NOTE: Hi all, I am Amar Tumballi of 8th Batch, JNVGajanur, Shimoga. I have completed my 12th in 2000. Later did my BE from SJCE, Mysore. Now working at Red Hat, Bangalore. You can reach me on amarts (at) gmail (dot) com---"Phhirrr... PPPhhiiiirrrrrrrrr.... Phiirrrr..... Yeellrrooo Late aaiithu", BS used to shout. Mutthu was still fast, he used to come inside house and wake us up :(( And its the time to get up and run to Morning PT (MassPT). Most of us used to run without brushing (who wastes that 2 minutes of sleep for brushing??!!!). But it would be late already and there used to be ArifullaKhan Sir, before entering the main road, where our house boys used to stand. Ok! alli hodtha thind mele, 2 rounds extra runningu (che che!! I don't have kannada script here). And later joining the house and doing the exercises.
Oh! I forgot to tell you... This is how a typical morning in JNVG used to start when I was in 6th. Now after these years few would have forgotten there is 6am in a day. But there in Navodaya, Arifulla sir never let us to forget that ;) I was almost regular in getting punishment for missing MassPT upto my 10th. I would have missed that year too... but byadluck.. 11th nalli nanna deputy leader maadbitru :(
11th is too far when you look from 6th standard boy's view. That was the time all of us used to see seniors as if they were heroes (ofcourse they are what do you say??) The way they play football, they smash volley ball, the size of the book they carry to class etc. But later once we became seniors we were the heroes for our juniors (I am not exactly sure ;)
Ok! lets have a look at daily life first and then come to specific moments, Okna? should be ok! After MassPT, come back to house (other people may call it a hostel but not a jnvgian but somehow girls used to say 'dormitory') wash face, those who want to take bath (after many days ;) and get ready with plates for breakfast. It would be mostly Chitranna (Oh! god not the same UPMA). After that go to assembly. Sing 'Humu Nav Yug ke nayi bharathi nayi arathi'
Then it was the class time; 8 periods of 35 minutes each. Oh! in sixth we didn't have a class room for us. So VI A in green room and VI B in MP Hall. Idhannandre namma class ge Zubhedha m'am bartha idru gottha.. Its Shobha m'am for English and Swami sir for Maths. Namge kannada na Hegde Sir kalstha idhru, ayyo avra moulya maapana andreee.. yappaa nanaganthu pass aagakke susthu. By the way, you know one fact I never got more than 10 (for 25) when Shobha m'am used to correct the answer sheets of unit tests(English).
Fine the classes used to be finished by 1.30pm. Then go to house, take your plate and run to lunch. Fight for the line at the mess door. Talk while eating and the house masters used to scold. The door keepers used to check you before you go out of mess. ( We used to plan a lot for throwing the wasted food, the thrill in executing those ideas was great.)
Go to rooms and sleep for some 30 minutes (it was my case, and many good boys used to take bath, wash cloths or some thing or the other). The duration of the sleep increased year by year. After a small nap, go to Supervision study. There we used to talk and the supervisor used to hit/scold us. Wah! after that period (3.00 - 4.30 pm) its tea time with snacks. Later go for sports. After that roll call(evening assembly) and little study in house. Dinner and sleep.
I think by now you would have remembered how was life in jnvg (for those who were there). [For non-jnvians I am sorry to tell you that, you have missed a lot in life]Now I will goto my memorable moments.
When we were in sixth, there were no water supply for the bathrooms in dormitory. So, we were using the bath rooms near our workshops. In 6th, as I said class rooms were in MP Hall, and green rooms. In 7th the class was held in workshop. Only when we came to 8th, we got the new classrooms in main building. When we came to 8th, our house allotment got shuffled. I was previously in Sporthy house and later moved to keerthy house. Life was great.
I was very close to JP sir! Thanks to Rahul, by whom I got interest in computers. I used to be in computer labs. Used to play Prince of Persia, TDCGA, GPCGA, etc. Rudra another computer guy, was also good in programing. We used to program in LOGO in the beginning, and later moved to GWBASIC. Used to help my seniors for their project (using WS-[WordStar]). JP sir used to give me the keys of the lab, when there was requirement. I used to go to computer lab after dinner also. That was really a fun.
I remember well that, in 8th, we had music and computer as a combined period, weekly two periods, and two batches were made in a class. If one batch attends the lab this period, next period it should be other batch (ie, as computer lab was small, max 20 students were allowed to attend it), as I somehow liked computers more than music, I used to goto computer labs in both the batches. At the end of the year music m'am was very unhappy about me, and gave 2 out of 25 for me in music test (Its not her mistake, she told me to sing some song and I didn't sing that too properly ;-)
One of few evergreen moments in jnvg is about bringing water from channel to mess. Sometime there was a major problem with electricity so everybody was supposed to bring water from channel (almost 1 kms). But I (I can say we as there were many) used to bunk that by hiding in the room. Actually teachers were aware of that, and used to come inside the room and check. They knew common place like below cot etc. But I used to hide inside the wardrobe ;-) And one good thing about the doors of boy's hostel were, they could be locked from inside. (confused, you need brains to do that ;-) So, we used to stay inside and lock the room. Nice experience.
Other great experience with channel is swimming. Actually I learnt the swimming in the channel in front of jnvg. In our 7th and 8th, when there was no compound near entrance, we used to go out to channel early in morning to swim. And sometimes it was officially allowed on sundays if your parents are there.
I still remember how ShobhaDove M'am hit me (others were also there with me) one afternoon when we were swimming in channel. (we went there to wash plates after lunch as there was less water in mess).
Somehow I was not a good sports person in my 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th. I was almost regular in getting punishment for bunking MassPT. But in 10th, the desire to eat more eggs and bunking first two periods during sports meet practice session drove me towards sports. But later I enjoyed playing volleyball and football. Even I had interest in playing badminton.
By 11th, I was almost pet to ArifullaSir, I used to go to weightlifting and other extra things in evening (during 7-8 pm). Some times played Badminton with staff also during the same time. In 12th went to regional level for volleyball. Nice experience.
I was strong in maths since childhood, and continued that in jnvg also. I used to get outofout for maths, in all the classes (not exactly in 11th). In other subjects I was having difficultly in passing. I never knew how to mug up things, so sometimes tried to copying and all (in 7th and 8th) for social. (these were monthly tests)
I still remember my 10th standard, when its the matter of studies. Teachers were in dilemma to put me in top 10 list. Once Walmiki sir (kannada teacher) had told me to remember that I have a subject called kannada. Even I was not sure of my scores when I wrote exam. I was not expecting any places (as a topper) but was sure about getting 80+ %, I got that much, but for my shock (Even others got shock) I was topper for the class. Hehe, I can't believe this. After topping in 10th, I never looked back when it was matter of exams. I was topper in 12th too. I still feel bad for loosing almost 2% due to practical in 12th. Bad na, other wise I would have got 94% in PCMB.
In 9th, I was in keerthy house, and the crowd was great. We used to stay with 11th people. Basya, Rudra, TR, shivaji.. The crowd was great. We have given illegal electric supply to all our fans and lights. (no worries now they are properly supplied) Hedge sir has warned us on this. Our house master was Mr. ChantiRaj ;-) You should listen him speaking. You will never forget that. I and Rudra were nice partners, we used to silently visit mess exactly at 10.25pm, when Papanna/Govindanna used to take Tea for 10th and 12th people. So, visit mess during that time and get tea free for talking with them for some time ;-) We had all these sort of criminal ideas. ;-) What do you say Rudra??
The only bad part about 9th is that, the most koole boys of our batch had gone to Raipur, MP as part of migration. Otherwise it would be too much.
In tenth, they returned and our class got a new look!! Surely. Btw, from 8th itself our batch was marked for bringing in lot of slang words like 'aa ka'(guess the meaning... can you?? if not meet me offline, btw, its not a double meaning word), etc.
Too much to tell about life in 10th, 11th and 12th. But, I will do that in my autobiography, not here. So, will just give few memorable moments about that period.
Somehow I became topper in 10th. And for that reason, when I went back to school after holidays, my view in some staff had changed. Of course I should admit, I also became little decent, but not completely decent (which I have not achieved till today ;-)
I became deputy leader of the school, (there was a election) and Sharath became leader. Oh! that was my luck I should say. What a great person he is. I am not saying this because he did most of the work, and left only a little to me, or sometimes nothing, But he is a great person, who have inspired me a lot of times. Even today.
So, for name sake I was the deputy leader, but Sharath was doing all the work. But I did support him always. Even SaiRangaRao was a great principal. He helped us a lot.
In 11th, I participated in DolluKunitha, went to NewDelhi for a camp and Hyderabad for a performance show. Nice trips. I was in youthParliament, which was supposed to happen in NewDelhi, but that cancelled somehow and we missed the opportunity. I joined initially to see the speaker M'am ;-) but later surely got interest in this. I went to sports meet in Dharwar for highjump, and 110m hurdles. We (our batch) also went to Shimoga for parades held on 15th August, and 26th Jan. I was in interact club, went to Kadur, and Shimoga for many cultural programs.
Arrangement for GaneshaChaturthi was great. Even we were not sure of final product, as our product champion (PraveenZingade) had not conveyed his idea properly. But on the morning of Ganesha Chaturthi everybody was shocked by our design ;-) We were beating 'dollu' on the day of leaving ganesha to channel.
In 12th, as everybody does, I also concentrated on studies. But till november never missed a chance to play volleyball. This year, went to volleyball regional level sports meet held in KarimNagar, AP. Finally topped the class again :-)
These are just the glimpse of the memories I had in JNVGajanur, Shimoga. If you are a jnvgian then surely you would have lot more to post, and similar experiances. If you are not, then you have surely missed a lot in life. Ask any jnvgian you meet, they will be feeling proud about the school.
