Karad Diaries-4

One thing that I shall always cherish about the schooldays in Karad was the exalted status they gave me as one of the brightest students, particularly in the subject of mathematics. We had a new teacher in the 10^th class, Mr. M. N. Joshi, who was one of the SSC Board toppers and he decided to test our acumen on the very first day of joining. That year the SSC Board had changed the pattern of the examination, where questions were not directly based on the text-book, and unless you had a certain problem solving ability it was difficult to even translate the question properly in the mathematical framework. Mr. Joshi used this paper to test us, and I scored the highest in the class, 41 out of 75.  As this was a question paper for the 11^th class while we were in 10^th, even this score was remarkable. I was famous for scoring 100 out of 100 in Mathematics my earlier school at Kolhapur, but in Karad I was a nobody till this incident.

I was already in the A Division meant for the brighter students, and this incident made me a contender for a place in the list of honours at state level, alongwith Dinesh Deshpande, Pradeep Kashalkar and later Chandrashekhar Sabnis, who joined us in 11^th standard. After some time Mr. M. N. Joshi left the school to found his own coaching classes and we were students of his first batch, classes for which were held in a makeshift place previously used as a gymnasium. Mathematics ruled the day here, and once, when I declared my inability to attend an extra class due to my prior commitment to a drawing class, everyone laughed and derided me for putting drawing before mathematics. I had to explain that I needed to clear the Intermediate Level in the State Drawing Examination as I intended to join architecture after my matriculation. Unlike the current aspirants to the course of architecture, I had absolutely no idea what architecture was all about, only that I needed to clear the Drawing Examination for eligibility of admission to the course.

None of us could, however, make it to the state level honours list, to the disappointment of all, though I managed to get 99 out of 100 in Higher Mathematics and 91 out 100 in Arithmetic. Dinesh Deshpande joined UDCT, Pradeep Kashalkar joined Arts in the hope of making it to IAS, but could not make it and had to contend with a good position in a Bank. Chandrashekhar Sabnis became a doctor, but later died young due to a tragic accident. I met Pradeep later when he was transferred to Aurangabad, but have no contact with Dinesh after school and have no idea of what happened to him.

But my closest friend at Karad was Shrikant Sane, who did not figure in all this competition. Shrikant used to stay near my place, and we would be together for almost all the time. Shrikant taught me swimming; he was an expert, and with him and other friends I used to roam around doing trekking & many other exploits together. Once we had a shot at sighting the ghosts on the riverbank where there was a cremation ground and were told that the ghosts generally loiter there on a no-moon night. We used to study in the night at Shrikant’s place and decided to check this out, but when we ventured out on the next no-moon night at about 11.00 pm, our courage failed us after reaching the bank of the river and we ran back reciting Ramaraksha all the way. Of course, the other exploits worked, like trekking in the mountains of Agashiva and Sadashiva. Agashiva was a difficult trek, crossing over a few ranges, but Sadashiva was easier and I remember running all the way down the mountain just for the heck of it. Those indeed were happy days.