Thursday, June 3, 2010

Life at Moolamattom-1

Life at KSEB Colony was really special one. Last year, I had been to KSEB colony at Moolamattom with Anju and I was really sad to see the state of colony. When we were kids, the KSEB colony was a very happening place. There was families staying in most of the quarters and it was really fun with all the kids around. I don’t know why most of the people are staying alone in the colonies leaving their family at home town.

There were three good schools around Moolamattom. The quality of education during those days were also quite good as most of the schools were run by Christian missionaries. There was a good college also around the same place again run by Christian missionaries. These were managed in a very good manner.

I was an above average student in school during those days. But like most of the kids who were at that age group (7-8yrs), I was more interested in playing more than studying. We were waiting for the evenings so that we could go and play outside. I don’t remember what we used to play those days but it was not games like cricket or football. I think we really liked going for a walk to Inspection Bungalow (IB), Circuit House and water tank etc.

Circuit House was very big guest house of KSEB. There was a helipad also in circuit house. It was told that Late Mrs.Indira Gandhi stayed there in Circuit House when she came down for the inauguration of Moolamattom Power Station. She was the Prime Minister of India then. She came there in a helicopter but I have not seen much of helicopters landing in that helipad. We used to play in the helipad. I still remember Paatti (Grandma of Vijay) used to take us for a walk in the evening after the school time. There was very small pond and beautiful garden in circuit house. I was very happy to see that they have maintained garden and the pond in a good way even now.

Another thing that I remember now is the monthly parties that we used to have near IB. Almost all the families staying in the C quarters used to the attend the party. It was dinner party with small games for kids and family. There also used to be some cultural programs in which mainly kids used to sing songs and dance. Kingini used to sing in almost all the parties. Remember she was in LKG/UKG during those days. Pens/pencils were given to all who used to sing/dance. So she used to get a lot every time. After all those cultural programs, we used to have dinner. I think there were Porattas, Chicken/Egg/Vegetable curries served to us. We kids used to enjoy those small parties and it was time when we used to gel together and make friends. In few weeks time, we all knew each other and we kids were waiting for those parties.

We never had tuitions those days and Amma used to teach me in the initial days. One rule that she wanted us to follow was to finish home works before going to play. Though the schools finished at 4.00pm, we were traveling to quarters in the second trip which took us from school around 4.45pm. It was good in one way. We were able to play in school till 4.45pm till the bus came. I will just try to say why we were in second trip. In the morning, we used to go to school in first trip, which used to come around 8.30 or so. We were staying in the top of the hill and in the morning they first used to come to our place to pick us. That was not welcome for us as we were not able to play in the school in the morning even if we reach there early. Also we need to get ready early in the morning. People who used to stay in the bottom part of the hill were lucky in the morning. I used to have many friends there like Renjith, Prasanth, Prabhakumar etc.

Headmistress of the school was Sr. Cyril. She was a very strict person. In our class, there were around 40-45 students. I don’t remember the name of most of students but I remember few faces. Coming first in the class was very special those days. In the school assembly, first three students were given badges which they could wear on their dress till the results were out for the next exam. Since I was not the best student of the class I was never in the run for those badges. I think first three ranks in my class went for girls. Sreeja was the first rank holder in my class. Reason why I remember the name is because she had first rank in my class till she left the school. Another reason was that she was also from my colony and our parents were good friends. All the teachers were ladies in school and only one male staff in the school was PT sir. I don’t remember his name.

Those days, school was giving very much importance to Arts festival and all. But I don’t think it was in my blood those days. Not that its in my blood now.:-) But Kingini was exactly opposite to me, she was always one among the toppers in the class and she was very much in to art festivals also. When ever there was any competition in school she used to give her for it. I remember how Amma used to get tensed during those days when Kingini used to tell her about those competitions. Anyway I didn’t give that kind of tensions but gave her tension in some other ways!!

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