My school and service

During the year 1960, my uncle Vithal used to go to primary school which was situated at a nearby village, Ranjolkheni. In the first week of June, He invited me to join the school at Ranjol, as there was no school at our village Hochaknalli. Next day, after consulting my grandmother, I followed vithal to school.  I was admitted in first standard in the New Type Middle School [NTMS] Ranjol Kheni. It was the first week of June and it rained during night hours. There was fresh water in the open grounds of the school.

The building was L- shaped and it was a concrete [RCC] building. I was impressed by the modern way of new building being constructed outside the village Ranjolkheni. This place was about one kilometer away from my residence at Hochknalli. We used to walk on bare foot to school on a narrow mud road. This was a modern school situated in the Centre of about ten villages. Boys from deferent villages used to study there. The surrounding villages were Rekulgi, Mangalgi, Talmadagi, sitalgeri, Hajjargi, sirkatnalli, etc. One Mr. Gurubasappa was my class teacher for first standard. He was young and fresh teacher, who used to teach mathematics. By the time I finished my first term at Ranjol, a new teacher was posted in my village. And therefore I was asked to join new school in my own village Hochaknalli. I did so and learnt alphabets. The strength of students was limited to about ten boys of similar age group. Among these students, two of us started reading the first standard book and we two completed reading this text book and we were given second standard book in the same academic year to read and study. So by the end of the yeas, we were declared passed  the second standard.

The next year, I was again taken to RanjolKheni School, in order to admit me to third standard there. The old class teacher Mr. Gurubasappa identified me and he did not agree for the proposal as I was a first standard student in that school during the previous year. He asked me to solve a small problem on subtraction, and I solved it with wrong answer. There was an agreement among the teachers and my parents that I shall be admitted to third standard, and if I fail in the quarterly examination, I shall have to go back to second standard only. However If I get through the quarterly examination, I shall continue in third standard. I not only got through the quarterly examination, but also stood first to my class [third standard]. After that event, I used to be the topper to my class every year, up to my SSLC.

I got through SSLC in first class during 1969 April. I was the fifth student to get SSLC pass from my village after Indian independence. Mr. Shivareddy, Shankareddy, Hemreddy D and Hemreddy S were my seniors from my village. I was asked to marry a girl from far off village Srimandal in the summer vacations after my SSLC exam. It was a child marriage. I lost my dear father when I was a 9th student. It was a great loss as the family lost the bread earning member, unexpected. My father was a potter and active member of the village. My grandmother was the head of our family. We used to talk Telugu in our home. Most of our relatives were from Telangana.

Gundappa kumbar: my father,

Tippamma kumbar: my mother,

Narasamma kumbar: grandmother;

   

The unfortunate

Loss of father made me depend on others for my needs of schoolings.

We two classmates started studying together and chose a rented room. It was a common place for our study. The magazines we read belonged to my friend Mr. Kasinath. But as the date of examination approached nearer, he disappeared from the common study room with his belongings and all study materials and magazines. Because of this, I was feeling fish out of water. Somehow I managed my available resources to prepare for my matriculation examination.

After SSLC, I joined science collage at Bidar and got through pre-university course in science during 1970.

There after I continued my education with the help of National loan scholarship and completed my B.Sc. degree in1973. I studied mathematics and Physics as my subjects.

When we joined collage Mr. Kasinath and I were again roommates. Here also we were sharing his books. This was because of my bad financial position, as there was nobody to take care of my expenditures of study materials.

I was more interested in mathematics whereas he was more interested in biology. We both put our best efforts to make fine notes in our respective fields. But as the days approached nearer to our final examination, I lost my mathematics notebook and he lost his biology notebooks. Someone has stolen our notebooks deliberately. However I was second to the collage in my class, scoring a better grade in my PUC science examination.

It was the government loan scholarship I received for three years, which saved me for the completion of my degree course. I became a science graduate by 1973. Thereafter, I could support my mother and family.

I was appointed as telephone operator during 1974 and was posted to Bhalki, a taluk headquarter in Bidar district. I Worked at Bhalki telephone exchange for five years [1979] and then appeared for competitive examination for the post of telephone inspector and I was selected.

I underwent six months training at RTTC Abids Hyderabad. Then I was posted to Sandur in Bellary district as Phone inspector. There, I was officer in-charge of the telephone exchange at Sandur.  Sundur manganese and iron ores was a famous ore company managed by M. Y. Ghorpade, the Maharaja of Sandur.

Worked there for one year 1980-81 and again appeared for the competitive exam for the post of Junior Engineer and I were selected to this new post. I underwent one year induction training at RTTC Trivandrum Kerala and was posted to Raichur telephones, as Junior engineer in 1983-84. My carrier started here as engineer. It was a long stay at Raichur, for almost twelve years.

I migrated to Bidar in 1996 on mutual transfer. During 1999, I was selected to the post of Sub- Divisional engineer and worked as S.D.O.Phones, at Bidar till retirement in 2009 February.

During 34 years of service I saw lot of up-gradations in the department; from manual to automatic system of call switching. I have seen Vigorous expansions of telephone networks in India. After 1990 the systems were digitalized all over the country. Call switching was on STD. customer could dial to anybody at any instant of time all over the nation. There was a tremendous achievement in communication technology over the years.

After the year 2000, the mobile networks were installed all over the nation by many companies on liberalization of service to private operators. Telephony became cheaper and affordable to common man. Now a days more than 50% population owns a mobile set.