Gobind First Graduation

GOBIND GRADUATES

GOBIND GRADUATION

On June 4, 2008 was a great day for our grandson Gobind Kapoor son of Our son Shivpreet and daughter-in-law Shilpy. Gobind this day successfully graduated from pre-school Class of 2008 from Acorn Learning Center, San Ramon, CA.

Gobind qualified for graduation along other 25 other kids. This little step is a leap foot forward for this bubbly kid. As the ceremony was in the neighborhood park, the kids and their parents and some of the grand parents had a nice picnic like gathering. Every kid's family had contributed towards snacks and pizzas, hence all were overjoyed to enjoy the occasion.

So was overjoyed his two and half years old sister Jania. She was all over the place, matching point to point. She even positioned herself next to Gobind in the row of Students lined up for graduation. She proudly hanged a Hawaiian garland around her neck, while Gobind refused to have one, the same was mandatory for him though. Gobind is typical as he refused to follow the dress code and dressed himself in formals with a Tie and a half jacket.

There was, indeed, fun and rejoicings all around.

HOW I GRADUATED

There was nothing like gradation ceremony in my times i.e. about six decades away. However, there was a stiff entry into the Primary School run by the Municipal Committee of Panipat a small town in Punjab(now Haryana). That was known as Ward 10 Primary School. The school just situated about 100 feet from my house, had a large gate of dull yellow color of 15 ft hight. There were four halls and a front yard. Ist , 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders will sit in those so called halls which used to leak profusely during the four months of rainy season and utterly cold in the winter. During one such rainy seasons the 3rd grade hall, which had been badly leaking, succumbed down on a week-end. Thank god, there was no casualty. The headmaster Mr Sat Pal used to teach the 4th grade



The headmaster Mr Sat Pal will not admit me as I was a year younger to stipulated age of 5 years. Many students were able to get in to the school by some means, but the headmaster was scared to allow me as my dad was in an important position of Rationing Inspector in the government service.

" Master Sat Pal (as Bhagwant reminds me later was a frail and tall
looking
man who will divide his hair on his head from sideways) could not
dare to take
the bribe of Rs 1 as normal charge for admitting any student
and was obviously
scared of my Dad's position in the Government. Hence a via
media solution was
thought off and I was placed under the guidance of
private tuition for a period of
one month at the residence of Master Sat
Pal. Master Sat Pal had always a gang
of 5-6 students undergoing tuition at
one time. He had three older sons besides
daughters. The oldest son was
bright and preparing for entry exams for a
Government Job in Delhi. The
other two used to wild away time and boss over
us, while the older will
pitch in his two cents."

My mother in mean time had taught both me and my younger sister Bhagwant thoroughly at home and was always challenging my Dad to take me to the headmaster or any body for a test. She was very sure that I knew my Hindi Alpha-Bets and numbers very well. The early tables were taught to us by our Dad. Mom had problems in teaching the Alpha-bets to my sister who will not budge away beyond four words. But she was very adept in numbers though.



Finally one day, I was taken to the school by my Dad for a interview and test. The headmaster Mr Sat Pal stood up from his seat and greeted my father. There was small bench lying on the right hand side and he requested us to get seated. So I was seated in between the headmaster on the chair on my right and Dad on my left.



After pleasantries and asking my name, the headmaster asked me to go through my favorite book which I had brought with me from my Mom. In no time I narrated the entire book

"(Kaida, which had a picture of a monkey as a judge deciding the fate of two fighting
cats on last page)

My mother continued to remind me and my sisters not to fight among each other, otherwise some clever person like the monkey in the picture will take away our shares. May be to this day we among the sisters and brother might differ on any matter but will never fight."

And while going through the book, I continued to shake my legs. The headmaster interrupted me couple of times to stop shaking but I would resume in a while. May be I was nervous. He asked me the tables to which I reproduced them in no time. Shocked as he was, the headmaster told my Dad that I was fit to be admitted into 2nd grade. He advised, thereafter, that when the present session was over, he would be allowed to join the school in 2d grade.


I was overjoyed and so was my Dad. My Mom's joy knew no bounds. She repeatedly said,"I told you so". My Dad later gave a box of 'Laddoos' as a gratitude to the headmaster and all was fine.




So in came the Graduation or the 'passing out ceremony' as it used to be called. Every student will be ready on a stipulated day of March with a garland of Marigold flowers. The name of the passing out students will be announced one by one and every passing student will go forward and put the garlands around the teachers neck. some of the students who could not afford the garland will bring a couple of Marigold flowers for their respective teachers.



But the worst thing to happen was when some of the students who could not score and will not be promoted. They were seen crying. A day prior to the ceremony, there was a famous song was prevalent among the friends. The meaning of the song goes like this:



"there will be a lot of fun tomorrow, some will rejoice and others get sorrow"

To be continued and edited ...

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