Chapter 1 - india

 I was born alive in , on the 25th of April 1976,

 in a south indian sub-urban town called Thiruppatthur in a Swedish Mission Hospital.
I was named Ramanathan (means ~ Lord Rama, pleasing, charming etc).
I'm a bull (Taurus), and I'm also a dragon (a major symbol of luck) according to the Chinese calendar. The inherent characteristic qualities of these zodiac signs are supposed to be;
stubborn, romantic (ahem) and practical.

   Chapter 2 - singapore

I followed my parents to in 1980 and have been here ever since then.

I began my education in the Jurong Church Kindergarten where I was forced to learn the Chinese language. I really enjoyed the macaroni and orange juice they gave us during breaks. I miss the colourful playground they had, especially the huge concrete tubes which you can climb into and hide.

   Chapter 3 - lower primary

Then I went on to Bukit Batok Primary School. Oh boy...it was a rowdy time ! Used to get a kick out of the 'kong fu' we practiced on one another during our recess. I hated brushing the teeth by the drain (I even brought the TOOTHPASTE the first time !) and I hated drinking the packet milk (especially the strawberry flavour). Remember the 'tuckshop' ?? my goodness, we used to love that fried chicken wing we get for 30 cents per piece! Life became exciting when I fractured my arm. Thx to my dear friend who pushed me down the stairs early in the morning before flag raising . . . poor guy he was caned in the principal's office for that !. . . I came back with the cast on my arm and that left me with no choice but to sit in one place and study. So i topped the school in primary one... i guess i was satisfied with myself and so began to play a lot again. Oh yes, i forgot the recorder lessons they conducted in school. I couldn't play the recorder for nuts ! I liked listening to others play it but i just couldn't blow properly! everything was routine for the next two years i spent there...except that once i got lost and a nice gentleman brought me to his house and took care of me until my parents came to rescue me from his daughters who were trying to pull my shorts down (coz i was wearing their daddy's shorts after my bath !) In primary three, i fractured the same elbow again, but this time it's my own fault. I was jumping from the table top in my uncle's house where i was staying for the holidays. I was actually re-enacting a fighting scene from the Tamil movie . . pretending to be the hero who was jumping from the top of a huge boulder . . . I guess it was the last time i did anything like that !

   Chapter 4 - upper primary

Then I joined Jurong Town Primary School which was nearer to my home at that time. I entered the school with a cast on my left arm. I remember clearly, i went into the class one fine day when Ms. Chua was conducting her Maths lesson. I was nervous as i didn't know anyone there out of the 40 students ! I sat beside a gal hoping that everyone in there would look at me sympathetically bcoz of my arm that was hanging helplessly. BUT....But...it was totally different...Everyone was excited...they took turns to draw graffiti on my plaster casting ! Jeez...the gal who was sitting beside me had the privilege to autograph it 1st...and that got the rest of them queuing up. I was afraid at the beginning but this was the way i got close to them. i was small in size and so was bullied at times...but i was very friendly and that earned me some other friends who were ready to support me. After that life was smooth once again....I loved the 101 challenging problems that we tried in primary six and the box-diagram method (the primitive method for algebra).  I was also playing badminton and enjoyed running. We used to catch tadpoles from the puddles that formed around the edges of the school field. i even tried to rear them at home..inside a horlicks bottle with leaves that they can feed on.. and guess what ?!...i saw how the legs grew and the tails shortened simultaneously ... I finally understood that our science books were speaking the truth. They became tiny toads..and they started jumping..so i brought them down and released them.. i hope they lived long and didn't end up in a hawker center and have their legs fried... and i really really hope i wasn't the one who ate their fried legs.. by the way, fried frog's legs are quite nice ! ;o)

Then i sat for the Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE) in 1988. It was the turning point in my life. And the one responsible for that was my form teacher, Mrs. Irene Lui. She is the one who told me to opt for Raffles Institution (RI) as my first choice for my secondary education when i went up to her having decided on a neighbourhood school as my 1st choice. Frankly speaking, that was the first time i ever heard of RI !

   Chapter 5 - raffles institution

I had my secondary education in Raffles Institution as i mentioned earlier. Oh boy, i felt out of place on the 1st day of school walking up the slope at the entrance to the compound at Grange Road. My head was seriously spinning... most of the guys who were there had excellent results...i was one of the weaker ones i suppose. But made many friends, some of whom are still my good friends...namely.. Raja, Eliyas, Kumaran, Sreekanth, Ramesh ...and others. We had a lot of fun playing 'chatek' with shuttle cocks early in the morning in the hall before flag raising and also the chinese 'war game' somewhat similar to checkers. I joined Hockey together with Deepak and we started recruiting people for the sport which was about to be scrapped due to shortage of members. Then we became actively involved and went through some vigorous training ... meanwhile, i also tried Judo..learnt how to break-fall safely and after that due to my inflexibility i chose to quit without breaking any parts of my body. I was also a librarian for the 1st two years and a treasurer for the indian cultural society.

One of the most memorable events which i would like to forget is the time when i  cleared all the stages and was selected for the prefectorial election and later  was one of the two unfortunate fellows who did not get enough votes. But it certainly was a good experience and i came to know many more guys in my batch quite well. I can also remember the time they brought in a healthy horse from the Bukit Timah Turf Club for the Chinese New Year. We even took photos with it...i hope i still have it. After that was the Historical event for RI, 'THE MOVE'. Yes, we moved from Grange Road to Bishan and we became an independent school. It was a very joyous occasion. But the only thing that the guys might have missed at the new premises is swimming pool where RGS gals used to come for their lessons..hehe...

By this time, i became the captain for hockey and was also doing fine in my studies...We also regularly played carom during our recess and also our favourite Table Soccer. We were always carrying around 5 and 10 cent coins in case of emergency we could quickly set up a team and start playing. We had several leagues well carried out then! Another person i remember teaching me is Dr.Ho from Hong Kong. He taught me chemistry and i started liking the subject after that. He is the only one who allowed us to eat in class ! One other person i admired was Mr. Eugene Wijeysingha, our headmaster who carried himself very well. hey..yes..we took part in a inter-school Tamil Drama Competition and emerged champions..the title of our modern play was 'Moongil Satthangal'. That was the first time i went up on a stage with a painted face...half red - half black..(I represented one of the evil feelings of the main character). aha..and i also tried singing a tamil song ('Poovae Sempoovae') in a competition held in Swiss Cottage School..it was then that i realised how terrible i sound over the mic ! As for community service, i remember Samintharaj was the president of the indian society who initiated a pilot project - we conducted a motivational workshop for the primary school students successfully. After that Mr.Rajaram also brought us to Sentosa to be student leaders for Sinda's first Project Vidya Camp and it was a good experience in helping the younger ones.

After that came O'levels and i fared pretty ok but my prelim results were not good enough to get me into Raffle Junior College (RJC). i was posted to Temasek JC but i had appealed to RJ as a hockey player and fortunately, i received the letter of admission into RJ one day before school began and i was extremely delighted!

   Chapter 6 - raffles junior college

At Raffles Junior College, i became more relaxed about studies, maybe i was getting tired of it. i didn't wish to aim very high,so i set myself a reasonable goal and started to enjoy life. I really like my class of S17A. It was certainly one of the best time in my teenage life. We were really a closely knit class i would say. We enjoyed each other's presence and we spent a lot of time communicating. I think the record still stands for my longest phone conversation with one of my classmates then. We spoke for 5 and half hours non-stop ! i have spoken longs hours with almost everyone in my class, i wonder how i did that... we liked to bowl and have class outings to just eat and have fun ;o). I will never forget the canoeing trip we had. We canoed to this place called a 'Rock Island' from the changi beach. I was also training very hard for hockey at the time...jeez... we had vigorous training(weights training, circuit training, skills training etc) ! I enjoyed the time when we used to 'initiate' our juniors after our training sessions. They must have had one painful time then but i'm sure it's a memorable time for them too. We won the 11-A-side Cup for the seventh time in a row i think. It was quite an achievement...and credit goes to Mr. Kiran Kumar who was an excellent coach. i can't also forget the time i was forced to participate in a tamil debate competition which i screwed up quite badly. Then we also put up a 'Bangra Dance' for the national day which the school really enjoyed ! That reminds me of the 'cho le khe pi che' dance by Vidya, my classmate. It was superb. Just that my principal wasn't very happy with the exotic dance. It was the first time we had 'Sangeetha Swarangal' an indian musical & cultural concert in RJC. 

Eventually, i fared well in the A'levels and i was enlisted for my Basic Military Training (BMT) !

   Chapter 7 - national service

By the way, here(in Singapore) it's compulsory to serve in the ARMY  for at least 2 and a half years ! I was posted to the Charlie Company in 7BTS in the Nee Soon Camp. Life was TOTALLY different ! I shall not go into the details but soon i was then posted to Ordnance Engineering Training Institute (OETI)...it was also then known as 'Only Eat, Talk and Idle' place..;p it was heaven. There i was trained to become an Auto-mobile Technician for the Army Vehicles... mainly the land rovers and 3-tonners. Then i became a sergeant and was operationally ready and completed my National service in June 97.

   Chapter 8 - national university of singapore

I shall write about my life in NUS after i graduate in 2001 !