Chapter 7 Chapter 5 Going to Middle School

I have already said that I was a middle school student when I got married.Our three brothers all study in the same school.The elder brother has the highest shift, and the second elder brother who married me at the same time is only one class higher than me.The two of us were delayed for a year because of marriage; the second brother was affected even worse, and he dropped out of school because of it.God knows how many young people have suffered the same fate as him.It is only in our current Hindu society that there is a parallel phenomenon of studying and getting married. I continued to study after marriage.People in the school didn't treat me as a fool, I was always favored by the teachers.

The school authorities sent my parents my report card and conduct sheet every year; I never got a bad grade.In fact I won a prize after the exams in the second year, and in the fifth and sixth grades I got scholarships of four rupees and ten rupees respectively.I have achieved these results not so much because of my hard work, as because of my luck.Because scholarships are not for everyone, but reserved for outstanding students in the Soraz area of ​​Katiahua; and in a class of forty or fifty students at that time, no children from Soraz How much will there be. As far as I can remember, I wasn't very proud of my talents.I am often amazed when I receive awards and scholarships.However, I am careful to maintain my own conduct, and I am afraid that I will not be careful.As long as a small mistake, it will make me cry.I can't bear it when I deserve it, or the teacher thinks I should be blamed.I remember one time I was physically punished.I don't care much about being punished. What makes me sad is that others think I deserve what I deserve.I burst into tears.I was in first or second grade at the time.Another such thing happened when I was in seventh grade.The principal at that time was Durobji Yeduji Dhimi.He is very popular with students because of his strict discipline and his ability to teach well.

He made both physical education and baseball compulsory for senior boys.I don't like either.Before they were made compulsory, I never played any sports, neither baseball nor football.One of the reasons I was avoiding sports was shyness, which I now know was wrong.At the same time, I have a wrong idea that sports and education have nothing to do with each other.I now understand that physical training should be given as much importance in the curriculum as mental training. But having said that, although I don't take part in sports much, my body is not necessarily weak.For I had learned from books the advantages of long walks in the open air, and I liked the advice, and formed a habit of walking which I have never lost.As a result of this walking I have acquired a rather vigorous physique.

The only reason I don't like sports is because I have a strong desire to care for my father.Every day after school, I hurried home to serve his old man.Exercise became a required course, which directly interfered with my job of serving my father.I begged Mr. Zimi to excuse me from physical education so that I could spend time with my father.Yet he ignored it.It happened that there was a Saturday, the morning class was over, but at four o'clock in the afternoon, I had to rush back from home to school for physical education.I didn't have a watch, and it was a cloudy day, so I got the time wrong, and by the time I got to school, all the students had left.The next day Mr. Zimi checked the list and found that I was absent, so he came to ask me why I was absent from class, and I had to tell the truth.He didn't believe me, and fined me an anna or two (I don't remember how much now).

I was called a liar!This makes me very sad.How can I prove my innocence?I think there is no way. I burst into tears in excruciating pain.From then on, I knew: an honest person must also be a prudent person.This is the first and last time I made a negligent mistake at school.I still vaguely remember that the fine was eventually revoked.The exercise exemption was granted, of course, because my father himself wrote a letter to the principal saying he needed me to come home after school. Although I didn't suffer a loss because of neglecting sports, but because I neglected other aspects, I have been punished until now.I don't know where I got the idea that calligraphy is not a necessary part of education, and this idea still remained when I went to England.Later, especially when I was in South Africa, I saw the beautiful handwriting written by local lawyers and young people who were born and educated there. I felt ashamed and regretted my negligence.I think poor handwriting should be taken as a sign of imperfect education.Later I tried to improve my calligraphy, but it was too late.I can never make up for the negligence of my youth.I hope every young man and woman learns from my example that good calligraphy is an essential part of education.Now I have this opinion: before a child learns to write, he should first be taught to draw.Children should be taught to read by looking at pictures, just like observing different things such as flowers, birds, etc., and then teach them to learn to write after they have learned to draw things.In this way he will write well.

There are two other incidents from my school days that are worth writing about.I missed a year of school because of my marriage, and my teacher compensated me by making me skip a class—a privilege usually reserved for hard-working students.So I only studied in the third grade for six months. After the term exam, I jumped to the fourth grade, and then I had summer vacation.After the fourth grade, most of the courses are taught in English. I found myself in a fog.Geometry is a new subject, and I find it quite difficult, and it is even more difficult for me to teach it in English.The teacher spoke very well, but I couldn't understand it.I often lost heart and wanted to go back to third grade because I felt that combining two years of courses into one year was too ambitious.However, doing so would not only embarrass me, but also embarrass the teacher; because he saw that I was still diligent and studious, he recommended me to leapfrog.This fear of losing face on both sides kept me going.Later, due to my hard work, when I learned the thirteenth theorem of Euclidean geometry, I suddenly felt that everything was easy.A course is not a very difficult course if it only requires the pure use of one's reasoning ability.Since then I have found geometry to be an easy and interesting subject.

Sanskrit is more difficult.Geometry does not rely on memory, but Sanskrit needs to be memorized everywhere.This homework also started in the fourth grade. As soon as I entered the sixth grade, I was a little discouraged.The teacher is a strict man and I think he is forcing the students to study.The teachers who taught Sanskrit and Persian were quite competitive.The teacher who taught Persian was milder.Students often commented to each other that Persian is very easy and that the Persian teachers are very good and considerate of students.One day, because I was afraid of difficulties, I went to the Persian class to attend the class.The Sanskrit teacher was very sad. He called me to his side and said, "Have you forgotten that you are the son of a Vishnu believer's father? Why don't you even learn the script of your own religion? If you have any difficulties, Why don't you come to me? I will try my best to teach you Sanskrit well. As long as you continue to read, you will find that there is infinite interest in it. Don't be discouraged, just go back to the Sanskrit class."

His kindness made me ashamed.I have to respect the teacher's care.To this day, when I think of Krisnashanka Panthya, I feel grateful.Because if I hadn't learned that little bit of Sanskrit at that time, it would have been very difficult for me to be interested in studying the classics.In fact, I deeply regret that I did not acquire a more thorough knowledge of Sanskrit at that time, because I have since believed that every young Hindu man or woman should learn Sanskrit well. Now my opinion is that in all higher education courses in India, apart from the local languages, there should be Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English.You don't need to be intimidated by the many language courses. I believe that if our education is more systematic and children are removed from using foreign languages ​​as the medium of learning, learning these languages ​​will not become a tiresome task. Instead, I feel that there is endless fun.Learning a scientific language knowledge will make it easier to learn other language knowledge.

In fact, Hindi, Gujarati and Sanskrit could be counted as one language, as could Persian and Arabic.Although Persian belongs to the Aryan family of languages, and Arabic to the Semitic family of languages, there is a close relationship between the two, since both languages ​​claim to have originated from Islam.I don't think Urdu is an independent language because it adopts the grammar of Hindi and most of its vocabulary is taken from Persian and Arabic; whoever wants to learn Urdu well must learn Persian And Arabic, just like to learn Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali or Marathi well, you must learn Sanskrit, which is the same reason.