Yesterday night I just happened to find some CDs which had stored in them the memories from my College days back in Shillong. For a moment I was nostalgic but that is when I realized the impact that those years had in my transformation. I would of course give credit to my School and school teachers for being the initial source of all the values n whatever virtues that are there in me. However, transformation in me happened at St.Edmund's College. Past is just not a bag of memories but often a bag of lost learnings, forgotten achievements and lost inspirations.
If I can recollect correctly, I had applied to this institute for Commerce after my 10th Board and infact ran the risk of going back to my school for Science if I would have been rejected. This was so because this idiot did not apply anywhere else. For once this idiot's hunch paid off and I became an Edmundian. So here I was in the class at 7 AM with a notebook, a bit of sleep in my eyes, a handful of English words to speak and lots of nerve as this was an Institute of Irish Brothers. I had come from a very good school with good learnings but the only issue was that of the 12 years spent there, English was a language only to be written well and not practiced verbally (Don't misunderstand me but both the students and the teachers had a far better interaction levels with Bengali as a medium of instruction as the Vernacular System was still with all of them).However, that was not the only issue that I had. The bigger monster was that four letter word "GIRL"(What where you guys thinking????). I know you can almost visualize an image of a poor chap wishing to speak to all the beautiful girls but not able to because his English and the unfortunate NO GIRLS SYSTEM of his school were proving to be the major roadblocks. Somehow, I made two friends (Arup and Ankur) and we were surviving.
Then came the big occasion...the College Week (rather College Month). Cricket team was formed and I was not there because I was not able to gel with those people. But how could have I stayed away from Cricket then???? One fine day when the team was practicing, I just walked towards the only person I knew quite well in the team and asked him to let me bowl some deliveries. He agreed and the next moment I was in the team. Before you all start repenting that you have missed out on somebody of Akram's pedigree, let me clarify that it was more like "Andhon ki nagri mein Kaana Raja". Right on that pitch, my transformation started. I began hanging out with these guys for lure of more cricket and started making more and more friends. This led to me joining almost every second competition in College Week. I did not care whether I made a fool of myself in front of others but only thing I knew I was having the best time of my life. Infact, I still remember that I had a casual opportunity to coach the Girls' team before their match as well. It’s a different story though that they won the Cup and we Boys' didn't even make the semifinals. A great Coach need not be a Great Player I guess...hehehehe. Dronacharya Awards were not conferred on me that year though. However, what I won was the confidence to converse with people (and most importantly with Girls) and Converse in ENGLISH.
I had a great opportunity to speak in English as a child as well as most of my friends were from Missionary schools but at that point I did not see the importance of all these. My School was a Safe Zone for me but now I pat myself on my back when I think of the two best decisions that I have taken in my life: 1. To join the great institute called ST.Edmund's and 2. To play cricket of course irrespective of the skill levels.
Communication classes, reading, writing, watching English movies (that was one excuse to see some GOOD stuff on screen) and Commentary with TV on Mute were part of the effort on my part but when you don't know the next words being uttered by another person, that is when you improvise. THAT IS WHEN YOU LEARN......
I always felt that I could write well but while speaking I needed time to translate a sentence first but by that time the other person would lose interest in conversing with me. However, after a couple of years in that institute I started being much more vocal in the class. Thanks to Late Conrad Sir for the interactive sessions that he encouraged in the class. All those debates and discussions (which often stretched to the level of ridiculous sparring of words) in the class helped me learn better and made me understand the value of knowledge gathering and sharing. My teachers in NIFT would vouch for the fact that they knew that every time they came to the class, they had to answer at least one of my questions. I was infact quite optimistic this time that the SONY guys would choose me to host KBC 3. But it was not to be. May be this time I will be a Crorepati by answering questions.
Anyways, I would leave you guys rolling on the floor by putting down the first English sentence that I started speaking (infact repeating like a parrot) when I was a child and that was "WHAT IS TELL?"......I have come a long way but yet it feels like as if the journey has just begun!!!!!
