Accepted - After 12 years

Unaware of all this at 4 p.m. I
arrived home with my satchel in hand and glibly told my mother
that the school was over and I was happy to be home! When my father returned from court, my mother unburdened herself to him.

Father got furious and gave me the one and the only thrashing
that I ever received.

Father now decided to send me as a resident student to the District Board High School at Palampur, 22 miles from Dharamsala.
I was admitted to the school hostel and put in charge of Pandit
Sukhchain Nath, the third master of the school, who was a great
friend of father’s. Lala Narain Das Gupta was then the headmaster of the school and Mr. Mookerji the second master.

The days spent in the Government High School at Palampur were not very eventful. We got up at 4.30, read for some time in the light of the kerosene lamps and at about 6 we went out to the fields to answer the calls of nature (there were no bathrooms and lavatories in hostels then). Then followed a bath at a nearby beautiful spring. On return to the hostel, we did some more reading.
After the morning meal students went at 9-40 to school which finished at 4 in the afternoons. Back in the hostel, we performed some exercise. The evening meal followed after which we were expected to go to bed.

Off and on, we played cards, though students were not allowed to play in the hostel in those days. Attending the miracle plays (Krishna Lila) which were quite often performed at Palampur, was the only relief from the dreariness of our days.

Now and then we attended the local fairs, and occasionally raided nearby fields for corn.
While I was at Nurpur, Fateh Chand, the physical instructor in the school—himself a very good athlete—had taught me a number of exercises on the parallel bar and the horizontal bar.

To be continued.....