My Childhood Activities - 2

After having mentioned about my studies, l must make a mention of my other activities just for those who have never been to a remote village. The village boys would play in the school grounds in the evening and I was very very active and will make efforts to top the game. The games were physically tough and of local nature. If I mention names, like "WANJI (involving lot of tough running), "ILL KANGRA (in this U had to climb a tree, shift from branch to branch and come down by hanging and jumping to ground by hanging branches, like monkeys)", "BANDAR KILLA, PITHOO GARAM, LUKKAR MACHAI, MAAR KUTTAI, KABADDI, VOLLEY BALL, FOOT BALL", and many more. We would also play at night as well specially in the moon lit nights. Fear was one word I was not aware of, as at the age of 14, I had to go out in the fields at pitch dark nights to water the crops. The grave yard was very close to our fields and at night I had to pass through it and strangely it was a routine activity. At least at three occasions I confronted big Cobra Snakes (including one more then two meters long), but "he" and me avoided a confrontation. Going into jungle was a routine and specially in search of honey. Without fear of bees I would eat honey. climbing trees with monkey like speed was a routine activity. People were not much interested in studies and education was not that a big burden for us or our parents.

My general knowledge was very good because of reading habit and listening to BBC regularly. Since my interaction was with the book stores I would purchase each and every book which pertained to ISSB. The only problem I faced was that I could not find a person who would give me practical guidance. In my area, there was no army officer, even in my adjacent villages to whom I could go and ask for guidance. I was also unable to find out a candidate who had been to ISSB. My knowledge about ISSB was based on book reading and gossip of people who would give me different stories. Finally I applied, got through the initial selection and reached ISSB. Now today, once I look back, I can summarize my strengths and weaknesses as given next