My Life as a Student

FATHER HAD PLANNED not to send his son to school but to have him learn dyeing. So he taught me at home up to the level of the fifth or sixth class, and then sent me for admission to the Kala Bhavan {technical school} at Baroda, where he was well known and respected. Everyone recognized me as 'Bhave's son, but they could not admit me. They asked me how far I had gone in English and I told them 'up to the third English class'; since other candidates had got as far as 'intermediate arts', I had no chance. My father then began to teach me further himself, and finding that his lad spent more time roaming about than studying, gave me a lot of mathematical problems to keep me busy. So what did I do? I concentrated on the more difficult ones which were set out in small type at the end of the text book, worked them all out and left the rest. Father realized that I grasped the subject so he said nothing, and what I learned with him was all I needed up to the matriculation level. I would first finish my assignment in Maths and English within the hour and then be off on my wanderings for four or five hours at a stretch. So finally in disgust father dumped me in school.

There too I carried on in the same way. I not only went on roaming, I pulled my friends out of their homes to join me and gave them no chance to study. Babaji Moghe used to hide in some temple to study and keep out of my way, but I would search for him, find him and drag him out.

As a boy my two hobbies were reading and roaming. I would be off whenever I got the chance. Another friend of mine, Raghunath Dhotre, would always tell me that I had wheels on my feet. 'Vinya,' Mother would say, 'in your last birth you must have been a tiger; for one thing, you must have your daily round, and for another you have a very keen nose, you can't bear the slightest bad odour.' So I soon knew every street in Baroda, and I would be off at all time of day or night - any time would do for me. I liked running too, but I never kept any record of the distances I covered.

I once set out for a run at half past midnight, and took the road past the Baroda Palace grounds. The sentry shouted his customary challenge Hukum...Dar,1 but I took no notice and ran on. A little later I returned by the same road. This time the sentry stopped me and asked why I was running; 'For exercise,' I replied. He retorted: 'Who runs for exercise at one o'clock in the morning? You are up to mischief, you are a thief!' 'And when did a thief ever come back by the same road he went out?' I demanded. He had no answer to that and let me go.