On the 29th day of my birth I got a new name: “Govind”. Ha ha..getting promoted from the “just baby” title to One official name to save me from hundreds of pet names.

That one single, but not unique name gave me a ID, which in future I would always be referred to. All my future Identity cards, starting from Ration Card. License, PAN to Passport every new cards would bear that name.

My parents were teachers and they were colleagues in the same school. I am not sure if there was any “Romantic Story” involved. But one thing I could easily visualize from the yellow pages of my Grandfathers diary-“The first my father came to my Grandfathers’ house for the proposal”.

The diary pages says:

“Mr Venu came today with the proposal for Veena. Good guy. A self made man. I am happy my daughter would be safe in his hands”

My Grandfather used to be a teacher and a cartoonist. He loved creating funny cartoons and if you check his diaries, you would see lot of paper clippings. Later during my teenage time, I used them as a reference book for knowing what happened in those days. But interestingly, I could not see a single writing during the days of 70’s Emergency period.

Ohhh sorry I am pulling you guys to a totally different route. I promise, we will stick to my story.

So having said that, my first phase of  life always circled around Schools.

My “Acha’ and “Amma” were working in the “PTMSM High School in a villiage in Malappuram District of Kerala. PTMSM standed for Poyil Thodi Muhammed Sahib Memorial High School. It was a Muslim-Hindu majority village.

This was the only High School in that village. Muhammed Sahib’s son Yusuf Haji was the Manager that time and he used to be my “Acha’s” friend. My father hailed from southern Kerala or from Travancore.

This place was popular for the brick stones (or Laterite Stones) and that was the daily job for the majority of villagers apart from that few people worked in the  Birla Gwalior Rayons(Grasim) factory in Mavoor until it closed in 1985.

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My “baby life” started in the Rented cottages near to the school. Sometimes my Amma will take me to the school and she will make me sleep in the staff room during class time.

More to say…including the story of Millipede…