I studied till fourth Class at the Good Shepherd school. It was considered as one of the good English medium schools in Ramanthapur. This school was about one kilometer distance from our home. We used to walk all the way. As there were few houses and lots of open spaces, we always went walking by the shortcut path.

This place was where the Brindavan park came up later; it was an open area with lots of exposed pieces of quartz rocks. These rocks were sharp. In those days mostly we were wearing slippers to the school. One of my classmates’ younger brother got hurt while going to school. The first toe of one of his foot got cut with the quartz stones. He was profusely bleeding, one of the friends told that by pissing on the wound, it would get healed quickly. So my friend and I pissed on his toe. He cried a lot with the pain. Later in life learned that fresh urine is sterile, it has ammonia which has therapeutic properties. Someone also suggested to apply the juice from the leaves of ‘Tatha-Tatha-Thai’ (Sp. Tridax procumbens). And we often applied this juice to the fresh cuts. This plant has yellow colour flowers with long stalks. We used to break the flower from the stalk with a snap and say ‘Tatha-Tatha-Thai’. In Telugu Tatha means grandfather. It was fun playing with these flowers on the way to school.

It was interesting to see the millions of Velvet Mites in the same place appearing in the rainy season. Out of curiosity we often collected some of them in our hands and observed. Their legs gave a tickling sensation to the hand while they crawled. Sometimes we caught Jinganna - a beautiful rainbow coloured beetle. It is Sternocera aequisignata a species of beetles belonging to the Buprestidae family. The other green colour bugs were common which gave very unpleasant smell when caught; they are called Jewel Bug or Shield Backed Bug in the family Scutelleridae.

There were many guava trees near our schools. During the season the fruits were found hanging across the compound walls. On the way home, some of my friends used to pluck them or hit with stones. Although they are so small and not yet ripened, we ate them with interest. In the process sometimes we got scolding’s from the owners.

On the way home near the school, there were a group of Palm trees. There were also many pigs of local breed. These pigs were pitch dark and were eating all sorts of things. Below the palm trees, there was always a small pool of domestic wastewater with lots of mud. The pigs always loved to play and sit in the puddle. The fruits from these trees were sweet. During the season when the fruits fell, the pigs consumed all the juicy sweet part of the fruit and leaving behind the hard nuts or seeds. After a few days, these nuts would become dry and found strewn all around the base of the palm trees. We often collected them. They were very hard, so by throwing the granite stones we break them open to collect the hard nut inside (when fresh it is very soft and slippery called Munjalu (Palm Tree Fruit). By washing with water, rubbed the exterior brown colour fibrous material against the rough cement walls. Finally, this turned into a white colour hard nut. It took a few days to consume it bit by bit. Eat the same thing again and again till it lasted.

Also, there was a Sapodilla or locally called Sapota orchard next to our school. The unripe Sapota’s we often collected by throwing stones at the trees. By rubbing the brown outer layer on the rough cement walls, the inner milky brown colour fruit was exposed. This was not sweet, but we ate it with so much interest.

I had an intuition that I would become a scientist during the third and fourth class. I enrolled my friend Mr Venkat. I brought a few old toys; these were mechanical toys with spring action. He also brought some of them. Imagined that we would make a new machine. We both have chosen the tall Cheema Chintakaya (Sp. Pithecellobium dulce) plants near the school. During lunchtime went there and broke them into parts and we tried to make something which we don’t know.

Once in school, I found a small piece of steel wire. In our classroom, there was a switchboard with a facility for plugs. I wanted to know if there was current on the board or not. Two of my friends were sitting next to me. They also encouraged me to test. I pushed one end into one of the holes; nothing happened, probably it was neutral. I pushed another end into the next whole. With a spark and shock to me, the wire broke into two pieces. In the process, it generated lots of heat, and one of my forefingers also got burnt. It was by chance that, I escaped the shock, and also this incident made me conscious of not meddling with electricity in life again.

One of my friends Mr Srinivas was very enterprising. He started small poultry at home on his own. He told the story of how to become rich from a pair of hens - they would lay eggs - make the eggs incubate - chicks would emerge - so could multiply them thereon. It was fascinating to me. I went to his home to see myself his poultry shed. Later in life, he was involved in the real estate business and made enough money. This was my first exposure to entrepreneurship by a friend.

My father bought once a cigarette lighter. By pressing the button, I could see the fire. I was curious to know how the fire was created through the spark. I took the lighter to a friend’s house without informing anyone at home. There I tried to open the components to see myself. I could not open it, tried using hands and mouth. Finally, I decided to open it using a granite stone. It got crushed, but lastly, I could see the cotton soaked in petrol inside. As I was immersed in my experiment, my mother came searching for me. She found that I have completely broken the lighter beyond repair. I remember the day because she started beating me all the way home for damaging the lighter. I also got the name at home as a person who destroys the things. Perhaps for better things in life also requires one to destroy something. Destroying something is the way to understand and strive for creating something new. Probably my curiosity in exploring things led me to pursue Doctor of Philosophy and continue the research in life.