On the day i turned eight, my parents moved from Lucknow to a city some 30 kms south called Barabanki. This place was not unknown to me since we had lived there before when i was a toddler and i had faint memories (and some clear) of the place. However, what was to come was definitely going to be a very new experience for me.
Back in late eighties, Lucknow was a city of moderate size while Barabanki was a little known, really small town. Its proximity to the historically important city of lucknow had done little to merge the cultures of both places. Unlike today, when many people shuttle between the twin cities of work, back then they were two closely situated but independently-developed islands.
When we moved to barabanki, i had no friends in town. However, this was to change soon enough when two kids about my age randomly visited our house, introduced themselves and inquired about me. I was surprised at this gesture, all to common for barabanki but not so for lucknow. At ten, i could not rationalize these differences so lets just say this came as a pleasant surprise. Next few months, which also happenned to be summer school holidays, went by pretty good. I settled down into a new place with new friends. This was a welcome change since back in HomeGuards campus in lucknow, i did not have many people of my age group to play with. Every evening we would have cricket matches in the vacant plots or somebody's roof. I also started running errands for my mother for the first time in life.
During this time, my mother had aimed for me to jump a class in school. I had finished 3rd grade in Christ church school in lucknow and now my parents wanted me to take the entrance test for 5th grade in july. Due to this, i ended up studying 4th grade level maths, sciences and english through the summer. Come july, and i was in 5th grade.