My Entry Into Government Boys Primary School

Me as a Primary Schooler


I went to Government  Primary Boys School Ward 10, Kalandar Chowk, Panipat. Soon after the partition, my dad got a job of Rationing Inspector in the Government. So we settled down in a shared house left behind by Muslims who in turn left for Pakistan.

The School was just 100 ft away and  just in front of our house and my Mom could watch me entering the huge School Gate from the front door of the house. So that was cool!

There were also nuisances of being close to School. There was immense noise in the afternoon session as the kids wiuld shout and repeat tables one after the other. This is perhaps the reason that even now I remember the tables by heart and very well. Our street, with a drain going in the middle, was squatted with small kids urinating in a free for all game.

My Mom and my First Sister Bhagwant

My Mom was a very hard task master. She taught me Alpha-Bets and the whole First Grade book and I became apt and confident. While, my Dad taught me the counting and tables. So I was ready to enter School a year ahead of scheduled age. But the headmaster Sat Pal would not let me in because of my age problem. It was common to bribe the Headmaster to get admission. He was also reluctant to get a bribe from my Dad being a government official- a big prestige though still infected with recent hard colonial regime.

So my father took a different route and requested Master Sat Pal to give me a Tuition at his home to prepare me for my admission. I was dropped and brought back every evening at his home for full one month and my Dad gave him a Tuition fee of Rs 2/-in lieu.

A month later, there was a test in the school and I  came out successful in my First test of my life and straightway kicked off to Second grade. I still remember, during the test, how the headmaster Sat Pal asked me to go through the book which I read out promptly with my legs moving in apparent tension. The teacher had to tell me twice to stop moving legs. I finally made it. My Dad got me back home and was exhurbantly happy to inform Mom about my success.

I carried on always as one of the youngest in the class and Matriculated ultimately from Sanatan Dharam High School at a young age of 14.

I saw my life's rarest and broadest smile on the face of my Dad when he went in from the back door to the General Post Office on GT Road Panipat to look for himself into the Gazette  (the results details were usually published in this book and mailed to every school) to find me scoring a First Division.