Ghai hamari mataa hai. Ghai shaakahaari jaanvar hai. Ghai ghaas-phoos khati hai. Ghai doodh deti hai. Ghai khali ya safed rang hoti hai…

:-)

I still remember that wonderful essay I’d written as a test to gain admission to Sandeepam Vidhyalaya! I was reminded of this episode today during my French class session. We were asked to write a short composition using a couple of basic sentences on some famous personality and even before I could pool in the Je’s, Il’s, fait’s, suis et al, my thoughts started drifting back to that particular day 10 years back.

My bro and I were in Johnson Grammar High School, an ICSE board school till my fifth grade. It was a common belief that syllabus in Math was much better in SSC schools when compared to ICSE ones and since my bro was in his seventh by then, people in my family wanted him to shift over to the state syllabus By default I had to tag along as no one ever trusted me, thanks to my consistent flunking in quite a few papers. But for Math, English and Biology, I barely managed to pass other subjects. The moment I got to know I’d have to write an admission test to gain an entry into the school I was all tears! They wanted to test my hindi. Something that I was extremely bad at then :-) .

Mom , Bro and I went over the Princi’s office. My cousin who was then studying in that school introduced us to her. Both of us were asked to go into separate rooms. I was given a paper and asked to write a composition on ‘Gomaatha-The cow’. This was one standard composition that I’d been learning by rote for quite sometime in JGHS. Nevertheless, my written hindi was pathetic! Real pathetic! Bharathi Miss , the then Vice Princi evaluated my sheets right in front of me. I still remember that ‘WTH!’ reaction on her face when she was skimming through my composition. :-) . I was half expecting to get rejected and I wanted to in fact. The very thought of meeting new people, getting accustomed to a new environment and all that was no way close to appealing. All I wanted was to get back to the 5th bench of class VI-A the next day. But unfortunately Bharathi’s mind worked the other way round - If my bro was intelligent , there’s a high probability that his sibling would do just the same with some help. How could SVHS afford to lose such brilliant students? They’re in!. She comes out and tells my mom that though my Hindi was real bad, I’d be given admission. My bro’s admission stays granted without any hitches.

Under the persistent guidance of my Hindi teacher Mrs Sahani, I got a decent command on the language . Things slowly changed for good and I surprisingly started performing well. All thanks to the Cow! :-)

At times, I wonder how some incidents just get etched in your memory!!