Accepted - After 12 years

I continued my interest in them at Palampur now under the supervision of master Kharka Ram. Here I learnt to play cricket and football, and became a member of the school cricket team. My
interest in callisthenics soon won dividend in prizes in the district athletic meets. Pandit Sukhchain Nath took me on trips to the
temples of Kangra, Jawala Mukhi and Sujanpur Tira and to—what
was very unusual for a student in those days—the glacier from which
emerges the Neugal Khad, at a height of 13,000 ft. from the sea level. I made a number of friends at Nurpur and Palampur.

Though we went our different ways after leaving school, I continue to enjoy the friendship of some of my schoolmates still, among them of
Lala Gyan Chand, Pleader, Nurpur, Pandit Raja Ram, retired
Tehsildar, Mian Attar Singh, Central Secretariat Service, Pandit Durga Dutt, Senior English teacher and others.

In 1904 I took my first public examination, the middle school
examination then held by the Punjab University. For this I hadto go to Kangra. Here, in the Christian High School, students
from the nearby schools were examined for about a week. I came
out successful and was promoted to the ninth class.

The Russo-Japanese war broke out when I was at Palampur. The success of Japan—a small Asiatic power—gave us all a vicarious thrill. Did not its people profess the Buddhist religion, whose
founder was born in India?

In January or February 1905 orders carne for the transfer of
Pandit Sukhchain Nath, my guardian at Palampur. He was appointed Assistant District Inspector of Schools at Dharamsala.

My father thought that if I remained at Palampur without a tutor
of his calibre, I might go wild. He was not prepared to let me play the truant at school for lack of supervision, so he decided to send
me elsewhere.

To be continued....