Basket Ball at the Lowry Memorial School

Baket Ball was introduced at the Lowry Memorial School somewhere in 1974. One evening it was inaguarated and as a small boy was a witness and thence started my pre-occupation with this game which would last for a considerable period of time. The court was first at a location nearer to the farm of the school and it was shifted later. Slowly I learnt to play this game with the terms "double dribble" , "move" and later "three seconds in the ring" and "Foul". I cannot forget the breaks between classes which were called recess at the school when many of us would land up on the court with a small ball to play during the fifteen minute break only to resume the game again during lunch time. What care-free and happy day's they were. Many of we students were indicted for loosing a Basket Ball once. This time a full-fleged Basket Ball. During the sports period we were given the ball by the P T Master and we played for an hour or so in the hot sun. The PT Master meanwhile having detatched from us was busy talking and chatting with some other lady teachers of the school so much so that he forgot about our class. Once the sports period was over the ball was left in the court itself only to be kicked around like a foot ball by some errant boys and when the PT Master came for the ball there were no signs of it and he had a tough time locating it and when he did so the ball had become worn out and damaged having been kicked without regard by many who got a sight of it. He was enraged and a full fledged enquiry created and I had to depose before the committe and asked the question "When was the last time you saw the ball...". I knew I was in no way in trouble because no-one asked me to secure the ball once the game was over. I do not know what came of all these procedures at last but they did give me jitters and confusion for a few days and fear of possibly being punished for some inadvertent mistake. Sports at Lowry Memorial School were a unique affair because more than often we played without much rules. This made the sporting activities even more amusing. At the end of the day at any sport players ran behind the ball not caring much about what the rule book said. Later I had some very formal Basket Ball coaching conducted by the ITI sports club for nearly a month and had the feel of the more formal aspects of the game. I used to play regularly for my semester at REC Calicut and also was close to representing the College. Some of the matches were won by our team because of a sizeable contribution of Baskets by me - This was heartening. Some times we lost miserably too.