I left Aundh and joined the New English School, Poona, in the Sixth Standard. Like my father I had little gift for languages, and Sanskrit I found a regular tongue-twister. Sensing my inability to progress in this language, I switched over to German ; I failed, however, to make much of what my teacher taught me, especially since he started by reciting German poems (poetry being an art that used to leave me cold). My favourite subjects were Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and the Physical Sciences. In these I invariably did well sometimes scoring 90 per cent of the total marks. Yet the second language, whether Sanskrit or German, defeated all my efforts.

The 'Demon of Second Language' played a dirty trick on me in my Matriculation Examination. Although I scored excellent marks in my favourite subjects, I failed in the Second Language, which meant failure in the whole examination. My parents persuaded me to appear again, but my second attempt, thanks to my old enemy German, resulted in another failure.I now found myself in a difficult position ; unable to pass the Matriculation Examination, despite my excellent showing in other subjects, thanks to my being defeated by the Second Language.