When my parents moved to Delhi, my Dad enrolled me into Bal Bharati Air Force School. On the first day of school, my Hindi teacher, a very strict woman called Mrs. Jain, while doing the roll call, asked me if I was Coorg. Naturally, I proudly got up and said "Yes Maám". She shook her head in dismay, and then to the entire class related a story of an ex student of the school, called Nanjappa.
The year was 1982. Nanjappa, or Nanju as he was called in school , was an all rounder. Great in sports, he played hockey, basketball, was on the athletic squad, swam really well, and played water polo. He also painted really well, played the guitar and topped his class in Maths. The teacher's would talk about Nanju and his good looks for a long time to come. But only Mrs Jain would shudder at the very mention of his name.
Mrs. Jain had graduated from Baneras Hindu University. Finishing first her graduation and then her post graduation in Hindi, and then went on to do her M. Phil and teachers training in Hindi. She loved teaching. She felt extremely lucky to have the opportunity to teach young minds, and make them appreciate the nuances of Hindi poetry and study the subject.
Mrs. Jain could not stop talking about Nanju, and his green eyes, and his white teeth and then she stopped and said "Just wish he was better at Hindi".She looked crestfallen.
The story goes, that Nanju's results in all subjects was above average, except Hindi. During the annual Parents-Teachers meeting, Mrs Jain took his Dad aside and told him, that Nanju would have to repeat the 10th standard, if he did not pass in Hindi. Nanju's father Chengappa,was very worried, Nanju was his only son , and he knew that the child would be crestfallen, if he had to repeat a year.
Nanju started staying back in school and taking extra lessons in Hindi, his parents hired a weekend teacher to teach him Hindi at home. Progress was being made. The exams were looming closer and closer. Then one day, one of his class mates Rajesh came to class and told his close buddies Nanju included that he had come across some body who would give them the 10th board paper in Hindi for a princely fee of Rs 60/-. Nanju, saved up his pocket money and chipped in Rs. 10. It was princely sum for him. He got the Hindi paper, and now was confident he would pass in Hindi. He shared this news with his weekend teacher. Who went through the paper, and with two days to go, gave him the break down on the paper, he told Nanju, "write a really good essay and that is about 20 marks, and then all you have to do for the rest of the paper is get about 15 more marks and you are passed". Nanju looked at the essay and the topic was about "My cow Gauri". The teacher wrote down the essay, and Nanju spent an entire night learning it by heart. Every comma, every word was learnt till he could narrate it blindly
.
The day of the exam came, and Nanju got the paper, quickly he went to the page about the essay and it was about "An ideal student". The papers had been changed. Nanju was in shock, quickly he decided to write the essay.
He started it like this. "There was a boy called Ram, he was a good student. Ram had a cow. The cow was called Gauri..."....and then proceeded to write about the cow Gauri....
The class was howling with laughter, I thought it was terribly clever. Mrs. Jain looked pained, and many years later I am sure she was narrating Nanju's story and my story to the next batches....
Well Hindi - Vindi..its not my language...
