The Mighty Jaipurians !!

Having joined the fraternity of Jaipurians the next 12 years promised to be eventful for both Dumdum and Shivanu . The school bus –stop was right at our door step but Shivanu was still miserable while going to school…he would constantly keep looking towards us imploringly to call him back ! This continued for a year though once back from school he was full of stories about his classmates and teachers. The next year,however, he had started suffering from stomach pain and would resent going to school for that reason which we realized the day he got a violent attack of pain which almost made him unconscious…and the doctors diagnosed it as an attack of appendicitis .He had to be operated immediately though he proved to be an excellent patient. The surgeon, Mini’s brother who is a renowned surgeon ,was amazed to see this 6year old boy walking to the Operation Theatre holding the glucose bottle in one hand with the needle injected at the other end of his arm…instead of being brought in on a stretcher ….The post-operative period was smooth-sailing as he was not willing to take the bedpan even for a day and started walking the very next day. In 3 days time he was discharged from the hospital and the next day when Guddu( his doctor who had operated him) came to visit him…instead of finding his convalescing patient playing some indoor game at home ..to his utter surprise saw him umpiring a game of cricket in the neighbourhood . He was eager to play cricket with his friends in the colony but since we did not allow him to play he had to be contented with umpiring…Soon his stitches were removed and he was fit and fine and ready to go back to school.
Besides reading Dumdum was fond of drawing,colouring and painting and soon participated in a Camel painting contest organized in school…his father had taught him to draw village scenes with figures of ladies with pitchers on their heads etc…and he did get a certificate of merit in it ! His favourite sport was undoubtedly cricket which he played every evening without fail with his brother and friends. This fascination for this popular game is there even today and he does not miss the opportunity to play cricket whenever he gets it. Table tennis was another game which was quite a favourite with the brothers ..and both cricket and tennis were played in the house ..on the terrace and in the lane infront of the house. By now Dumdum had a bigger bicycle while Shivanu strutted around in the tricycle …and the evenings were often spent cycling .
I remember how Dumdum was fed when he was just about 3 years old. He would go around the courtyard in his tricycle and I would give him one morsel in his mouth after he completed one round and came back to where I was positioned…sometimes he would dodge me…and I had then to change my place to access him ! Chachi seeing this cat and mouse play would be amazed and without fail commented about her children being angels as they never gave her any trouble in their eating habits, and that she had never seen the likes of such overt and paranoid feeding spells !!
A popular game which both of them enjoyed was the ‘encounter game’in which with gun-totting arms they would try to nab each other all the while uttering “dishum,dishum” as they confronted each other and in make-believe opened fire ! Shivanu being younger got into the game at a very young age and it was really funny to see a tiny tot armed with a long gun, muttering “dishum, dishum” !! Thankfully they soon switched to better and more satisfying games ….one of them being cricket which was played indoors ,in the inner verandah of our house(unmindful of my repeated grumbling and chiding) causing quite a few dents in the fridge …as well as regularly outdoors too! Later they developed a craze for collecting WWF cards and stickers which they stuck at various places specially on their sides of the clothes almirah . Noticing Dumdum’s reading habit we had started subscribing to Living Media for a sports magazine which also sent these stickers from time to time. The dinky car races continued for a long period though other board games like Business ,Monopoly and Game of life soon became hot favourites.
The Jaipurians had started earning laurels at school .The P.T.A. meetings were attended by both of us…in just about 2 hrs time we had to meet the different teachers of 2 different classes. Dumdum ‘s teachers always showered praises on him for his unimpeachable conduct and his attentiveness in class whereas Shivanu’s teachers though pleased with his academic performance (he always was within first 3 and later usurped the first position and maintained it) were a harried lot as all of them had to put up with his effervescent temperament which distracted others too thereby causing disorder in the classroom ! Leadership qualities had started surfacing at an early age when he started having a large following of students and his popularity grew by leaps and bounds.
When he was in class 4 he had a tough time making sketches of the human body and various fish …his father ,who excelled in sketching,drawing,painting,colouring ( he had gifted me several pencil sketches during our courtship days) taught him the nuances and the art of sketching …and soon Shivanu having mastered it would draw the pectoral girdle and the rib cage as well as sharks with ease and spontaneity !
Often we would give them a surprise by going to school to fetch them….on reaching we had to rush to the classrooms to take them before they boarded the bus as once inside the crowded bus it was tedious to disembark and then we had to inform the conductor that we were taking them home with us . This was no less than a treat for them and in winters we would buy green peas and peanuts and the children would munch them in the car and I would peel and hand them over to my husband ,who like them is equally fond of peas .
Annual functions and The Annual Sports Meet were quite enjoyable .The school had 9 buses which would ply at all hours of the day for the convenience of children. The school had several other functions throughout the year including Saraswati Puja . What appealed to us was the nationalistic and secular approach of the school authorities as a result of which all Indian festivals were celebrated in school by the children. Even the daily assembly had a combination of English and Hindi prayers. ..a new and innovative concept at that time …for English medium schools strictly adhered to only English hymns and prayers (as done in missionary schools where attending church service was also mandatory for students). This was a welcome change and gave the much- required space and importance to all religions. Another distinguishing feature of the school was that it was highly organized. The School Diary for the year was distributed to all the children at the beginning of each session and had the calendar for that year’s academic and co-curricular activities . Books were to be purchased from the school book-shop .…specific dates were allotted for different classes thereby facilitating the availability of book- sets to parents in not more than 5-10 minutes !
School for the children was now enjoyable ….though tedious too as there were innumerable tests plus the term tests and the half-yearly exams and then of course the finals. But there was a balance maintained between academics and extra-curricular activities which not only eased the burden of studies but also helped the children grow.
Dumdum was very consistent in academics which was apparent in the report cards. He was always very particular about completing his homework . I had been taking up their studies ….making them do their home work,explaining chapters when required and listening to the fluent rendition of the long answers (it was almost entire chapters) of both Dumdum and Shivanu. This continued till they were in class 5 …after that they managed their home work on their own as I felt it was necessary for them to be independent and that spoon feeding and too much of involvement would retard their personal growth. I would supervise their home work ,see to it that all work was completed and help them when they needed it. What I stressed on was English Grammar and assigned to them grammatical exercises which they did do….as I felt that it was important for them to have a good command over the language at that stage .
The annual report cards were a source of joy for us as both Dumdum and Shivanu fared well. Once back from school they had much to share with us about the day’s events at school which they did so excitedly . Shivanu had this habit of comparing himself favourably of course with his contenders …as soon as he was back from school, on asking how he fared in the tests he would first take the name of the boy whom he had superseded by saying..”abhishek ko 9 mila hai” and would then disclose his own marks which were of course better than Abhishek’s that is 10 (out of 10)! This stiff competition continued for some time and then by class 7 he had taken over completely and started securing the first position in class. From class 8 began project works ….and once in class 9 frist Dumdum and then Shivanu had to make projects in history ,geography ,English for the first Board exams ..ICSE .The projects were quite elaborate requiring referential treatment …and I got books from the college library to supplement the subject matter. But the entire projects were exclusively managed, compiled and completed by them and they were almost like a thesis . That was their first exposure of R and D .
Dumdum was popular not only among his teachers who were all praises for him always and in every class ,but also among his classmates.He was friendly towards all but had only a few close friends with whom he is still in contact…they being Bhaskar, Piyush, Shreyansh ,Ladia etc. Dumdum was particularly fond of G.K. and quizzing . He participated in such quizzes and there was one in which Barry O,brien was the QUIZ M aster which his team was all set to win had not Bhaskar taken the mike and given the wrong answer to the last question posed to them. I remember( as we were witnessing the show ) Dumdum’s exasperation as he knew the answer and was therefore full of regret for having lost just by a question !The healthy habit of reading that he had formed early stood him in good stead in such competitions as he was well updated with current and past events. He had a penchant for Geography and excelled in that subject. The subject teacher was all praises for him for he had mastered all the technical map work and could reproduce it very well…an area which was thought to be very tedious and seldom learnt well by other children.