It has been eight years now, but feels like just yesterday. I remember how after completing our last board (it was biology) exam we went to Principal’s residence for special Lunch organized for us the out going batch. After the lunch we went to PWD where our own beloved hemo da had organized another special lunch, as during our stay we had helped him grow his business.
By the time we reached our respective houses everyone of us were in a different state of mind, depressed, sad, nostalgic and what not…some were accompanied by their bhaities, few were busy packing and as for me I was just thinking how fast life moves as we completed 7 years of our stay and it was like a blink and miss…After packing we were ready for our regimental dinner – the first in our honour and the last in school time.
After dinner it was traditional visit to all the houses wishing the juniors all the best for their future….After returning to the respective houses we had our own party organized filled with beer and chicken from Hema…That was one such party filled with lots of emotions, every body was sentimental and almost cried discussing all the good and bad moments during our stay. Few were sorry for if they had misbehaved and not into talking terms with some; few were planning to stay together at Guwahati for coaching.
I personally had a fear of loosing good friends, afraid of facing the cruel world alone without friends. After that we went to reading room where juniors were also very sad as we were leaving. It was about 4 am in the morning and after much discussion and advice which we never followed but passed on to our juniors we went back to our rooms only to get ready to leave our school. It was Ist April 2001 and that date many of us will never forget ……..I hoped if it had been a April’s fool prank on us , which never was …….As the school bus was made ready for us we were taking out our trunks and bags outside our houses. For the last time we all were standing in front of our house in fallin and Alok Singh starting with “OMNI VINCENT OMAR” (Our House Motto) and that broke us all, we all started crying like kids. After loading our bag and baggages we walked towards the bus which was parked in the road in front of the auditorium. I remember whole school standing on both sides of the road including our teachers. We went and touched our teacher’s feet and we could see few among them crying for us as we cried too. After that we greeted the students standing by the sides of the road; few class VI students were also crying looking at us. It was a situation like a girl’s farewell ceremony. In a girls home where the whole family cries including the girl……Now after many years I realize the feeling, the love , the affection, the bonding we shared with each other, with our juniors and our teachers and of course our school as a whole.
One ran to the football ground and kissed the goal post, one last time and some were too far away from their loved spots in the campus. Today I am thousands of kilometers away from it removed by a time warp of 8 long years and still writing about it.
It has been Eight years............
10 Classic ways of earning a TC
Should I type a TC for you? (Transfer certificate), growled the balding principle donning his green uniform.
I looked down, and the threat subsided and he agreed to offer me a week’s extra drill instead of handing me a TC.
There are very few, who won’t have heard it at least once during their life in Sainik School Goalpara (during my tenure between 1994-2001 as a student). The studious gets it and so do the ruffians, the gentle as well as the unruly ones. I survived many such threats during my seven years stay and always managed to come out safe writing a letter of apology or getting an extra drill at the most or at times getting a pat on my back, for being nice overall.
Here are 10 classic ways of getting to see a TC in Sainik School Goalpara:
- Go to the out of bound PWD canteen during the prep time hours and wish the nomadic principle, ‘good evening’ on your way back from PWD.
- Use the short cut through the athletic ground during the PT run, when the principal is performing push ups, in the middle of the athletic ground.
- Run away to Goalpara without permission, and share a seat with a teacher in the bus.
- Enter the House through a secret passage (like a broken window) after a late night expedition and find the principal lending you a helping hand, in entering through it.
- Hit a junior and don’t bother to threaten him with dire consequences, if he takes up the matter with authorities.
- Steal cattle that roam in the campus, eat it and forget to conceal the left over.
- Be a topper for a year and then flunk in the exams.
- Earn an EPD (exempted from PT & Drill) from the doctor, after pretending to be sick & then get spotted by the principal playing cricket in the quadrangle.
- Explode a cracker 3 months before Diwali or splash colour days ahead of Holi or both.
- Find a junior coming towards you as you are speaking to the principal. You find the junior very familiar, but can only recall once he comes and says, ‘Da you gave me a meet’.
House Day: Dancing Goes Wrong
Disclaimer: Names have been changed to protect identities. And if the people involved in the story gets a mild to severe heart attack in seeing their little secret being revealed, they can pick their options of abusing me over SMS, phone, email or even in person.
The Basics: We were in IXth standard. We formed the ‘labour force’ in all the senior houses. There are many more basic facts about being a IXth standard cadet in Sainik School Goalpara and I’ll not be dealing with them in the current story. The other fact that I would want to talk about is about cultural activities presented by senior Houses. Such performances would be a mix bag of croaking seniors, who would croak and juniors would praise and then some juniors who were actual artists and then some more juniors who were forced to dance or sing, to act as fillers during the show. I know one such story…
Mr. NF was in IXth standard and he happened to join Sainik School Goalpara in IXth unlike most of us who joined in VIth. After initial ‘sweet to all’ attitude he quickly found himself a slot in the ‘gang of Lohit House’ that mostly comprised of ‘old nine guys’ (they are the hardcore ones, who reach senior houses in their VIIIth standard unlike the average ones who reach senior Houses in IXth). So this group would do things differently…well almost everything.
They would go to Goalpara, when the rest of us would work for the seniors and they would relax in the room as we run around to answer the dreaded shouts ‘Reading room’ ‘Common Room’….Yes Da. They would wake up when we would sleep at night. (Do read Rajib’s story in this context). So this is the group where Mr. NF found himself a berth. Although he wasn’t exempted from his basic duties of being a IXth student, like serving the seniors, he did enjoy the superstar status of being a ‘gangster’.
The date for the House day was slowly approaching and the preparation gained momentum, as I managed the list of programs (being the junior prefect). Like most other cultural events in Sainik School Goalpara, the list I managed had an endless list of ‘singers’ that can kill audience with boredom. So I was given the task of finding some potential dancers. I do not remember now, if Mr. Dutta (an old ninth gangster & my classmate) agreed to dance out of will or because some senior threatened him to do one. But he did agree to dance and his partner was to be Mr. NF. His new uniforms had gathered those stains by now that we had seen from our VIth standard and he was well versed with the said and unsaid rules of Sainik School Goalpara by now.
Common room (room number 6) was their place of practice for the next few days culminating with the final performance. They would practice at night, and collect stuff during the day. By stuff I mean, shoes from some, torn jeans from others, bandana from some etc. Oh the song! It was O o jaane jana, dhunde tujhe deewana. A good song, given our limited taste and seclusion from the rest of the human civilization.
The D day arrived and being the junior prefect, I cleverly placed the dance between equal number of songs, before and after the dance to bring about a sense of variety. And the dance was to be the ‘item’ of the day, that would provide visual treat as well, unlike the songs. The cassette player rolled and the song started with a squeak. Mr. Dutta, donning torn jeans, a red bandana and a body hugging T-shirt started shaking his legs as Mr. NF followed suit. Unlike the rehearsals, there was something missing, as NF kept staring at Mr. Dutta and followed him. After a few minutes of suppressed anger Mr. Dutta nodded his head towards NF asking ‘whats wrong?’
NF flapped his hands on his ear, meaning, ‘I can’t hear anything’.
Now Dutta knew the song by hard and it didn’t matter to him if it was audible to him or otherwise. But for NF, it was a different story altogether. Dutta finally couldn’t take it anymore and he stamped his feet on the stage and left, ‘To hell with dancing’. And with that, the ‘item’ of the evening drowned into nothing. Some eager singers quickly replaced the dancers, as the audience laughed, jeered and the principal wore a stern look, suppressing his internal laughter. The evening was criminally boring and NF and Dutta didn’t speak for a while after that incident. I would love to see both dancing once again & I promise I’d place a speaker facing the dancers as well. ‘O o Jaane Jana’