost support of a
parent; this shapes the child's ideas for their future.
As parents, providing them with food and shelter is
not the only support you can give. Children are emotionally dependent on their
parents in their formative years; how you guide your children in these tender
years, will shape their life, like how my father shaped mine.
On this note I'd like to narrate my early days…
Part 1 - Hit, bled and fled - The story of my primary
school education
I was not a very manageable child. I was terribly
mischievous and concentrated more on playing rather than studying. My earliest
years were spent as quite a naughty child, hardly one whom you'd envision as a
scientist later.
At the age of 3, I was admitted in a local school in
Gwalior( not sure of the name) . A few days into my schooling an
unfortunate incident occurred; this was still during the time where students
would carry heavy slate boards to school and write with pieces of chalk.
I was asked by the teacher incharge to write a hindi
alphabet and I ended up writing the wrong one. Now most of you are aware that
corporal punishment wasn't a big deal in those days. Most of the students sent
to rural schools were first generation learners and had to deal with whatever
punishment the teacher thought apt.
When the teacher saw my wrong answer, he sharply
pulled my ear, much to my consternation.
Now I was a well petted at home; I was also the
youngest. Physical punishment took me by surprise if anything, and I in
retaliation threw my slate at the teacher and ran home. The teacher had already
started to bleed from the hit, needless to say, this scared me even more and I
wanted to get away from it all.
Fast forward to a few days later, when I received my
report card…
My marks were pretty bad, so it came as no surprise
that my father asked me to stay at home and be home-schooled. I quite liked the
proposition and the prospect of not having to deal with scary teachers any more.
From then on, I was home schooled for the next few
years. My older brothers and sisters took out the time to teach me the basics
of English and Math and I quite liked both these subjects and turned out to be
good at it.
When I turned eight years old, my father decided it
was time for me to go back to school. He sent away all my brothers and sisters
on a vacation and dedicated about three months to teaching me. He thought home-
schooling was bringing out quite the vagabond in me and it was high time I get
a proper education.
After three months of proper teaching in most
subjects, I was taken to school to be admitted. The date and the day are still
etched in my memory - it was the 8th of July, 1957.
Being a teacher himself, my father had a fair idea of
what a child was taught at each age. He decided to directly seek admission for
me in the 6th grade.
Now, directly admitting a child into a higher standard
those days was pretty much as it is today - the child needs to clear an
examination and interview.
Similarly, I was given an exam to clear following
which my admission would be made.
What do you think happened on the exam ? Did Mr. V.K.Saraswat
manage to convince the headmaster that he, a child with no proper primary
education was fit to be admitted in the high school?
Read what happened next in the second part of the Early life of
Dr. V.K.Saraswat. Coming soon on the blog...
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