sixth grade at Kamaraj Municipal Higher Secondary School, and 7th grade at CSI Boys Higher Secondary School, Erode.

After I graduated fifth grade from Corporation Elementary School, I was joined in sixth grade at Kamaraj Municipal Higher Secondary School, in our town. When I was in grade six, I enrolled again in the free noon-meal system in the school and got a set of school uniforms, free lunch meals, toothpowder and etc., I wore that uniform to school. I washed that set of uniforms (brown color trousers and white color shirt) every day and reused them for the school throughout the year. As I sat on the floor in my classes, my trouser was torn at the back and so I stitched that with needle and thread with my mom’s help and reused it for several months. As I hadn’t had a school bag to carry my notebooks on, I got from my mother the cloth-made yellow-color shopping bag to carry my books and notebooks to school.

I excelled in my studies in sixth grade. I grasped the subjects very quickly and got good grades in Math, Science, and English. On observing my activeness in the classes, my English teacher Mr. Sampath admired and appreciated my interest and quick-learning skills in Math, Science, and English, and advised me to watch English news on TV to improve my English and general knowledge. But as we had not got a TV box in our home in the 1980s, I decided to go and watch English news on Television at one of our neighbor’s houses on the neighboring street. That was the one and only family in our area Krishnampalyam that had a small black & white Dianora TV box. Through my father, I got permission from the head of the family Mr. Paulraj to watch Television news for an hour twice a week. On the first day, no sooner did I enter their house gate to watch TV than the dog that they owned chased me and bit me on my left leg which made a severe wound on my left leg. I was given a vaccine from the Government Hospital and it took two months for me to get recovered from the dog’s bite. Still, I have a dog bite scar on my left leg.

After the dog’s bite, I was scared to go to their home again and so I stopped going to their home thereafter to watch TV. When I conveyed this incident to my English teacher Mr. Sampath, he was sorry about that incident that happened to me and helped me to access and read English, general knowledge, and other subject-related books from the school library. I am grateful to my English teacher Mr. Sampath who initiated and motivated my reading habit by introducing me to the school library at the age of 11. At the same time, as I was physically weak because of malnutrition and used to fall sick often, I was unable to concentrate more on my studies. So my father transferred me to continue 7th grade at CSI Boys Higher Secondary School where my father was employed as a teacher, to take care of my health. My father provided me with medical treatments to boost up my physical strength at CSI Hospital, Erode which is associated with CSI School where my father was employed.