Hyderabad, July 26 -- Built on a hill-like high edge of a pond-in local dialect it is called bhinda or pokharbhida-the school was our world. Its tiled roof which leaked when it rained heavily, whitewashed walls, huge courtyard with rose and other flowers beautifying its periphery, we treated the campus not just as our gurukul but as an incubator which taught us many values. Values that have stayed with us decades down the line.

I began visiting it since I was admitted in class six. We were around 60 or 70 students crammed into a corner classroom. We had sports and games too but I was not encouraged much to play games.

At the annual examination I topped the class. This trend continued till 8th standard. At the end of 9th and annual exam ...