Reminiscence

Anand (Locana) pays tribute to Mr. K.R Narayanan (one of the more astute presidents India had) here. The very first paragraph of this post struck a chord:

Indira Gandhi's death is one of my earliest political memories. I was in the fourth standard then. Our classes were suspended, and we were asked to go home. I remember watching her funeral on TV... I think the school restarted after a week or so. The school assembly went on for a longer period as a few of the khadi clad teachers were in no mood to end their eulogies.

Somewhat eerily, I remember exactly the same thing happening. I was in the second or third standard (don't remember exactly), when the principal of the Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi School - Mrs. Nalini Chandran, who remains the most naturally gifted teacher who ever taught me - came into the class and whispered something to the teacher. Then she turned and told us that classes had been suspended for the day, and that the school vans would leave shortly. Of course, we must have been in ecstasy, but I really don't remember now. On the way back, the 'Kanchana Supermarket' (in those days, a supermarket was any store where you could walk around and pick your own stuff; that place is long extinct now) near our house had its shutters down - a sure sign of an impending bandh/hartal (Kerala has not changed much in that repect).

I don't remember much about the funeral. I have aways found televised funerals a big bore, and I suspect I wasn't especially keen on them when I was a kid either. And of course, there must have been the out-of-work ghazal singer sitting on poor ole' 'Bore-darshan' strumming a borrowed sitar. Always wondered why somebody's death is made into this kind of farce!

This has been quite a pleasant jolt - I'd forgotten about this whole incident completely. Perks me up early in the morning ! Thanks, Locana.