In my last post, I wrote how spiders compensated for watches and clocks during our school days. In this one, I am going to tell you how we saved ourselves from rains in the monsoon season during which Kerala would get heavy rains.  

Those days, there were no umbrellas as well. So, we all used big banana leaves as umbrellas to protect ourselves from rain. Banana leaves were useful only as long as there were no winds as otherwise rainwater would wet one from all sides. Two or three children would easily come under a banana leaf. That is how we reached our school during monsoons. It was a powerful symbol of the backwardness of India immediately after independence.

If there are winds, the banana leaf would break and we all will be drenched. On the way to our school, there was a huge creek, almost like half a river. During monsoons, the water level will go up and the current will also be very strong so the chances of us getting washed away are very high. There was great danger while crossing that creek. We all would request village elders to carry us on their shoulders and cross the creek. It was a very fearsome situation.

By the time we reached school, we all were drenched. Even then, we will go and sit on our respective bench and start studying. But we didn’t feel anything unusual about it because that was the kind of life we had back then. There was no better life as we looked around. Everybody was the same. That was a typical village life those days.

To be continued.....

The picture shown here is for representation purpose only.