Student Days

From now onwards, we shall call Biley with his formal name, Narendranath Datta or simply Narendra. When he was six, Narendra was sent to a hut school. However, after a few days, his father decided to appoint a private teacher to teach him at home. Every day, the teacher came to their house and taught Narendra and a few other boys. Bhuvaneshwari Devi also taught him to read English and Bengali. An old uncle taught Narendra songs and hymns in Sanskrit and passages from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. 

Narendra had a sharp and strong memory like his mother. Just by hearing once, his mother could remember a hymn and passages from the epics. Narendra learnt by listening to his teacher reading a passage. Even when he was old, he did not forget some of the passages which he had learned by heart during his early education. 

Narendra reached his seventh year. He was enrolled in the Metropolitan Institution. It was a famous school in Kolkata. Narendra continued with his active and playful manner in school. Even during lessons, he would talk loudly.

One day, he was chatting noisily in the classroom. His teacher heard the noise and started questioning the boys about the lesson. None of the boys could answer the teacher's questions. When Narendra's turn came, he answered the questions correctly! Then, the teacher asked the pupils about the culprit who made the noise. Everyone pointed to Narendra. The teacher refused to believe them as Narendra seemed to have followed the lesson. He ordered the boys to stand on the chairs. Narendra stood up and confessed that he was the one who talked loudly during the lesson. 

In school, Narendra often indulged in talking about his future plans. "When I grew up... I will be a king. I will do this... I will do that..." Then after awhile, he would be inspired to be a monk. "Look here, this line shows that I will be a monk like my grandfather," he would tell showing his palm. Caught by his enthusiasm, his friends too dreamed to be a monk.   

What is caste?

Viswanath Datta, Narendra's father was a lawyer in the High Court of Kolkata. Various types of people often came to their house. In Bengali custom, guests will be served with hookah for smoking. Vishwanath had different hookahs for different castes and religions. Narendra found that caste was something intriguing. He could not see any difference between one caste and another. He also found it strange that people from different castes would not dine together. What would happen if a person from one caste smokes the hookah of another caste? Would the sky fall down? Narendra wanted to investigate the matter. One day, when no one was around, the quietly went to his father's room and took a puff from one of the hookah pipes. He waited for a while, then he tried one after another, all the hookah pipes. Suddenly, his father came into the room and saw him. "What are you doing, Naren?" Narendra was a truthful boy. He said, "Father, I want to find out what will happen if I break caste rules. So far, nothing has happened to me." His chuckled and left the room. 

Narendra and his friends enjoyed climbing trees and hanging upside-down from the branches. As they made noise, an old man in the neighbourhood wanted to stop them. Though many times, he tried to dissuade the boys, they did not heed his words. 

Finally, the old man thought of a clever plan. He told them that it was a haunted tree. The ghost would rip the neck of anyone who climb the tree. The boys were frightened and did not want to go near the tree. Narendra, however, started to climb the tree and called his friends. "Why do you believe the old man's story? How long have we been playing here? If his story his true, my neck must have been broken by now!" 

While Narendra was eleven years old, he and his friends started a drama group in their house. Every day, they enacted various plays which they made up. Unable to tolerate their noise, an uncle broke down their stage. Sadly, they disbanded their drama group. 

Narendra and his family stayed here at Raipur

Some time later, Narendra started a mini gymnasium in their courtyard. All the boys in the neighbours became members of the gymnasium. Every day, they performed various exercises noisily. This was going on until a boy broke his arm while exercising. As usual, Narendra's uncle grabbed the opportunity to throw out all the gym equipment. 

However, the boys interest in exercising continued. Not far away from their house, there was a proper gymnasium. Soon, Narendra and his friends joined the gym. Here, Narendra learnt physical exercises, boxing,  swimming and other sports. He also learned horse-riding at home. 

In 1877, Vishwanath Datta took his family to Raipur, a small isolated town in Chhattisgarh. They stayed here for two years. Narendra could not attend to formal education as the town do not have any high school. During his spare time, Vishwanath Datta taught Narendra the Hindi language and culinary arts. Vishwanath Datta was an expert in various dishes. Narendra also took music lessons from professionals. He learned to play various musical instruments and also to sing. Chess was another game which Narendra mastered and once, he won a chess competition. 

Vivekananda Sarovar at Raipur