8 Oct 2007

Memories of Don Bosco School Part -1

Introduction:
Everyone loves his alma mater for everything that it has provided with. Every person has their basic education from the age of four or five years. It has been noticed that most of the time has been spent on one's education rather than on other things in life. No matter what, a child seem to hate going to school initially for so many reasons just as the way he hates drinking milk. It also happened to me and i still remember that i use to hate going to school initially because i liked the home environment more than school initially. The good part is that my grandfather would drop me at the point from where i would be picked up by auto for going to school and he was always there till it came and took me to school. He was also there when i return back from school at 12.20pm and we would have lunch together. Soon it became a habit for me to eat with him until i reached upper class and the schedules were changed.

Nursery- Sec A:
I still remember the first class teacher i had was Sir Edwin; with spectacles siting on his nose and with a long large cane in his hand along with some textbooks, chalk box and duster. He introduced himself to us and started teaching us ABCs. I liked him from the instant he sincerely put his efforts to teach us and prayed that he continue to be the class teacher in next class too.I was rather a shy kind of guy and did not mix much with other classmates. For me it seemed like school was just another way of having fun. I used to think that its so cool not going to school and stay whole day at home playing or doing something or the other and i hated it seeing my elder sister going to school but who knew that my time would come so soon. I was weak in my subjects initially and had to undergo some tuitions at home; the teacher came at home and was strict. He would beat me up sometimes when i do something wrong and look up to my mom for help and support but mom would say "its ok. beat them up if you need to" and it saw my hope in despair. Soon i have to learn at my own efforts and it bore fruits in the results. I still have my report cards from K.G. till Class Ten ( i lost Nursery one).I still remember we had three Ajits in our class . Ajit A,Ajit Y,Ajit S.


K.G. - Class III A:
With promotion to upper class K.G. Section A (roll no 24/32 something like that) i began to feel school more of an institution where something new could be learnt in life. It showed effect when i interact with other friends back at home though i never realized that it could be the education that i had that affected my thinking and all. There are lots of things that i began to realize as i went on with life and lots of things which i began to appreciate in school. My school Don Bosco High School, Imphal was one of the best institute in Imphal where toppers thrived and breathed. Initially it didn't matter to me at all. All that matters to me at that time was that i should be the first to get to the swing as soon as there was interval bell and i should be the first to run out and reach to the auto to reach home. Sometimes auto comes really late due to some reasons and we played games waiting for it. During recess period we played so many games and did so many things like football,basketball ,swa, swing, see saw,parallel bars,eat foods sold by aboks (grandmas,here old aged saleswomen ). I wonder today how we managed to do all these things in just a few 15-20 mins of recess time!!

There is this big tree right next to the see saw and swings which bore sweet smelling flowers called "bokul". As a child i don't know whose idea it was but we would climb up the big tree and pluck those flowers and make a garland using those long grass stems.At the end we would be putting them on our wrists and smelling as if we are watching some mujra. (TV has lots to do with my education at least). The school was big enough for all of us to get involved in something or the other and i bet none must have been sitting idle wanting to do something and didn't get it. Maybe because we were too small that time that the fields and school campus seemed too big for us to accommodate anywhere! We had Fr. Cyriac as the principal of school since Nursery till when i was in Class Eight until he got transferred as Head Master in Dibrugarh. He was a nice man who taught us everything. Once while i was in Class II i remember him coming to class to announce that eating supari is banned and anyone seeing eating them will be punished, i stopped immediately. I don't remember other fathers at that young age though i knew Fr Cyriac because he had been there for a long time as Principal and had the school assembly every morning for us. I wrote to him when he got transferred and guess what,he replied me back too.

Class IV A:
The real thing that ever happened to me was when i was in Class four and made a good friend f mine. I still though, wonder how i managed to be all alone in class. I mean i knew evreyone by name yet i never made them a good friend..just hi-bye type. I still remember those old ground floor classrooms where we had so much fun right from the nursery class. We had Rajesh Koijam as the Captain and Megha as Vice Captian. In classes when teachers did not com ewe would console ourselves by maintaining silence less teacher would come listening to the noise and held out own programs like singing and dancing. There was this guy called James Patric who sang Holiday of Scorpions ..."Let me take you far away .you would like a holiday..." ; then Priyokumar who would do break dance; Sanaton (or something like that) who would sing manipuri songs and lots more which i forgot. It was quite nice and entertaining as well as enjoyable moments.In class four i met this guy sitting next to me called Bimolindu from Chingamakha. He helped me by protecting me from some other friends ho tried to toughened me. I really liked him that time as i was weak and timid.But sadly he failed and left the school i think.

The most interesting part of Old Building is the thought that we will be seniors when we cross class five and start going to New Building instead of the old building. Old building was from Nursery till Class four and New Building from Class five till ten. So it was this thought that makes me happy in class four and kept me in high spirits. During these six years in Old building we wished to go to new building and be there, not because of any other thing but because we wanted to think that we have become older and seniors.But the other thing is that in Old building we were senior most while in New Building we would be the juniors again.

Class V A:
Happily we left the old building and entered into the new building. In our times during recess periods we used to listen to songs played on the microphone. I remember Da Ringo and other seniors bringing cassettes from home and asking the bahadur to play it. It was really something.Sadly they don't play any more music nowadays,don't know why! I really had this very embarrassing moment in New Building. There was this song of "Maine Pyaar Kiya" played on the microphone and i was walking on the edge of the pointed ranch of the building balancing myself. And when the song lines were "ye pagla hai..samjhane se samjhega.." something came to my mind and i tried to walk faster and fell over the edge rolling over and people laughed all over me. I stood up in embarrassment and went back to class wiping the dirt from my pants and aching over .

We had the largest Sports function ever held this time and the then Governer Chintamani Panigrahi came as Chief Guest. Other schools like Nirmalabas,Little Flower ,St Joseph etc came to view the sports too. It was very fun to watch and get attracted too lol. When i was in class five i come to know of Oja Indibushan to be very strict and beating up every time. He was a terror among the students. In the sports there were four houses - Red,Blue,Yellow and Green. The winner among the house in all aspects like education,sports,extra curricular activities would get rewarded by painting the Don Bosco label on the building with the house colour. A member of a house is not allowed to cross and sit in another house tent build for the sports events.There was this incident where one would call another guy of another house to his tent for a chat and catch him and call Oja Indi to deduct the other house' marks. It was rather hilarious.

To be continued (and added in case i miss out something).....

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