My school  and service                                           

Tukaram Kumbar B. Sc.

During the year 1960, my uncle Vithal used to go to primary school at Ranjol kheni. He invited me to join the school at Ranjol, as there was no school in our village Hochaknalli. One day, after consulting my grandmother, I followed Vithal to school.  I was admitted to the first standard in 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 building. I was impressed by the modern way of new buildings constructed outside the village of Ranjol kheni. This place was about one kilometer away from my residence at Hochknalli. We used to walk barefoot to school on a narrow mud road. This was a modern school situated in the Centre of about ten villages. Boys from different villages used to study here. The surrounding villages were Rekulgi, Mangalgi, Talmadagi, sitalgeri, Hajjargi, sirkatnalli, etc. One Mr. Gurubasappa was my class teacher for the first standard. He was a young and fresh teacher, who used to teach mathematics. By the time I finished first term, 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 learned the alphabet. The strength of students was limited to around ten boys of similar age groups. Among these students, two of us started reading the first standard book and we two completed this textbook and were given a second standard book in the same academic year to study. So by the end of the year, we were declared passed the second standard.

The next year I was again sent to Ranjol Kheni in order to admit me to third standard. The old class teacher Mr. Gurubasappa identified me and he did not agree with 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 did it with a wrong answer. There was an agreement among the teachers and my parents that I would be admitted to the third standard, and if I failed the quarterly examination, I would have to go back to the second standard only. If I get through, I shall continue in the third standard. I got through the quarterly examination and in the final exam I stood first in my class. After that, I used to be the topper in my class up to SSLC.

I got through SSLC in the first class in 1969 April. I was the fifth student to get an SSLC pass from my village after Indian independence. Mr. Shivareddy, Shankar Reddy, Hemreddy D, and Hemreddy S were my seniors from my village. I was asked to marry a girl from a far-off village Srimandal in the summer vacation after the 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 a bread-earning member, unexpectedly. My father was a potter and active member of the village. My grandmother was the head of the 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;

                       

   

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

Thereafter I continued my education with the help of a National loan scholarship and completed my BSc in 1973. I studied mathematics and Physics as my optional subjects.

I was appointed as a telephone operator in 1974 and was posted to Bhalki. Worked at Bhalki for five years [1979] and wrote a competitive examination for the post of telephone inspector and was selected.

I underwent six-month training at RTTC Abids Hyderabad. Then I was posted to Sandur in Bellary district as a Phone inspector. I was the 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 here for one year 1980-81, and again wrote the competitive exam for the post of Junior Engineer and was selected. I underwent one year of training at RTTC Trivandrum Kerala and was posted to Raichur Telephones, as a Junior engineer in 1983-84. It was a long stay at Raichur for twelve years.

I migrated to Bidar in 1996 on mutual transfer. In 1999, I was selected for the post of Sub-divisional Engineer and worked as S.D.O.Phones, at Bidar till my retirement in 2009 February.

During 34 years of service, I saw a 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.

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