Today I visited my school of 12 years, Sishya, with Prahlad. We had studied there from LKG to the 10th. Actually both my brothers also studied/study there. One graduated in 2000 and the other is still in the 10th. Its 'my' school. Though I did spend the last 2 years of my schooling at PSBB, I really don't know too many people from there, apart from those who also got into IIT with me.
The school is a relatively small school, with about 25 children per section and 2 sections per class. When I joined Sishya as (way back in...1986), the school was even smaller. Usually the siblings also went to the same school, and most joined in LKG, with the end result that everyone knew everyone else. Our headmistress Omna is rumored to know every student in the school by name, or so my brother says. I wont be surprised.
So as we walked over to the junior sections we bumped into our aayas (the ladies who handle the very young kids). They actually remembered both of us. They even managed to identify who was whose kid. Not bad if you think that almost 16 years have passed since they last handled us. These junior sections had thatched huts for classrooms. That was quite interesting. Whenever it rained, invariably some water would leak in through the roof and we had to shift places to make sure no one got drenched. The classrooms used to a very distinctive leafy smell. In the summer, the berries used to fall from the trees and that left much scope for berry fights. The senior sections were in a separate building (not in huts). It used to look like a far distant land, with immense mystery. Well now, all the mystery is over.
We met the teachers. My brothers and I have all had the same teachers. Since, I have been the first to get out, I was lucky. My brothers were/are constantly subjected to " Do you know that your brother used to be blah..Why are you blah". Rajesh the canteen guy, the school staff are all the same.
One of my classmates now teaches there. It's so weird. Time flies no? She teaches LKG and UKG and one kutti kid comes up to her and says 'Maam, can I take a chair', we couldn't stop laughing. Shit we are growing old. One of my classmates actually teaches in my school!! I feel sorry for my teachers, they must be finding it so strange (and depressing) interacting with her. In a few years I am sure many of my classmates kids are going to join the school, so strange.
Though we didn't actually know her that well in school (atleast I didn't), the very fact that we were in the same class for 12 years creates a lot of history and for all practical purposes that person has existed for all your living memory. There is always something to talk about. Apparently, she used to sit with me in the 5th, and I used to hit her with a scale all the time, much to her dismay. *Disgusting joke* No wonder I seem to hit it off so amazingly with girls.*End joke* I do remember purloining scales from my dad, but I don't remember hitting anyone.
Invariably, the discussion lead to our classmates - all were tracked, locked and accounted for. No reunion is complete without a general consensus being reached on the class jerks. Also your feelings about school and classmates tend to be at a very deep level. Girls seem to form myriad cliques with rivalries between them and all kinds of other complications, which never really go away. It seems to quite into their psyche. Guys seem to be more easygoing and simple about their feelings - either he is nice (talk) or he is a jerk (avoid). Lots of juicy stories and exchange of 'sundry information' past, current and future (speculated). There was one classmate of mine who got married one day and separated the next day, during a drunken rampage I am sure, a la Britney Spears. Soon after, he became a proponent of the alchohol free life. With classmates like this who needs Vh1? What say?
So much yet so little seems to have changed. The place still looks the same but all those little bambi eyed imps are now gel haired dudes. My kid brother is in the 10th for christs sake!! One of the fun things about having passed out of school is that you go back with the power of hindsight. We tried to guess where each kid we saw would end up. He is going to become the 'CEO' of dads steel plant. Oh him, he is going to be steward on Emirates. Oh she, she is going to be *leave the rest to imagination*.
There was also this incident. We were walking by the kiddie sections and just peeked into one of the classes and continued on. Then this kutti girl came frantically running behind us asking if we were going to report them to the classteacher. She looked soo worried. We had to convince here that we weren't going to rat on her class. We understood ;). Getting reported can be quite irritating. You have to listen to the teacher drone on and give you a full lecture about discipline and blah.
Speaking of teachers, there is this pain-in-the-derrier a terrier of a English teacher. Her parents not being able to stand her sent her off to boarding school and she has been straddled with a 'neutralized' accent ever since. The thing thinks it's gods gift to manking. She should consider marrying her own voice, because she likes it so much, and spends so much time listening to it. Once, when she was teaching an adjoining class, we were making so much noise that she came across from her own class and lectured us for 30 minutes, the duration of the class. She thinks she embodies the 'strong independant feminist' but most people beg to differ. Even the girls (as a species designed to suck up for teachers) hate her. So, she sees us and asks her version of 'Waddup dawg' ( Soh what hahv yuh bin dhoing ohhf lahte?). We answer, she grunts, and walks past, without as much as a smile. No, as a matter of fact she actively scowls. I also noticed that she treats the junior teachers like errant children. Someone should take the initiative and bump her off. We can create a fund to contribute to pay for her supari, in that way all of us can take a share of the good deed. Though, I feel sorry for the devil. Even if he bumps her off, she is going to come right back. Maybe, if he is into Shiv Khera type reading he would make her his prime devil-in-residence (win-win solutions).
As Prahlad says, I think on an average a student in Sishya has a lot more freedom than in any other school. Exams and studies are part of your life and not the very purpose. We never had term exams till the 8th. Our school closed at 1:30, earlier than any other city school. We had more weeks of vacation than any other city school. I think it's a welcome break from schools that are obsessed with performance and marks. But, I think this attitude extends to the parents as well. Most parents in Sishya would protest if the child is overburdened with work. I am sure there are also parents who want to make sure the child is made to study as much as possible in the school. Each to his own. I feel that students from Sishya tend to be more self-assured than most. I think this has lead to the school being sterotyped as snobbish. Of course, each school has it's share of irritating kids, but its unfair to generalize. Though, I do admit that the average student in the school tends to be quite well-to-do and the crowd is quite cosmopolitan.
Anyway, a lot of memories. I could go on and on. Maybe I might add something more to this post later. In sum, life in school was so simple no?
Hail alma mater dear
To us ever near
Help us your motto bear
All through the year
Prahlad has an identical post here. With the same title! We ended up thinking up the same thing independantly!
The school is a relatively small school, with about 25 children per section and 2 sections per class. When I joined Sishya as (way back in...1986), the school was even smaller. Usually the siblings also went to the same school, and most joined in LKG, with the end result that everyone knew everyone else. Our headmistress Omna is rumored to know every student in the school by name, or so my brother says. I wont be surprised.
So as we walked over to the junior sections we bumped into our aayas (the ladies who handle the very young kids). They actually remembered both of us. They even managed to identify who was whose kid. Not bad if you think that almost 16 years have passed since they last handled us. These junior sections had thatched huts for classrooms. That was quite interesting. Whenever it rained, invariably some water would leak in through the roof and we had to shift places to make sure no one got drenched. The classrooms used to a very distinctive leafy smell. In the summer, the berries used to fall from the trees and that left much scope for berry fights. The senior sections were in a separate building (not in huts). It used to look like a far distant land, with immense mystery. Well now, all the mystery is over.
We met the teachers. My brothers and I have all had the same teachers. Since, I have been the first to get out, I was lucky. My brothers were/are constantly subjected to " Do you know that your brother used to be blah..Why are you blah". Rajesh the canteen guy, the school staff are all the same.
One of my classmates now teaches there. It's so weird. Time flies no? She teaches LKG and UKG and one kutti kid comes up to her and says 'Maam, can I take a chair', we couldn't stop laughing. Shit we are growing old. One of my classmates actually teaches in my school!! I feel sorry for my teachers, they must be finding it so strange (and depressing) interacting with her. In a few years I am sure many of my classmates kids are going to join the school, so strange.
Though we didn't actually know her that well in school (atleast I didn't), the very fact that we were in the same class for 12 years creates a lot of history and for all practical purposes that person has existed for all your living memory. There is always something to talk about. Apparently, she used to sit with me in the 5th, and I used to hit her with a scale all the time, much to her dismay. *Disgusting joke* No wonder I seem to hit it off so amazingly with girls.*End joke* I do remember purloining scales from my dad, but I don't remember hitting anyone.
Invariably, the discussion lead to our classmates - all were tracked, locked and accounted for. No reunion is complete without a general consensus being reached on the class jerks. Also your feelings about school and classmates tend to be at a very deep level. Girls seem to form myriad cliques with rivalries between them and all kinds of other complications, which never really go away. It seems to quite into their psyche. Guys seem to be more easygoing and simple about their feelings - either he is nice (talk) or he is a jerk (avoid). Lots of juicy stories and exchange of 'sundry information' past, current and future (speculated). There was one classmate of mine who got married one day and separated the next day, during a drunken rampage I am sure, a la Britney Spears. Soon after, he became a proponent of the alchohol free life. With classmates like this who needs Vh1? What say?
So much yet so little seems to have changed. The place still looks the same but all those little bambi eyed imps are now gel haired dudes. My kid brother is in the 10th for christs sake!! One of the fun things about having passed out of school is that you go back with the power of hindsight. We tried to guess where each kid we saw would end up. He is going to become the 'CEO' of dads steel plant. Oh him, he is going to be steward on Emirates. Oh she, she is going to be *leave the rest to imagination*.
There was also this incident. We were walking by the kiddie sections and just peeked into one of the classes and continued on. Then this kutti girl came frantically running behind us asking if we were going to report them to the classteacher. She looked soo worried. We had to convince here that we weren't going to rat on her class. We understood ;). Getting reported can be quite irritating. You have to listen to the teacher drone on and give you a full lecture about discipline and blah.
Speaking of teachers, there is this pain-in-the-derrier a terrier of a English teacher. Her parents not being able to stand her sent her off to boarding school and she has been straddled with a 'neutralized' accent ever since. The thing thinks it's gods gift to manking. She should consider marrying her own voice, because she likes it so much, and spends so much time listening to it. Once, when she was teaching an adjoining class, we were making so much noise that she came across from her own class and lectured us for 30 minutes, the duration of the class. She thinks she embodies the 'strong independant feminist' but most people beg to differ. Even the girls (as a species designed to suck up for teachers) hate her. So, she sees us and asks her version of 'Waddup dawg' ( Soh what hahv yuh bin dhoing ohhf lahte?). We answer, she grunts, and walks past, without as much as a smile. No, as a matter of fact she actively scowls. I also noticed that she treats the junior teachers like errant children. Someone should take the initiative and bump her off. We can create a fund to contribute to pay for her supari, in that way all of us can take a share of the good deed. Though, I feel sorry for the devil. Even if he bumps her off, she is going to come right back. Maybe, if he is into Shiv Khera type reading he would make her his prime devil-in-residence (win-win solutions).
As Prahlad says, I think on an average a student in Sishya has a lot more freedom than in any other school. Exams and studies are part of your life and not the very purpose. We never had term exams till the 8th. Our school closed at 1:30, earlier than any other city school. We had more weeks of vacation than any other city school. I think it's a welcome break from schools that are obsessed with performance and marks. But, I think this attitude extends to the parents as well. Most parents in Sishya would protest if the child is overburdened with work. I am sure there are also parents who want to make sure the child is made to study as much as possible in the school. Each to his own. I feel that students from Sishya tend to be more self-assured than most. I think this has lead to the school being sterotyped as snobbish. Of course, each school has it's share of irritating kids, but its unfair to generalize. Though, I do admit that the average student in the school tends to be quite well-to-do and the crowd is quite cosmopolitan.
Anyway, a lot of memories. I could go on and on. Maybe I might add something more to this post later. In sum, life in school was so simple no?
Hail alma mater dear
To us ever near
Help us your motto bear
All through the year
Prahlad has an identical post here. With the same title! We ended up thinking up the same thing independantly!
7 comments:
My bro also studied in the same school, but you see I was not subject to "Your bro was blah blah" because, you see, I was the model student and he wasn't :)
I'm, of course, not alleging that you were a model student and your bro wasn't, cos I know thats far from the truth...
[prashanth]Ha ha...thats good..they cannot shout at him because he has passed out..
I find it weird..
I have noticed that younger brothers tend to be more relaxed and laid back..
The elder brothers are the workaholic achiever types
[intern] heh...Ramani ki Ramkahani looks best...nice long grandfather stories..
I am doing this as much for myself as for others to read...it would capture my time in India..and would be nice to read some time hence..there is so much for me to post...
I am not really the senti touchy feely type...I seem to have discovered a new aspect to myself here!!
Posts on art, economics and math can wait..for now it's nostalgia!!
[prashanth] my middle bro yes...he was not too bad...
but my youngest brother is totally laid back...even the fact that he is compared does not bug him in the least...quite the dude...he has been to saarang proshows, eaten at the hostel, jogged in the stadium, watched movies at OAT....all he now needs to do is get in!
The meeting new ppl; experiencing different stereotyping; making good friends and keeping in touch; and then perhaps even saying 'hey i went to school with you' :)--the best things about moving around schools...
who ran sishya?...i seem to remember that chettinad also had a similar 'image'?...
Sishya..
It was run by Kit Thomas. He was the principal of Lawrence School, Lovedale for a very long time before he started Sishya. As a result of that, this school is something like non-boarding version of Lawrence School. A number of our teachers used to be ex-Lawrence school students.
A number of things in our school are very boarding school-esqe. We have farewell party where the guys dress in suits the girls in saris and there is a dance or something like that. The school was pretty small so it had a nice cozy 'I belong there' feeling. Also, if you have studied there for a while, you knew everyone. Literally.
Yeah thats true. There is always some fun in meeting school mates. Even if you didn't know them in school there is always something to talk about.
You from Chettinad I am guessing.
I see, interesting...
Nope, not fm chettinad, we moved around a lot, were in b'lore before PSBB...a cousin used to go the chettinad, and I remember hearing about the same relatively laid-back, well-to-do image of chettinad.
Yes I am back :D..
Good to be back 'home' from 'holiday'...
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