1990-07-01 - My first month as a Sai student

I started maintaining a diary only after You gave me one, 1991 or 1992. The first few months of 1990 may have been recorded in the form of letters I sent home, but at present I don't have those letters with me. So, I'll have to rely on memory, and can't be sure of dates.

In 1990, You were re-starting the Summer Course after 1979, with only students of the Sai University attending. I have a vague memory of going to Brindavan and having Your darshan, but whether it was before the entrance exam or before joining the school, I don't remember. One thing I remember was that the "Sri Sathya Sai Arts Science and Commerce College" was being replaced by "Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning" on the Brindavan college campus facade. I also remember sitting outside the college auditorium with the devotees and listening to Your discourse.

I've mentioned my school entrance saga in the Radiosai interview, so I will skip that here. I went for the entrance exam with my mother, and for joining, later, with my father. As I applied for school, grade XI, my sister had medical entrance exams around the same time. So my parents took turns in escorting the two of us to our respective exam venues etc.

When Achan (Father) and I arrived at Prasanthi Nilayam, the Summer Course was still going on, so only Venkatachalam sir, the kitchen in-charge, was there at the Parthi Hostel. He was extra friendly since we were from Kerala (he was, too) and took us around, showed us what a room would look like, and asked us to come on the first day of admissions into the Hostel, which was a day or two later. We had brought the items which were specified in the joining letter, like bucket, plate, tumbler, white clothes and so on. My earlier school had white shirt + blue or black trousers as the school uniform, so I only needed white pants, which I had got stitched before coming. After getting me admitted, Achan left.

Sri Venkatachalam with You in the School Hostel Kitchen, 1995 or 1996. From this video.

I was in room B-24. At that time, this was the room just above the music room, which was next to the dining hall. The Hostel strength was around 700, with school boys 8th to 12th, and Institute UG to PhD sharing the same Hostel. Dining sessions were an hour long for breakfast and dinner. The lunch break was staggered on week days to save time. The school boys would have their lunch break first. We would eat and leave, and then the Institute boys would have their lunch break. 8th, 9th and 10th class students were in the Northern wing on C floor (top floor), including C1 to C4, which were "New Block" rooms. 12th on the Southern wing of C floor, with 11th directly beneath them on the B floor. The A floor (ground floor) and half of B floor were for the Institute students. Sri Rammohan Rao, our English teacher, was the wing teacher for 8,9,10th classes. Sai sir (Commerce) and Janardhan sir (Chemistry) were the wing teachers for 12th. Our 11th class wing teacher was Sri Bharat Dutt who had just joined the Bioscience faculty of the school that year.

There were 12 or 14 cupboards in our room. I had a corner cupboard, and IRK was my cupboard-mate - that is, his cupboard was right next to mine, and then there was a window before the next cupboard. Though both IRK and I were staying at a Hostel for the first time, IRK had a rougher time of it, not being used to doing things on his own, like changing stapler pins, sweeping the room, etc. so I would help him out with demos. We were supposed to roll up our bedding and keep it neatly in the bottom alcove of our cupboard, and take turns one by one to sweep our room once a day. We were also suppose to keep our cupboards neat and tidy, with clothes on the upper shelves and books on the lower shelf with folding desk. There were no fans. Only 2-3 tubelights per room. Some would carry their bedding and go to the dining hall to sleep under the fans there, and some would go to the B-floor terrace. I used to sleep in the room itself, tying a mosquito net to a chair and a corner of the room. Our two room leaders were AKB and CK, who were in 12th. AKB later became a doctor, and turned out to be the brother of my (much later) colleague's Balvikas guru. CK was one year ahead of me at Brindavan also.

Academically, the first few months were tough for me, because the Maths classes were going much faster than I could keep up. I could hold my own in the other subjects of Physics and Chemistry, English and Sanskrit. But my level of Maths, coming from Kerala board, was lower than what the A.P. board or CBSE students  were used to, and our teacher, Subba Rao sir, would go through the textbook by reading the problem in half-English, half-Telugu, someone in the class would call out the answer, he would go on to the next question and so on, with express speed! The early-morning rising meant that by the time the 8 pm study hours concluded, we would be very very sleepy. On a few days, I cried myself to sleep in frustration, holding tight onto You in my mind. Not homesickness per se, but a combination of factors. But I soon got all this into my stride.

Our daily schedule was similar to what is currently followed, with some differences. We would go to Mandir at 3 pm or 3.30 pm, and You would come for darshan by 4 o'clock. We would take study books to Mandir, so that once You went into the interview room, we had time until You came out again, or the bhajans started, to do a bit of homework. Our lights out was at 10:30. On Sundays, the Primary School students also would be there for darshan. But on many Sundays, You would go to the college to take classes for the MBA boys in the college multimedia room. In the months leading up to Your 65th Birthday, You were in a very happy mood, and would spend an hour or so standing and chatting to the students either near the interview room door, or in the front of the bhajan hall. Sometimes You would even sit on the edge of the raised platform atop which Your throne is kept, and talk. There was a gentleman who used to sit there, called Sri Sathya Sai Padananda if I'm not mistaken, with whom You would have long conversations. Even the Thus Spake Sai series starts only from 1991, so I can't easily look up some references for the 1990 interactions. But I do remember that You had given each class a group interview, and that in the group interviews for the school boys, You had created and shown a large 'Kohinoor diamond' before sending it back.

At the Hostel, I was a picky eater till I joined Brindavan. I would have only one of the items - like dosa or vada and so on - from the breakfast menu, since I would not eat rice at that time. I would supplement this with a "bun-butter" - a cube of butter and a bun purchased from the "Fruit stall" the previous night, which used to be under the staircase on the southern side of the Hostel. For lunch and dinner, I had special permission slips from the Warden, Sri Sanjay Sahni, along with other students from North India, saying that we opt for chapatis instead of rice, so that we would be served 2 chapatis instead of the one chapati for all the other students. I would eat only the two chapatis. A couple of students from each class or wing would take turns to go down to the kitchen, collect the night milk in a pail, and carry it around to each room in the wing before the night prayer. At each room, we would serve the hot sweetened milk to each student in their respective tumblers. Serving meals was also taken up in turns, room-wise. 11th/12th boys would have breakfast/dinner serving room-wise, with each room serving for a week. One of the challenging aspects of food serving in those days was the transporting of the large hot vessels of sambar and rasam from the kitchen to the dining hall. In those days, there used to be a 4-wheeled trolley which had to be expertly manoeuvered  to take it around a 90 degree turn with a ramp / hump in one smooth movement, without spilling the full vessels of hot sambar and rasam. Also, two people would have to co-ordinate lifting the large, heavy vessels and keeping them on the counter. I will elaborate on other service activities - SUPW (Socially Useful Productive Work), the school assembly and more, in a separate post.   

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