Chapter 2: Going to School
My brother Gopal began to grow older. When he was four years old my dad admitted him to a school in Nursery class. Gopal had a very difficult time focusing on studying and he knew nothing, for example not even a very simple thing like A B C D. He was going to school for 5 months and he failed the first terminal exam.
One day we three and other friends were playing with mud making temples and houses. My mom came angrily and spank at Gopal and said, “Gopal why are you playing here gathering kids? you don’t know you failed the first exam, come soon with me, we will study at home” Gopal went to the home solemnly. Chanas and I also followed him to the house. Gopal sat on the mat and mom asked him to write the letter ‘A’ by looking at the book but he couldn’t write anything. Mummy also wrote the letter ‘A’ and asked him to write this letter. He tried a lot of times. He tried……….. tried but he couldn’t. Mom got angry and hit him on his head with her hand. Now Gopal wrote the letter ‘A’ even without looking at the book. “Mummy, look there! brother Gopal wrote the letter A,” I said. Mummy looked at his writing. Since that day he has been interested in his studies.
He was clever and talented in his class. He was inquisitive to know about all things. He was a very funny student in his class and he used to make his friends laugh as well as his teachers by telling jokes and acting. He used to come first, second or third up to class four. Chanas and I also had joined the same school as my brother. It was not easy to pay the monthly fee of our boarding school, food and fulfil our basic needs. That’s why my mother also used to do work like cutting rice, wheat, planting and sometimes in construction of houses too. Sometimes, she used to come home exhausted from work and sometimes she used to come home late. At that time I used to make supper for us even though I was only seven years old. My mom always made us and our lunch ready on time while going to school. She always washed our school dress but never sent us to school as filthy children otherwise she knew that our teacher would punish us in front of everyone. She took good care of us very carefully. We were so proud of our mom. The way she loved and cared for us was very much precious and we loved her back too.
Gopal was older but he did not know anything about cooking, washing and other household work. He only knew about things like light from dry cells, how to mend small machines. electricity problem and other technicians work. His mind was going away from studying and he was interested in acting and dancing. In the village he had many friends Binod, Balbhadra, Kishor, Arjun who were related too and other small children. He did not say small children, he would play with anyone and made happy feeling good small kids loved him too due to his funny act. Among all friends, one of the friends named Binod was the best friend of Gopal. He also read at the same J.P School but not in the same class. Gopal was one class junior than Binod, they both were really funny guys.
They both were partners while dancing and acting at school programs. They always created new acts or dances in their school’s sports day or annual day program every year. They gave a name to their partner and it was Go.B jodi (partner). They began to be famous partners in the Surkhet district of country Nepal. Sometimes a big organization and schools like V.D.P D.D.C ……….high school etc would invite them for their show. They also used to go in their place and show their created jokes, poems, comedy drama, dances, funny acts etc. J.P school became more famous due to the two students Gopal and Binod or Go.B jodi. From Go – Gopal and from B- Binod. They used to get prizes, certificates and money from the program by making the invited guest proud and happy. On sports day everyone used to get excited to watch the dance/ performance by Go.B jodi and would say that without Go.B jodi the programs would be incomplete and it won’t seem like the sports or an annual day.
Our grandfather and grandmother used to live at our home. At that time my grandfather was no longer alive. In the whole Surkhet district J.P school became popular. They used to take part in competitions with other schools and came by winning with their dance performance. They felt the authority of that. All the teachers and students were so proud of them. They began to grow older from their childhood and entered into teenage. They were studying higher classes but they were totally out of their study zone. They only wanted to dance and act, they made a hobby to be an actor which was not worth it for the future for all. Gopal was studying in 8th grade, which means his district level examination was coming nearer and nearer but he was being careless. All teachers were bored with act of Gopal. They were afraid that he would not pass the DLE teachers his parents and said to control their son. Gopal, he was getting out of control otherwise he would fail the exam. Your son always wants to dance but he does not concentrate on his studies. My dad was anxious to hear that from the teachers. He was applying full life to our study and his oldest son was being careless. Dad always used to give more suggestions to my brother Gopal than us because he was the oldest one. In our village no one was educated. If someone was reading in government school and being careless then Gopal was reading in Boarding school. We never went to the government school when private or Boarding schools were established. Went all three had given education in Boarding school. My father always wanted a good education for us. He wanted our henceforth English language and good education system which are very important in this modern age. My dad didn’t get a chance to study at school therefore he promised that he would give us a better education from our village than others.
We three brothers and sister had read in boarding school from nursery. Some of our friends who used to study with us in the same class left the school and joined public school due to their economic problem. But our dad never did that with us. Anyhow, he fulfilled all our needs only from his job. He used to pay our school fees once every 4 or 5 months by borrowing additional money from his friends but now we can realize how difficult it must have been to pay after borrowing. He used to pay anyhow to keep us in school. He made nothing from his job. He only made us educated other army people make big – big houses but our dad was not like that.
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