Memoirs of Academia {School (KG-XII)}

This is a recollection of many events which have dotted my short academic life of about 20 years. The events are mostly which provided happiness in my life. There are one or two events of remorse as well.
Just for the sake of convenience I have distributed the memoirs into two parts, one for School days and other for the college days.

I) School (KG – XII)

1) The very first day I went to school i.e. in July 1989, I ran away from my class!
My father had dropped me with George Bhaiyya who was in some higher class. As soon as my class started, he took me to my class. I didn’t know a single person in the class and got petrified and fled. The teachers tried hard but I just couldn’t be controlled! I even stopped talking in Hindi. The only sentence I said was, “Aami Maayer kaachhe jaabo!” which means I will go to my mother. Luckily one of my teachers was a Bengali and she calmed me down. I cried so much that I was in a kind of frenzy and continued uttering the same lines even when I came back home and was sleeping in my mother’s lap. Ever since then I didn’t bunk a class deliberately until I started going to college.
2) I studied in Shirinbai Neterwala School, Tumsar from class 1st to class 10th. The school was some 30 odd kilometres away from my home. In the morning of 8th July, 1991 (First day to school), I went in a school bus whose driver I knew. My father told me that he will bring me back in the evening in the same bus. In the evening, the bus was a different one with an unfamiliar driver and hence I refused to board it. It was only after lot of persuasion by Mohsin Bhaiyya, whose sister was my classmate, I went into the bus!
3) Studying in SNS was never a trouble. Firstly, we had a large contingent of students from our mines and hence in starting days we didn’t feel lonely. Secondly, the teachers were so friendly and caring that I never felt away from home. The very first two friendships I made in Std. 1 were Dhritiman Mondal and Kaustubh Akant. I have lost many of my friends in the tide of time but these two are still there. In Std. 1, while trying to jump a hurdle I had injured myself. The support I got from my friends is still in my mind. I still remember the lovely scolding I received from Usha aunty which she gave while she dressed my wounds. She still remembers us and talks with us with the same warmth.
In the same class, I and Murli had accidently injured Sonu. His three fingers were fractured while we were playing with the door of our class. We didn’t get much reprimanded but I felt very bad as Sonu was my friend from KG days. He also didn’t tell his parents. But I couldn’t control myself when my father asked him on Dusshera about his plight. He kept quiet and just glanced at me. After going home, I confessed and felt such a relief. I don’t know where Sonu is but I still remember this unhappy incident.
4) My talkativeness and restlessness brought me strange punishments. One I remember was given to me by Singh Madam. I had to stand and read a whole chapter in the class while she explained. It’s worthwhile to say, I didn’t change. I actually enjoyed. Another one I remember was to sit between the girls. But, it only added to the problems. A talkative boy among girls was like adding petrol to fire. Soon, the punishment stopped!
5) My teachers had innovative ways of teaching.
Sil madam liked taking tests and we obviously didn’t! She once said that she will take a test of 5 marks. We were very happy. She gave us 20 questions of ¼ marks each!
Rao sir once taught us about Zaire in Geography. He started straight way from Tumsar Road railway station. From there we went to Cochin. I even tried to outsmart the customs and after a nice sea voyage we reached Zaire. All this happened in the classroom itself! The interest in geography hasn’t waned since.
Gill madam, our principal, was one of the best human beings I know. She knew everyone of her students personally and used to write a personal comment on each and every students report card after the final result. We all miss her a lot.
Wadia madam, our English teacher, once decided to enhance our English speaking skills. She decided to have a debate. The topic was wrong though as it proved. The topic was, “Who is better, Girls or Boys?” It created such uproar, that madam had to pacify us first.
Our SUPW (Some Useful & Productive Work) periods were fun but we generally didn’t take them seriously. For us they were, “Some Useful Periods Wasted”. So, Sarkar madam had lots of difficulty with us! She had coined the patent dialogue, “Yeh bachchha log kuchh kartaa hi naahi hai”.
I would like to thank all the teachers who taught us during these years.
6) We played almost every sport in our school. One bad habit that we had was that if we took up one sport, we continued with it until we were fed up completely with it. But one game which we liked the most was Cricket. We seldom played it in the regular fashion. We usually played it at the Kho-Kho ground, Basketball court, Football ground with one of the rods being our stumps. The bowling usually was a simple throw and sixes were considered to be out. But our favourite spot was among the trees. Two trees served as stumps and the rest were the boundary markings. The one man who commanded the show here was Anand Agrawal. We used to play the ball into the fields just outside the fence for a six (out) during the sugarcane season for the obvious of the reasons!
7) In the beginning we were a group of four, me, Kaustubh, Harish and Chandan. We had all those childish fantasies. We called ourselves with some Super-Hero’s name. I think I was Superman and Harish was He-Man. And we had the natural elements all to us. The sky was mine, greenery was Harish’s, water or maybe land was Kaustubh’s. We believed that three was inauspicious. And hence when one of us was absent; we would place a rock in place of the fourth and give it food!
8) My other friends were from Chikhla. After school, until the bus arrived, we used to play games like Pittul, Coconut, and Hide & Seek. In the school bus we used to play Antakshari and games of WWF and Cricket cards. Once we had made cricket cards of India, Pakistan and World Cup!
The friends of this time are Dushyant, Bulbul, Babai, Munna, Vicky, Hemu, Puckka, N. Shiv and others. In earlier classes we used to play Chor-Police which could have only four players. But Mohsin Bhaiyya introduced one or two characters more whenever he wanted to play!
9) In Xth, we were to have a science exhibition on our Annual Day. Nagpure Sir had planned a big depiction of a wind power plant. Our class helped him the most. When the question of the Presenter came, I volunteered. Kaustubh was my deputy. The presentation in front of the chief guest went well. But then the motors developed some problem. All motors stopped working. After fiddling for some time only two of them started. But somebody wired them wrong and they started rotating in opposite directions.
In an earlier class there were two volcanoes presented by our class. One was to show exploding and the other flow of lava. The chief guest I think was Mr. Praful Patel, Civil Aviation minister now. The exploding volcano had to be ignited using a magnesium strip. There was some problem in our earlier trials as well. It failed in first few attempts on that day as well. The chief guest moved on. He went on seeing other exhibits. As soon as the lava started pouring out of the second volcano, the whole hall rang with a single sound, “Sir Phoota”! It was from my friend who was trying to ignite the volcano and had succeeded!
10) I went to Holy Home, Serampore for my Higher Secondary. It was the first time that I was staying in a hostel and it was a new experience for me. When my father and uncle left me there, I just started crying. I regretted over my far-fetched idea of studying in Bengal. But help from my friends especially Bikash, Arijit, Baishishtha and Sanjay made my life easy over there.
11) Stories of ghosts were very common in there. There were people who actually saw them. Once after hearing some interesting stories, we went to sleep. In the sleep I fought with the ghosts. In the morning I found my neighbor halfway out of the bed and me and Bikash encroaching the area vacated by him. Incidentally Bikash had also dreamt and had fought the same ghosts which turned out to be the fellow with the bed in between ours!
12) Sanjay and I were good buddies. I used to be a one stop encyclopedia for him. And when with him it was like a house on fire. We along with Baishishtha used to chatufy people especially juniors. We were also the chief culprits when it came to decide channels on our dorm television. We got permissions for watching matches all the time. The World Cup Soccer final of 2002 was not so good for me. I was supporting Germany while Sanjay was with Brazil. Well Brazil scored three and I got three boxes all over my body.
13) There were repeated funny events in the dining room. Once while eating a feast of Chilly Chicken and Mutton Biryani, neither could I eat as something was stuck in my throat nor could I leave the table in fear of losing the chicken. Eventually Subir sir came to rescue and assured that I could have more of the delicious chicken. Then only I left the table.
Another time after a combined effect of a bowl of hot Rasogolla’s syrup and cool air of the Ganges, three of us were ecstatic and laughed for about half an hour over every silly joke uttered.
14) Our birthday celebrations meant drenching in water and cold-drinks. Whenever we had a birthday, we used to make the whole dormitory wet. In the night Subir sir used to ask, “Aaj kar jonmodin chhilo?” actually referring to the mess around us. Once after quite a number of back to back parties, we were tired and so me and Arijit decided to skip the ongoing one and went to the reading room. A messenger was sent but we stopped him as well. When at last we went, the fellows were waiting and we were drenched doubly, one for the party and other as a punishment.
15) For the final board exams, Bibhas had taught me how to signal the prepositions to him in the exam hall without making any sound. The signals were to be done with the lips only. I learnt the crypt but forgot most of it in the exam and couldn’t help him much!
Another one of Bibhas which I remember is his unorthodox therapy. Saurav was once suffering from immense cough and cold. He couldn’t eat properly. We used to get Puri and Chhole ki dal on Saturday mornings. Bibhas mixed some (I don’t know how many!) green chilies into the dal. After two puris Saurav started coughing like anything and within 20 minutes he was quite relaxed and had put out lot of cough outside his body! But Bibhas couldn’t get him eat the rest of the dal!
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{ There are other stories as well which cannot be disclosed in a public site! Some would need permissions while there are others which will never see the light of the day! And hence the stories are limited in number!}

Please feel free to tell other stories of these times....