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switched over to a job in Accountant General’s Office situated
in Fort St.George,Madras.. He was fond of speaking in English
and his handwriting had a calligraphic quality! From what I
used to observe about him was he was a strict disciplinarian
who wanted his children to play less and study more.

At the age of 4 years I enrolled myself in a school run on the
pyol of a house at the street corner and the” school “ master
used to teach us besides Tamil verses of Avvaiyar, English

alphabets and Tables up to 12 numbers. A few months later
when I was 5 years I was put in a primary school called
Ramakrishna Elementary School. The school was located on a
street just behind the house where we were living on Godown
Street in George Town. The only thing I remember was the
school used to distribute biscuits which became stale due to
storage over long period. The biscuits were courtesy of
American Peace Corps intended as relief measures for a war
endangered country where dropping of bombs by Japanese
army held the people in constant fear. The explosion of Emden
bomb added fillip to the fears.

The year 1944 was at the peak of hostilities and the British
Government ordered evacuation of Madras city. So our family
had to resettle for such period as considered necessary in
Bangalore where the whole A.G’s office was shifted. My father
located a house in Chamarajapuram locality. I was put in a
Kannada Medium School .The first word in Kannada I learned
was “I want to go home” as I was sad that my mother dropped me
in the school and left me crying!”Mane hogu beku” was the
beginning of my language training. Today if I am quite
conversant with talking in Kannada it is due to my first
introduction to that language in Chamarajapuram!After a few
months when the hostilities were over and Allies won the war we
again moved back to Madras and George Town. I resumed my
th
study in Ramakrishna School and finished 5 Standard.

My mother began to worry about my admission to Higher
Secondary School. She wanted me to try by writing a entrance

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