Going through old files in a frantic search for my school leaving certificate, I learnt the following:
• 1 cubic foot of water is 28 litres.
• Our household takes 10 to 24 hours to go through 250 litres of water.
• 1 tractor with a 9-tine plough can plough 20 acres in 10 hours.
• You can grow 144 mango trees in one acre of land.
• The Israelis know many useful things about commercial farming.
• A teacher can also be a polling officer.
• There's a special course on how to teach "gifted children".
• For the price of my college fees, I would today get a sandwich and coffee. It may run to a muffin as well, but that's about it.
• My parents planned to buy a flat down the road a few years ago but abandoned the idea for an unspecified reason
• My brother missed dad and the dogs most in boarding school. He had friends named Clive and Ashok and my mother used to send them home-made jam. I sent him a card for his birthday.
• He was an eight-year-old in exile. Kids that young must never, ever be sent away from home.
• My granddad had beautiful handwriting. He did not believe his grandson was over his homesickness but tried to reassure his son by pretending to think so.
• My grandmom (on the other side) wrote out detailed knitting instructions for booties but knowing my mom, they have been lying unused in this file or another for 35 years.
• Both my mom's children have forged her signature on highly creative excuse notes – but characteristically my brother's got caught and preserved while mine remained a secret until now.
• I was an intensely annoying kid.
• For the supposedly sentimental member of the family, I've preserved relatively few bits of memorabilia. And so far, they do not include my school leaving certificate.
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