DOWN MEMORY LANE – MY SCHOOL

School days are those which one cannot forget during their life time. I would like to share my experience about my school with you all. It still brings me fond memories of the past when I pass through the school I studied. This has prompted me to pen down my memories, which I can cherish with my family and friends anytime. Gone are the days, which I will not get back, but memories will remain forever.

Alma Matar - B.E.G (Bombay Engineering Group)Central School, Kirkee,Pune -  Our father got transferred to Pune from Chandrapur when Iwas ten .For every young child,a new school, a new city is always a big mental stress.The dilemma of finding new friends, the lurking fear of the new teachers, leaving the comfort of the old friends,teachers and the school in general builds up the pressure in a child to such an extent that he hates this forced change.I was no different.My sister, two years older to me, was more aware of the situation than I was.

My first day at B.E.G – The first look at the school premises was intimidating. It had a huge playground surrounded by army barracks that made up for our classrooms.The school was in the midst of army cantonment and it gave me a feeling of being in the Army .The atmosphere was so different in my previous school which was cosy,not very big and didn’t have any army soldiers as our neighbours.

I was assigned section B of Standard 6.There were three sections – A,B and C. Our class teacher,Ms.Alwani(also our Science teacher) introduced me to the class.The class strength was about 40 students, pre-dominantly of army background.

My first day was quite memorable for me. I was appointed the class monitor that day. The monitor was given a badge that identified his status. Ms.Alwani asked a question on Photosynthesis. I had already learnt about this in my previous school and I managed to rattle off the answer without much ado. Impressed with that and disappointed with the behavior of the then monitor -  Prasun Das(came late to the class, we were soon to become thick pals),I was given this unexpected status. I was delighted and my self- esteem rose to Himalayan heights. That evening, I displayed the Class monitor badge to sister and our parents. They were swelling with pride on this small step towards leadership!!

Morning walk - I still remember those days when I and my sister along with our other school friends – Meena,Mahesh,Renil and Myathrei  used to walk a kilometer and half from our house to catch a bus(Bus No-125) that took us to our school and vice versa. I still remember the fascination for trailer buses that were prevalent those days.

It used to be a long , happy and fun filled walk( but never a tiring one)through the sugarcane fields of the Agricultural College which gave us the touch and feel of rural atmosphere.  There was always this ritual of stopping under a huge banyan tree and taking a small break.This was an enjoyable experience as we used to play, pull each others legs(Renil was our common target) and rejuvenate our souls.


Daily Ritual – Our school uniform for boys was –a crisp white shirt with navy blue half trousers( till class seventh and full trousers from eight class onwards )along with black leather shoes.For girls –all remained same except the skirt ofcourse!!

Our day started with the shoe polish(I learnt the trick of sprinkling a few drops of water on the shoes to get that extra shine), ironing of our clothes(burnt a few shirts and trousers to get that extra crispness), rushing with our breakfast(my Mom was always on time, we were the guilty ones) and taking that long trudge to the bus stop. Winter mornings used to be the most troublesome days for us as the biting cold would keep us longer and warmer in our beds and then the mad rush to the school to avoid getting delayed for the morning assembly was a sight to behold.

Our morning school assembly was conducted by Mulay sir.We were in complete awe of him, he was a strict disciplinarian and would not tolerate any mischief or nonsense from the students.We used to do our daily prayers,take the oath and sing the national anthem.There was also a daily quiz question in the assembly that was very exciting.The student who had the correct answer would be appreciated by the school with a resounding applause.This built in me the urge of seeking answers for all the General Knowldege questions by reading various books and newspapers.My fellow student and friend Saju Joseph usually had all the answers and became popular with this talent of his.

Embarrassing day -  It was a rule in the school to nominate two students daily to clean their class room and they were excused from the daily assembly routine.This was the favourite with the male students as they found this useful to play classroom cricket or table tennis on the class platform with the school bags becoming the make-shift net.

Prasun, my partner in crime on many such occasions, and myself decided to do the duty of cleaning or rather playing.The assembly routine had started and we could hear the prayers and the quiz round.We were happily playing our game of table tennis when we suddenly saw Mulay sir’s burning red eyes watching us in horror.We froze with fear and I was so taken aback with this highly unexpected turn of events that I dreaded the outcome. We were escorted out of the classroom and made to stand with the other unfortunate students who were caught in similar acts of treason!!

The school assembly got dispersed and we were made to stand in one line and asked to squat and catch our ears – MURGA style.My sister saw this horrific sight and then I thought it was all over for me.I later pleaded to her not to share this “popular” news with our father as this would not be exactly music to his ears.I shoud mention that I still owe it to her for displaying such loyalty towards her younger brother.

That instance brought an end to my budding table tennis talent, alas!!!

My Friends – Prasun,Mukesh,Parmesh,Saju,Kamal,Sandeep,Rajesh,Pravin and Kanwaljeet were the friends with whom I spent most of my time with.We played all kinds of sport – Cricket,Football,Hockey,Running. My set of friends are unique in a way that they are my first friend’s circle with whom I shared all my thoughts and learnt a lot about life.

 Ours was a co-ed school and we had some of the pretty girls in our class which would have been a source of great joy for any other group of boys but us.We were mortally scared to even talk to them let alone make friendship. It was a competition between the boys and girls on who would top the class. Usually,the girls would top the scroll of honour.I was always an above average student(am I being modest??) who would feel bad with the girl topping the charts.

I am still in touch with most of the school friends and I feel I am lucky and blessed about this

My teachers - Last but not the least, I can’t sign off without the mention of good and efficient teachers present in the school. I am fortunate enough to get good teachers through out my school career who are very much responsible for who I am at present. They not only imparted good education but also shaped me as a good human being. All the teachers were very helpful to me in all ways and did not hesitate to correct me if I erred.Mrs.Alwani along with Mrs.Chari and Mrs.Dave were the teachers who impacted my personality in a positive manner.I am sure this is a mere coincidence that all were ladiesJ

Parting Wish - How I wish I had defied the laws created by the Almighty and not grown out of my innocence, my childhood, my School days!!!