I have a shared a very special relationship with Pyhs.Ed teachers throughout my life. In all the schools that I have studied so far the teachers that teach P.E. has always been the most colourful person on campus. Now in India, most schools generally relegated the concept of sports to a second spot behind academics (except for some boarding schools, 2 of which I have had the privilege of studying in where they are given their due). Take for example my 1st school, Jasudben Manilal Lalubai experimental high school – our revered sports facilities consisted of a cemented area which is used for throw ball, volleyball , marching and of course as the principals car park. Yet our teacher Balram ‘ Ballu’ sir made sure we did enough work by implementing innovative ideas such as making us do sit ups at our desks , walk on stilts on the roof and do Yoga in the corridors. Now I was too spherical to be of any use to any sports team or of any interest to a coach, but Ballu sir made sure I did all my exercises and running properly. I must say that without his classes I would have managed to run down the steps to the canteen as fast as I did.
In my 7th, I left JML (as it is heply called) for greener pastures in the form of Sahyadri School. Unfortunately the Elysian lawns I pictured materialised in the form of the arid and extremely rocky patch of near Martian land called the Sahyadri football field. But Gopal Sir and Sangeetha Akka in contrast were very qualified teachers. I attended games and PT regularly and though I was never really good at anything physical I enjoyed play more than anything else. I managed to become a fringe footballer and a decent hockey player as well. Enough of me though. Gopal Sir was an extremely nice person, but unfortunately had the amazing ability of taking a short anecdote and converting it into a Tolstoyly long and incredibly boring epic with several moral derivations. But nevertheless he was loved by everyone and was greatly admired for his skill on the basketball court, ability to catch snakes and the fact that he headed the grand ‘Adventure Club’. Sangeetha Akka was partial to our class guys and hence we could have no problems with her.
I joined Rishi Valley in my 11th grade and was immediately awestruck by the amazing levels of sport there. Now of course each sport is coached by a different teacher, but the undisputed king of all physical activities is the evergreen ChenaBalaKrishna Reddy Sir. Now Reddy Sir has been taking students for PT jogs for the past 20 years and yet at his age he shows no signs of exhaustion. He is always the 1st person on the field in the morning and i doubt anyone can forget his interpretation of what a wakeup whistle sounds like. His versatility enables him to referee all sports and he has the unique gift of being able to make decisions on offside’s when he is 50m away from the location of play ( I suppose the intensity of the appeal is a good enough parameter for him ). He is never partial to anyone and is probably the only teacher who knows every students name. And like any true sportsman he begins every match with a stern warning – “No swearing, no fighting”. But for all his affability he is a taskmaster and can often be heard chiding students with his set of self-developed insults that include – “Pass the ball Brainy!!”, “Those shorts are only for the girls in the fashion” and “Don’t trap with your 3rd leg!!”
I’m quite sure that I will eventually become a couch potato but I will never forget the life lessons taught to me by my sports teachers. After all as Archer said “You can’t hide your true self on a sports field”.
