Redemption

This time I promise to keep it lighter… and the blogs will be more frequent henceforth.

Flashback……..15 July 2003

7 a.m.- Dad: “I think it is time for you to wake up.” Mom:”Let him sleep some more.” Me thinking:”Can you have that arguement in another room?”

8 a.m.-Dad:”All documents ready?”Me Thinking:”You should know better.” Me: “Yes, Of course.”

9 a.m.-(Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhara(B.J.B.) College

Roll number 103S177, selected…Dad:”Well done my boy”, Mom:”You should thank God, He is great”

Me: “Can we go to my school now?”

Yes, I had got an admission into the prestigious B.J.B. College for my pre-university education. I was elated, so were my parents and so were the 527 others who got selected that day. Strangely I was missing something. My school. Sri Aurobindo Institute of Integral Education. I had studied there for 12 years and it had shaped me and in a way still continues to do so by its idealism. But my formal association with it was just about to end. That very day was my batch’s farewell on the school’s 33rd foundation day.

On the morning of the foundation day there is a ritual which is observed there every year. Students leaving school welcome the incoming nursery students with a lighting of candles. I always loved that when I was in school and that day due to my new-found success, I had to miss it. Cruelty of fate!!!(It is just not done dude…err.. Fate)

In the evening I attended the farewell function in school. It was a rainy evening; the mood matched the nostalgia in my soul. Every outgoing student was felicitated by the chief guest amidst loud applause in the function. Farewells are the only occasions where you are cheered like a “Man of the match”(or woman-see, that’s what you call gender sensitivity).

Two big awards are presented on that occasion every year. one to the student scoring highest marks in the board exams and the other to the Imran Khan/Gary Sobers/Jaques Kallis of the batch. And the twain never met. Every year 2 different guys received the honours. No prizes for guessing who got the awards that day(Otherwise this article would not have been written!!!).

Joy, Pride, Kodak Moment……….Dad and Mom standing 30 yards away sure were elated. My teachers happy..

Me……I transcended a thousand emotions. The achievement was first threatened, then emulated and then surpassed by a stronger feeling. Nostalgia! It was not the moments I had at school which haunted me, it was just the sheer disbelief that from tomorrow I would not be a student of that institution. The pangs shot deep into me. It was a haze…too much to bear for a 15 year old.

7 springs have passed by. The Lotus has been replaced by the hand, Dhobi has taken Dada’s place, we have free incoming on our cellphones now and Chicken rolls now cost Rs. 40/-

I have changed. So has the world around me. But that rainy day still haunts me and so do the myriad images that made my world for 12 long years.

Warm wishes to my school  on its 40th Birthday!!!

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