Life at Periyaar...
My year at Grade 6 and 7 were disastrous. I always failed in Tamil or Biology, even though I went for tutions. I never studied, nor made an effort to do so. My Tamil was awful!!!!!! If I tried to study to get a pass in Tamil, I flunked in Biology. There were other problems too, at which end I pleaded with my parents to get me out of there. There was a time when I kept telling people I will be in the same school till I finish Grade 12. I started off kindergarten here, and my parents never thought of shifting us out of that school. Then this crisis came and they took me out and put me and my sister in a Matriculation School run by the Periyar Institutions.
[Note: Again, No offence meant to anyone. This is just a real-life experience. I write with the point of view of an Grade 8 student - must have been 12 years old].
Periyar Educational Complex is a big complex of lots of institutions run inside a big campus. It is run by the non-political DK group (Dravidar Kazhagam). It was founded by Periyar. He's dead now, and the whole group and the institutions associated with it is run by the DK group chairman, name forgotten right now. They do a lot of charity work and fight for the rights of women and so on. A majority of the institutions they run are for girls - an all-girl engineering college, a pharmacy college and so on. They are weird, though.
I studied in their matriculation school for a year - my Grade 8 year. The list of their weirdness is as follows.
1. All their institutions open by morning 8am. This is because the chairman is so impressed by the American system of early starts...and he wants his brood of chickens to do the same as well. For an Indian scenario, this really doesn't work. My mom worked in their pharmacy college, so all three of us getting ready by 7:30am was a nightmare.
2. All the schools got over by 2:30pm. The colleges and other organisations closed at regular times, like any other place, around 4 or 5pm. We school kids had a hard time, coz we go home and no one is there, a scenario when both parents are working. As is natural with all kids, we wreacked havoc at home, and what with our sibling fights, we wasted time.
3. As is common in any private management organisation, this one had its own rituals as well. Whenever the chairman visited the school, we students had to line up to welcome him. I didn't mind that, but the worst part were the chants we had to do when he walked by. We had to chant "God doesn't exist", "Long live Periyar" (who happens to be long dead anyway), "Long live his goals". Believe me, this was the dumbest thing that ever happened to me.
4. Public holidays were only for Christmas, Ramzan and Diwali. Oh, but we did get holidays for Periyar's birthday and death day, his wife's birthday and death day. No holidays for the countless ritualistic celebrations that the hindus have. They celebrated Pongal because it was a Tamil festival, not necessarily specific of any God.
5. 24th December is the day Periyar died. There is a statue of Periyar in Trichy, at the center of the city, where the bus station is. All staff (lucky students!) have to compulsorily attend a gathering around the statue, where the chairman and a whole bunch of people garland his statue, and then attend a meeting held at their headquarters in Trichy, which incidentally was just opposite to where we lived. This is weird because the staff have to dress in the official Periyar dress...a death dress of black and white, which isn't quite interesting when the next day is Christmas. The staff had to compulsorily attend because if not, the gathering would not be as crowded as it is with them.
Since all their official (and unofficial) meetings happen at the place opposite to our house, we sometimes used to go to our terrace to watch the people who give speeches and listen to them, just for the fun of it. They always end their speech with the chants I mentioned above. They always find any excuse a nice reason to critise any religion and any God. Most of their speeches are usually about how bad Hindu Gods are and the myths and reality of them. I agree India is a free country and everyone has a freedom of speech, but people do respect one another. They respect other's religion, and that is why people in India live with peace and harmony. The speeches and thoughts of the DK people can be bugging sometimes.
The DK organisation does a lot of work among the scheduled castes and tribes, uplifting them and fighting for their rights. They are not into politics, but prefer to reach out to the common people without the aid of them. My mom worked in their institution for a long long time. Through her, I have met a lot of people who have really benefitted from their help. Mom used to be proud of all the services they render to the common man. Weird is weird anyway!
I was there for a year, and the only thing that got better was my Tamil. That's because my friend was very good in Tamil and she made sure I atleast matched up a little bit for me being her friend. That was the first time I encountered somebody who really showed me what friendship was all about...helping out, reaching out, being there, admonishing you for your bad and praising you for your good. Life at Periyar wasn't so bad after all. Weird is weird anyway!!
[Note: Again, No offence meant to anyone. This is just a real-life experience. I write with the point of view of an Grade 8 student - must have been 12 years old].
Periyar Educational Complex is a big complex of lots of institutions run inside a big campus. It is run by the non-political DK group (Dravidar Kazhagam). It was founded by Periyar. He's dead now, and the whole group and the institutions associated with it is run by the DK group chairman, name forgotten right now. They do a lot of charity work and fight for the rights of women and so on. A majority of the institutions they run are for girls - an all-girl engineering college, a pharmacy college and so on. They are weird, though.
I studied in their matriculation school for a year - my Grade 8 year. The list of their weirdness is as follows.
1. All their institutions open by morning 8am. This is because the chairman is so impressed by the American system of early starts...and he wants his brood of chickens to do the same as well. For an Indian scenario, this really doesn't work. My mom worked in their pharmacy college, so all three of us getting ready by 7:30am was a nightmare.
2. All the schools got over by 2:30pm. The colleges and other organisations closed at regular times, like any other place, around 4 or 5pm. We school kids had a hard time, coz we go home and no one is there, a scenario when both parents are working. As is natural with all kids, we wreacked havoc at home, and what with our sibling fights, we wasted time.
3. As is common in any private management organisation, this one had its own rituals as well. Whenever the chairman visited the school, we students had to line up to welcome him. I didn't mind that, but the worst part were the chants we had to do when he walked by. We had to chant "God doesn't exist", "Long live Periyar" (who happens to be long dead anyway), "Long live his goals". Believe me, this was the dumbest thing that ever happened to me.
4. Public holidays were only for Christmas, Ramzan and Diwali. Oh, but we did get holidays for Periyar's birthday and death day, his wife's birthday and death day. No holidays for the countless ritualistic celebrations that the hindus have. They celebrated Pongal because it was a Tamil festival, not necessarily specific of any God.
5. 24th December is the day Periyar died. There is a statue of Periyar in Trichy, at the center of the city, where the bus station is. All staff (lucky students!) have to compulsorily attend a gathering around the statue, where the chairman and a whole bunch of people garland his statue, and then attend a meeting held at their headquarters in Trichy, which incidentally was just opposite to where we lived. This is weird because the staff have to dress in the official Periyar dress...a death dress of black and white, which isn't quite interesting when the next day is Christmas. The staff had to compulsorily attend because if not, the gathering would not be as crowded as it is with them.
Since all their official (and unofficial) meetings happen at the place opposite to our house, we sometimes used to go to our terrace to watch the people who give speeches and listen to them, just for the fun of it. They always end their speech with the chants I mentioned above. They always find any excuse a nice reason to critise any religion and any God. Most of their speeches are usually about how bad Hindu Gods are and the myths and reality of them. I agree India is a free country and everyone has a freedom of speech, but people do respect one another. They respect other's religion, and that is why people in India live with peace and harmony. The speeches and thoughts of the DK people can be bugging sometimes.
The DK organisation does a lot of work among the scheduled castes and tribes, uplifting them and fighting for their rights. They are not into politics, but prefer to reach out to the common people without the aid of them. My mom worked in their institution for a long long time. Through her, I have met a lot of people who have really benefitted from their help. Mom used to be proud of all the services they render to the common man. Weird is weird anyway!
I was there for a year, and the only thing that got better was my Tamil. That's because my friend was very good in Tamil and she made sure I atleast matched up a little bit for me being her friend. That was the first time I encountered somebody who really showed me what friendship was all about...helping out, reaching out, being there, admonishing you for your bad and praising you for your good. Life at Periyar wasn't so bad after all. Weird is weird anyway!!
posted by Grace at 5:28 AM
1 Comments:
hi Grace!
the chairman name is K. Veeramani. If i meet him in person, i am having lot of questions to ask, argue and blast(by words not by hand). and if u closely noticed them they will always throw their stones towards Hindu when compare to christains and Musilms. Sorry to say this. but this is the real fact. And for ur info, he already got blasted by my uncle and aunt in a public debate organised by singapore tamil sangam. Anyhow, u developed ur tamil thats the important think!!!!!
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