I had done rather well in my junior secondary exams and had won admission into a prestigious Catholic school \u2013 arguably the most prestigious school in this small country. My older brother had already been there and spoke of it in glowing terms so I was excited to go there too. I loved the fact that the school was on a sprawling campus occupying an entire hill with breath taking views from where you could see Lake Victoria from one side and some gentle, undulating hills from another. The hills turned into lighter shades of blue as they receded into the distance. The school church was a beautiful modernist building \u2013 an anachronism in the heart of Africa. The roof was a pale pastel green \u2013 tarnished copper – and was shaped like some giant, sweeping, twisted, pencil wood shaving.\u00a0\u00a0 By the main classrooms was our newly built library, again a modern building, flooded in natural light\u00a0 and when I first went in I thought I had died and gone to book-heaven. There were books on every subject on earth, magazines, Time, Newsweek & Life magazines, National Geographics galore and best of all, it had a fabulous art section that I\u2019d spend many a blissful hour leafing through.<\/p>\n
Everywhere were immaculately manicured lawns and flower beds, domesticated exotic tropical plants and trees. To instil self-discipline most of the maintenance of the campus was done by us, the students. To a twelve year old this was heaven.<\/p>\n
Sports were compulsory for all. We were to work hard and play hard. We had a cricket pitch, an Olympic sized running track, four tennis courts, three football pitches and a hockey field. You could play basketball or table-tennis if you wished. The one thing we didn\u2019t have was a swimming pool. But, no matter, the French Canadian Christian Brothers, who owned and ran the school, had that covered too. Ingeniously, they\u2019d decided that the great Lake Victoria would be our pool! On Saturday and Sunday afternoons we were allowed to walk down through some bushy country, across some farmland and then on to the dirt road the mile and a half to the lake.<\/p>\n
And so, for me, 1964 passed gently and happily at the \u2018Harrow of Uganda\u2019. News of the larger world outside occasionally slipped into our lives via the wireless or the library magazines. \u00a0There were convulsions of all sorts but to a twelve year old mind it seemed distant. The self-appointed Field Marshall John Okello attempted a revolution in Zanzibar. People were killed. We had relatives there who had a harrowing time and the once idyllic spice island my parents had married on was never to recover. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th<\/sup> US President. Mum insisted it was he who must have been behind J. F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you know this, Mum?\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBe quiet! I know. You can see it all over his face,\u201d she\u2019d say.<\/p>\n Dad said, \u201cShe has inside information!!\u201d and roared with his taunting, bronchial laugh.<\/p>\n There were civil rights protests in the USA and we heard of MalcolmX and Martin Luther King Jr. Dad said Martin Luther King was like a well fed, black Mahatma Gandhi with smaller ears though and advocated peaceful protest while MalcolmX, well\u2026..MalcolmX wore glasses and you couldn\u2019t trust a chap with such heavily framed glasses and a gun, could you? The bird like Lal Bahadur Sashtri became India\u2019s prime minister. Two years later he died in a mysterious plane crash over Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on his way to Moscow.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the Russians who\u2019ve bumped him off,\u201d Mum used to say.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you know this, Mum?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re Communists and they hate Catholics\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Sashtri wasn\u2019t\u00a0 a Catholic, Mum.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBe quiet! Those Communists can\u2019t be trusted. It said so in the Reader\u2019s Digest, anyway! Ask Dad. He\u2019ll tell you all about the Dominican theory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Domino theory,\u201d Dad would shout from over his paper.<\/p>\n You know what, Mum? The Commies probably did bump him off or, was it the Americans?<\/p>\n The older boys talked about some amazing bands called The Beatles<\/em> and The Rolling Stones<\/em>. Bro. Paul, school principle and WW2 veteran, dismissed it as \u201cdevil music. It stirs feelings in your loins and makes you want to do naughty things with girls!\u201d My older sister adored a chap called Pat Boon but when I heard him I said I\u2019d rather poke rusty knitting needles in my ears. Give me Bob Dylan any day, I said. \u201cHe\u2019s a poet, you know?\u201d What would a pipsqueak like me know anyway, she insisted. \u00a0Dylan made her want to slash her wrists, she said.<\/p>\n Into my beautiful, settled, sunny world, during our 2nd<\/sup> semester, where the beginnings of Physics, Higher Maths and the periodic table preoccupied us, walked the affable, rotund Bro. Richard. Brother Richard was an excellent Biology teacher. He brought the subject alive. He had just come from Quebec. \u00a0He was such a friendly and approachable man and had even volunteered to be the school bursar.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come to my lab after classes, seeing as you\u2019re so keen and all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kiwanuka said he\u2019d asked him too. He would show us some amazing stuff, he said. Maybe we\u2019d do some experiments together, he said. I really liked him.\u00a0 He once gave me a whole bag of gob-stopper Blue Bell bubble gum, gently hugging me as he handed me the packet. One of the wrappers had a picture of Elvis in Flaming Star<\/em>. I ironed it out and used it as a book mark in my copy of Julius Caesar. \u00a0My jaw ached for a week after that; eating all the gob-stoppers at once might have had something to do with it.<\/p>\n One lazy Saturday, after lunch, Suresh said, \u201cAnyone for table tennis?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNaa! Why don\u2019t we head off to the lake for a swim? What about you, Kiwanuka? Coming?\u201d I enquired.<\/p>\n Kiwanuka, my friend, said, \u201cLet\u2019s go via that the guava orchard. It\u2019s dripping with fruit this time of year. We can grab a few if we\u2019re careful.\u201d<\/p>\n I was hesitant. That was stealing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can always go to confession tomorrow and have our sin washed away. What say?\u201d, said Ki smiling.<\/p>\n “I’m Hindu, remember? Doesn’t bother me,” said Suresh.<\/p>\n We grabbed our towels and swimming trunks, slipped on our flip flops and started down the hill. Kiwanuka found a long flexible stick which he pushed along the path making believe he was driving a car. We soon came to the edge of the guava orchard. The trees were overladen with fruit. We could easily reach the low hanging guavas.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I\u2019d brought some chilli powder and salt. It\u2019s a killer combination.\u201d We salivated at the thought.<\/p>\n Ambling past the fields we got to the tree lined road joking and telling tales. Kiwanuka said, \u201c My Dad\u00a0 wrestled and killed a \u00a0sixteen foot crocodile, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeh? What was it\u2026..a rubber croc?!\u201d teased\u00a0 Suresh.<\/p>\n We finally got to the little cliff before descending down to the beach of sharp sand\u2026\u2026you could hear the fresh water snakes slither swiftly away from us in the long grass.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, do you know Gold Finger<\/em> is playing in Kampala? It\u2019s the new James Bond movie with loads of sexy girls. Shall we go next Saturday?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re under age,\u201d said Kiwanuka. \u201cI\u2019m broke, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo worries, we\u2019ll say we\u2019re 13. I\u2019ve got enough of dough. My parents have left loads of cash with the bursar,\u201d I half boasted.<\/p>\n We got into our trunks and waded into the warm water. Sunlight danced on the waves through the trees. Soon we were splashing about and horsing around. The air was full of the laughter of boys and splashing water. I could not swim really, so I stayed in the shallow and sloshed about.<\/p>\n Bro. Richard then appeared on the cliff and I waved frantically to him and he waved back at us. A boy next to me said what on earth are you doing that for. Eh? I queried.\u00a0 He kissed his teeth in the disapproving manner of Africans and swam on. The Canadian took off his shirt and wrap-around towel displaying a huge body. He had a barrel of a hairy chest and legs the size of tree trunks! His skin was white and pale. As he stepped into the lake a large number of boys, en masse, started to wade out of the water to the shore, wrapping themselves in their towels, kneecaps quivering. \u00a0Bro. Richard was a powerful swimmer and in no time he was out to the \u2018floating pool\u2019, an ingenious anchored quadrangle of a wooden platform floating on sealed oil drums. It even had a diving tower. Some of the planks were slippery with green slime but we did not care; it was our<\/em> pool.<\/p>\n Then, as I was about to splash water in Suresh\u2019s face I felt two large arms grab me from behind and lift me into the air and bring me back down into the lake. The suddenness of this frightened me at first but when I saw Suresh laugh his head off I took it as a bit of fun. It was Bro. Richard. He\u2019d swum underwater for a long distance undetected and surprised us. He lifted me several times rubbing me against his body as I went up \u00a0and down. \u00a0I swallowed some water in the melee and started to cough and splutter. He let go a little and I managed to break away. It was like running through treacle. There was still much laughter in the air. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t funny,\u201d I said still coughing.<\/p>\n \u201cCatch me if you can, Brother,\u201d challenged Kiwanuka, \u00a0gliding swiftly through the water towards\u00a0 the platform in the deep. \u00a0Kiwanuka, the son of a local fisherman, claimed he could swim since infancy when his father deliberately dropped him in the lake. I did not believe him but he was an ace swimmer, indeed. He was a bright kid and had won a scholarship to our school. Bro. Richard rose to the challenge egged on by Suresh and me. The little African ran, or should I say \u2018swam\u2019, rings around the Canadian. \u00a0They must have swum several times around the platform and then Bro. Richard vanished. Kiwanuka stopped in the far distance by the diving tower to catch his breath. We could see his gleaming white teeth through his triumphal smile, his head bobbing with the platform. \u00a0In the next moment, like some great sperm whale, Bro Richard erupted from behind, grabbing him and then hurling him in the air and then grabbing him again and again.\u00a0 Then there was a bit of a lull. We could not quite see them behind the diving platform for a few minutes. At last we saw Kiwanuka break away and swim to the shore at tremendous speed. Suresh & I clapped and cheered but he swam past us and said, \u201cLet\u2019s get the hell out of here!\u201d He seemed upset.<\/p>\n We dried ourselves hurriedly. \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter Ki?\u201d, I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNever mind! Let\u2019s just get out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n From the distance, I heard a familiar man\u2019s voice say, \u201cSee you in Biology class next week!\u201d. I turned and saw the smiling, waving figure of Bro. Richard. I waved back.<\/p>\n As we sped up the dirt road Suresh put his arm on Ki\u2019s shoulder.\u00a0 He flicked it off.<\/p>\n \u201cThe f****r\u2019s a homo!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s a homo?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was all over me. He rubbed himself against me and he put his hand in my trunks and grabbed me! He\u2019s a f*****g homo!\u201d He was in such a rage.<\/p>\n The following Saturday my friends and I got permission to go to the city to see \u2018Gold Finger\u2019<\/em>. Of course, we\u2019d lied and said we were going to see the vapid \u2018Summer Holiday\u2019 <\/em>with Cliff Richard in it.<\/p>\n We traipsed off to the bursar\u2019s office to draw some cash. I knocked first while my friends waited around the corner. Bro. Richard opened the door and, seeing me, beamed.<\/p>\n \u201cAh, you need some cash. Come in, come in,\u201d he said ushering me thinking I was alone. At this point my gang piled in behind me.<\/p>\n From then on we would never approach this man on our own or swim in that lake when he was around.\u00a0 The big, bad world outside was now with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had done rather well in my junior secondary exams and had won admission into a prestigious Catholic school \u2013 arguably the most prestigious school in this small country. My older brother had already been there and spoke of it … Continue reading