#SoCS Aug. 28, 2021

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “my.” Start your post with the word “My.” Bonus points if you end your post with “yours.” Enjoy!

My grandfather’s memoirs take me back to a different world. He was born in 1893. In the  last years of the 1970s his elder daughter requested him to write his memories. I am so glad she did so. He wrote them in two note books in Kannada. Later on,  my father typed them up, made xerox copies and shared them with us. I read the memoirs years ago and translated it into English. I find it easier to read in English than in Kannada. What amazed me was my grandfather’s memory. He remembered so many details about his childhood and youth. I do not remember so much about my early life.

He writes about his life at school  between 1909 and 1915. He was writing about what happened seventy years earlier! He studied at Basel Mission School in Mangalore. I checked on Google and it was fascinating to read about the school. The internet has changed our lives. Located in the centre of the city, the school was very old even in those days. The principal was a German called Mr Bloom. My grandfather writes he was a good person and believed in hard work. He had one glass eye and no one could make out which was the real one. When World War 1 broke out  in 1914, Germans in India were jailed. Mr Bloom was jailed too.

My grandfather writes in detail about all that he studied in school and also about teachers who influenced him. He had lived in a village, and had  to discontinue studies after fourth std as there was no high school nearby. Due to certain circumstances, his father moved to the city in search of work. He admitted his son to the English medium school. My grandfather was sixteen when he joined first form. That was the turning point in his life. He writes that if his father had not admitted him to school his life would have been very different. He continued his studies and completed BA Honours in Maths. He became a teacher.

I think there is a turning point in every person’s life. Life changes at that moment and we may not know its importance then. It is only later on that we realize the importance of that moment. I think we have to grab the opportunities that come our way with both hands and live our dreams.  Someone says in a novel how you react to life is in your hands. Your life is yours.

About Us – BEM School

https://www.bemschool.org/about-us

My grandfather and his younger sister.

Advertisement