In 1953 around July/August we left for Trivandrum the capital of Travancore Cochin State (Now Kerala) and took up residence in the university hostel which was walking distance from the College of Engineering and the University College.
It was a whole new world here, very different from my home state! This state had the highest literary percentage in India so it was no surprise that the enrollment of The University College had 50% of girl students. The common room was a huge affair; I had never seen one like this before! The girls were very different too; they were more outgoing and smart! They washed their long black hair everyday and left it loose to dry and this was quite entrancing. The language spoken there was Malayalam, but you as the literacy rate was high most of them knew English and we could manage to communicate quite well.
It was an exciting new world. I joined the NCC, and became a Sergeant; joined four items in athletics; played games. I used to excel in rifle shooting, and won a few prizes in athletics at the cost of the studies!
The rifle shooting range was at a distance in the hills. There were coconut trees all around us. The scene was green and vibrant. The competition was for Burdwan and Earl Roberts trophies, where individually I used to have highest points in the battalion; my rank was 7 in India; 25 internationally. Later I was promoted to the rank of Under Officer and passed my certificate B and C. What I remember about these days is the food provided to us at these camps- it was puri and potato curry with one banana, both for morning and noon- after the good healthy exercise it always tasted amazing!
In the final year I went for SSB interview at Bangalore, and failed because my IQ was said to be 150 as against the requirement of 120, the silver lining in the cloud was I stood first in the rifle shooting competition.
NCC was wonderful those days- there was the winter annual camps, living in tents, getting tanned because of parades. Exposure to light machine guns, pistols and grenades, along with map reading trekking etc. was another exciting facet of this training.
NCC not only taught me discipline it also developed my leadership qualities which would be used later on in life. As a child I had been a loner, but now I became more sociable and made many friends. One person with whom I struck a wonderful friendship was Pyarelal from East Africa. I was also close to Gopalakrishnan who hailed from the state. There were few family friends living in the state.
One of them invited me to his house near Cochin. This was another first in my life- I went by an Indian Airlines flight (The ticket cost Rs 30 after a student concession!). The air hostess was an Anglo Indians wearing a skirt and the plane was a Dakota.
After this I wanted to join the flying club. Unfortunately due to lack of time and the problem of transportation I was not able to fulfill this desire at that time. During this period I developed a friendship with Commander DeAlmeid and Major Menon. The former used to take me to the airfields and to the convents to see the sisters (nuns) and later to his beautiful home.
Studies continued but we had a lot of extracurricular activities. We used to hire bicycles for 50 annas to go for picnic .Our picnic fare consisted mainly of bread and butter! We also went many a time to the famous Kovalam beach a few miles from the city. This was a sheltered beach surrounded by land on three sides with coconut trees.
This place also saw the death of a first year east African Indian student by drowning.
Nowadays this is common news but then it was very sad for us.
I used to write letters to three people: one was to my old friend from Keonjhar studying veterinary science at Hissar in Punjab (later this was a part of Haryana). The letter used to take one or two days to reach, since all letters then were airlifted, the second was my cousin from Baripada and the third was the girl from Cuttack. I and Pyarelal acquired a friend known as Mohan, who had a family of five sisters. They were Sindhis who had business in Ivory. We were invited for all functions and parties.
Some tidbits that remain fresh in the mind are- I bought one air pistol for twenty-five rupees and one roller skate for the same amount. I used to inform my younger brother in letters with sketches, and take them home for practice. Skating on the main roads; hanging onto buses was real fun; practicing shooting with the air pistol was another diversion.
These two years passed by very fast and were the most enlightening period of my life. I learnt to be more independent, I managed my finances by myself, and I made new friends. I discovered more traits about myself and enhanced my capabilities……
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