Those priceless days

This picture was taken in 1962 at Central College premises in Bengaluru on the occasion of the class socials. Along with me in the picture are my classmates and faculty.

I’ve lived in Bengaluru all my life. After completing my schooling from Malleshwarm Middle School and Malleshwarm Boys’ High School, I joined the Government Intermediate College, with Chemistry, Botany and Geology (CBG), as optional subjects. We were a batch of 60 students and had the best faculty in all subjects.
    
Intermediate was a public examination and only a handful of us passed and graduated to the degree course in Central College.

Back then, Central College was the only one in the entire state to offer the BSc Degree Course in the CBG combination.
    
Only six of us — C S Harindranath, S Rangaraj, K R Venugopal, Venkatanarayana, M J Chandrasekhara Gowda and I were from Government Intermediate College.
   
The rest of them were from other parts of the state. We had an excellent faculty and among them Prof G P Rajarathnam, Dr Bharatraj Singh, Dr C D Govinda Rao, Prof B R Seshachar, Prof CNN Murthy and Prof M R Sreenivasa Rao were popular.
   
I had the opportunity of representing the college in English debate and other literary activities and won several prizes.

In 1962, we passed out of Central College. My classmate Raghavendra changed track and became a library and information scientist at ISRO. Rangaraj went to the Petroleum Research Institute. Narayana Murthy and Harindranath joined the ICAR as soil scientists.
   
I joined the Geological Survey of India and is still a consultant with them.

 My school and college days were most memorable. I would walk to school with some of my classmates because there were hardly any vehicles on the road those days.

I thoroughly enjoyed the walk because the roads were free, broad and there were very few vehicles those days.

I bought a cycle and started using it once I joined college. In college, we were a small but smart group.
   
We had very little money but we made the best of whatever little we had.
   
We would share snacks and have by-two coffee. We would also occasionally watch a movie in theatres such as Alankar, Prabath Talkies  and Sagar which have now been pulled down.

The tickets for balcony seats were priced at Rs 3.60  and other seats came at eight annas.

I lived and grew up in a city which was calm and serene. Today, Bengaluru, has become crowded and dusty. The city has truly lost its charm.

(Ramakrishna can be reached at 9945282653)  To our readers
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