This afternoon as I was browsing through a few online magazines of my choice, I came across a very interesting article. It took me back to my school days. My parents encouraged us to read good books and magazines.
My father used to bring children's books in English as well as in Tamil, two languages in which I was most proficient. (My mother tongue is Marathi but it is significantly different from Marathi that is spoken in Maharashtra. My maternal and paternal ancestors are believed to be descendants of Marathi people who accompanied King Sarfoji when they left Maharashtra and settled down in Thanjavur in Tamilnadu and other places in Southern India. What we speak in our homes is known 'Thanjavur Marathi'). I was regular reader of 'Kannan' , a monthly children's magazine in Tamil and 'Chandamaamaa', a children's magazine in English. Besides, I used to regularly read 'Yoing Folk's League' in The Illustrated Weekly of India, a popular weekly magazine of those years. Whenever we visited our maternal grandfather's house, I used to enjoy reading books in my grandfather's library (a room filled with nicely arranged books in racks). He had a wide variety of good books including ancient Indian classics, books by Bertrand Russel, Leo Tolstoy etc.
My mother used to explain stories such as 'Ugly duckling' written by a British author and was part of our English language textbook. She also taught English Grammar using a graamar book written by Wren and Martin; this book was considered a gold standard in those years.
I remember how I was encouraged to draw pictures and paint them using water colour. I fondly remember my water colour box and the brushes that came with it.
Those were golden years. Thanks to Rajiv Eipe for enabling old guys like me at 70 plus to revisit their boyhood years.
Courtesy: Google Images
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