Dad's childhood

Lilybel was blabbering in her sweet voice. Dad remarked, yazhinidhu, kural inidhu enbar, tham mazhazhai sol kelathavar'.

Dad then said he knows lot of thirukural. Though he doesn't like studying, he had infact studied lot of thirukural, that he remembers them till date! He fondly reminscended an incident when he was a kid. He never did his homework. He never had answers for the questions his Tamil teacher asked. And he was always made to stand up on the bench. So dad used to get up on the bench the moment he entered. His Tamil teacher asked why are you standing on the bench, he used to reply, I don't have any answers for I didn't study.  This happened frequently, that the master got angry and got up from his chair with raised hand to beat dad. As he stepped near, he seemed to have sprained his hand and stepped back moaning because of pain! I said this reminded me of the King on old testament who raised a hand against a prophet and was paralysed! We both laughed. Seems God had plans for him that time itself. From that time onward, the master was careful in handling dad!

We were talking about tirukural for Amy and the things they were taught in school. Dad said he never understood his essays. He used to go to theri with his bag and write the heading of essays in small papers. He would then bury them in sand. And ask God to help him select 5 essays. The 5 essays he selected would be memorised word by word and he would write it down by heart. Thankfully those 5 essays are the only ones that came in the sslc exams. He cleared the exam too? Same thing happened for his teacher training, where out of 100 essays, he nailed the 5! 

He then detailed how he went to Thisayanvilai, 2 kms from idaiyankudi give it for a Catholic School interview. The father said, he has to come again for the interview wearing pants. Dad owned only vetti. He can get a pant cloth in tirinelveli, but it was 40 kms away. And you don't get readymade pants. So it has to be stitched. That would take time. So dad didn't pursue that job. Soon he was offered a govt job in uthumalai as a headmaster, teaching 3,4,5 std! It worked well as it was a govt job!

Dad as a kid
Dad used to hide some masala items,oil in the garden( thotam) he had some favorite trees guava, mango etc. Where he used to climb and sit on a branch for hrs. He always had a catpult in one of his pocket. He used to catch squirrels, remove their skin, apply masala and roast them in fire and eat. His partner in crime was his cousin periyadurai, who also had a catpult in his pocket always!