The transition
from primary school to the high school was smooth and the new address was
convenient for me as my house was just five minutes away. The first day feel
was of excitement and sadness, excitement of being in the high school and
sadness at the thought of being away from such caring teachers. Life has to
move on and so it did. The day used to begin with GULMOHAR and I don’t remember
what it used to end with perhaps because most of us would be already out of the
campus by 3 O’clock, atleast in our thoughts. Classes used to start by 10 AM
and I had the luxury of lazing around till my mother pushed me out. But soon I
started to be extraordinarily punctual, the reason being that lovely game of
cricket or football that would kickstart our day in school. However, we did
find ourselves in the midst of IT evolution and a teacher joined the school
with his early morning doses of WORDSTAR & LOGO but the open windows were
our escape routes. Days went by and we started getting comfortable with our
routine school life. The best part about school days is that you find a way to
enjoy even the most mundane of things because of your friends.
I was
among the bunch of “good” kids who hardly ever sat in the second bench but my
reason was different. I always wanted to be the first one out of the class.
Besides, I was not that tall either. One of our teachers, Bankim Sir or BBC (as
we fondly called him) used to call out “You little boy, go and kneel down”. And
I must tell you that it was not an enjoyable experience as there would be no
fine legs passing by in the corridors. The nicknames given to teachers were
weird, funny and sometimes undesirable but at the end of the day, the respect
for them was always there. Being in the top three had its advantages as during
examinations, Room No.1 was perceived as nuisance free room by the invigilators
so much so that one of them once said “Baba tomra toh shobai bhalo
cheley…cheating feeting toh korbe na. Bhalo korey porikhkha daao, aami
ghumaai”. That meant that we had the luxury of exchanging answers at will.
All the
teachers had their “styles”, be it punishment or be it greater punishment oops
teaching. I guess our teachers were also WWE fans and greatly inspired by People’s Elbows, Choke Slams
and Stunners. Swapan Sir used to catch trouble makers and order them to take
POSITION. This term meant that the student is supposed to bend while resting
his hands on the table and thereby exposing his butt to the thrashing of the
cane. One teacher used “Sideburns Pull”, another mastered the art of “Finger
Pinch” while one of them always left stains of “Kuwaai” on our books on a
regular basis and so there would be no resale value of our books by the end of
the academic year. All of them were characters and unforgettable but Mihir Sir
was something else. “Ami ulka…ami jhonja”…he would announce while entering the
class and then handpicked boys to perform in the class. I still don't know what that meant but it did mean that entertainment would start soon. I was once asked to
dance and I made a fool out of myself before the whole class. My bhangra that
day would have made all the Sardars forget theirs only if YouTube was
functional then. I sucked big time then and I still do as far as dancing is
concerned. Now, you guys don’t think that I nursed the ambition of learning
bhangra since that day and hence I narrowed down my search for a bride to a
Punjaban. As weird as his antics were yet his innovative “2 Minutes to Fame”
routine helped me atleast to tolerate Science which was a pain in the A…Brains
actually.
But Science
had advantages too. Those students who participated in Science Exhibitions got
good lunch whereas quiz enthusiasts like us had to make do with poor canteen
food. Being a rebel though, I gate crashed during one such exhibition and
started looking for a stall with easiest Scientific Model. And I found a friend
of mine explaining Balanced Diet to delegates and so I forcefully convinced him
to take a break. Balanced Diet was easy to explain and the moment we got our
lunch coupons, I vanished to balance my diet.
I had a
gala time for seven good years. We were so happy with our lives with very
little to think about. We didn’t even care about girls around us except for those
five minutes after school hours and outside our school gates when those angels from
Pine Mount School headed home from school. Pine Mount School….wow….beautiful
girls but most importantly our favourite destination for a game of cricket after
school hours. We used to climb the walls and enjoy the lush greens beside the
Lady Hydari Park. They tried to stop us and filled cement into those holes in
the wall but a sports enthusiast used his sledgehammer to good effect and the
Principal of that school had to wire fence the entire perimeter. But we had
alternatives in Sports Club Ground and Eid-Gah. Talking of Eid-Gah, I remember
that I had once got down into the stream that ran along that ground to fetch
the ball but all I found was heaps and heaps of mud. I walked for 20 minutes
through the busiest of localities to reach home with mud till my waist. My
mother almost fainted but soon she regained her composure to do some “Dhulaai”…first
mine and then that of my school uniform. And yeah my complexion is not this way
because of that SPA treatment. I was born to be “a bit short of Tall, Dark and
Handsome”.
That feeling
of winning the match for my class in the Inter-Class meet, winning the Chess
championship in school, winning the 2nd Prize in 200 metres and Long
Jump events (there were only two participants though…shshshshh), lot many
prizes in Quiz competitions etc., was always awesome and I cherish those
memories a lot. We had our naughty moments as well. Throwing off rotis and sabzi
daily through the class window and onto the roof of Dr.Siddiqui, porn magazines
in the class, breaking tubelights and window panes, breaking the procession in
the middle of road and running towards the school like the rampant bulls from the
Tomatina Festival.
Run up
to the Board exams, we had lot of fun playing cricket matches at Aveek’s house
after tuition classes at Mohitosh Sir’s place. I really owe it to him and
Hironmoy Sir for being so wonderful teachers. Especially. Hironmoy sir was so
happy those days after receiving a letter from Queen Elizabeth who appreciated
and recognized his work on British history. Unfortunately, Sir passed away
before he could meet the Queen. Xth Board is seen as a first major hurdle in a
student’s life and our teachers had very high hopes on our batch going by the
laurels we bought to our school in Scholarship Examinations. But it was not to
be. I hated Science and Geography and so I preferred to ignore most part of the Question Paper and I missed out on a rank because of those two subjects. However, my
favourite teacher (my father) never said anything and got sweets for me when
the results were declared but I know it would have hurt him when he had to
answer this question a hundred times….”What happened???....How did Ayan miss
out on a Rank????” I knew that I lost one great opportunity to gift him happiness.
I did make amends by securing a good rank in XIIth and I could feel his elation
when he hugged me. I got a rank again in Graduation but still it hurts when I
look back at that missed opportunity. This was a great humbling experience for
me and I had emerged as a better person. The day of my result was the last time
I had been there. I touched Sujit Sir’s feet and bade adieu to Laban Bengali
Boys’ Higher Secondary School. My status at that point was:
“Forgot
how to write in Bengalee and Hindi, never knew how to talk in English, never
spoke with any girl and yet enrolled myself in a co-ed course in Commerce at
St.Edmund’s College, an institute started by Irish brothers. SCARY TIMES
AHEAD!!!!”
The
decision turned out wonderful and I turned out O.K too.
