It so happened that some time back I passed by my school only to find that it had been taken over by an organisation called "Sharma Foundation Trust" ...("Trust" !!!) ..Not an aberration considering that schools these days are into serious money making...why else do you think so many private schools have mushroomed in every nook and corner of the country.The good old principle of supply and demand is at work here.People are not able to find enough private schools and the govt. schools continue to be in a state of apathy regardless of all that has been said about the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and other educational initiatives.After all it takes a principal , some 10 odd teachers , an equal no of classes , a comp lab with a couple of working computers , a small initial lot of students (and for future reqmnts. you can rely in totality on the mouth-publicity that will be gratis courtesy the parents)...and you thought that a school needs a big gymkhana , a playground , well equipped computer lab , fully done science lab ,big classrooms etc...Cmon, don't be foolish enough to think that.I was a part of Holy Cross High School in Bhayander..I remember once asking my dad why I was admitted to this school when my pyari behna went to Nazareth which unarguably is and continues to be the best school around..He told me they denied new admissions to anyone at my time (unless of course you were ready to shell out bundles of that most powerful paper in the world)..so there I was @ Holy Paradise ,the kindergarten group of my school ,during the initial 3 years of my academic life.It was a single-storey "school" (if i may say so) as far as I know...not much memories except the vegetable and the fish markets around that continue in existence and the crying lot of kiddos fighting with each other (of course there were a few exceptions to this like me )over a host of things..My place has many such single-storey paradises claiming to provide top notch english education among other things.After 4 years we were transferred to Holy Cross which again was a single storey wonder (!!!) located on the ground floor.Being in a residential building it went a long way in making the students "feel @ home".I remember giving my 2nd std final exams in an under construction class amidst all the reti-cement and also without any electricity but with a hell lot of mosquitoes around.Till date I blame those hostile conditions for my failure in the lang paper of Marathi that year which happens to be my only failure in my academic life.I emerged stronger after that shock just as my school did since the construction was complete.The school had 3 branches in Bhayander.Ladies and gentleman,the ingenuity of the principal (and owner) was so great that all the divisions of a particular grade were spread across the 3 branches ; for example A & B for grade 2 would lie in the west branch while C & D would lie in the east branch and so on.See , I told you , how clever !!! You will come across multiple such instances of "brilliance" as you read through .The school had precisely 13 (the misfortune starts from here itself )classrooms , a gents and a ladies , 1 official staffroom , 1 drinking water section , a storage section which was used later on as an unofficial staff room for the male staff and out of 13 classes one was situated in the building opposite to the main one.So , it used to be a sort of march with all the students lined up to move towards that class.I forgot to mention that we also had a comp lab with 10 odd machines but always only a couple of them or often only one in working condition.We were often told that a couple of them were sent off to serve students in the other branches.As a result , the practical classes practically involved standing in a crowd of 20 and staring with amazement at the computer screen and listening to what the instructor had to say.Such was our first encounter with the Microsofts of the world.The scene in the science lab was no different.The sports period or "PT" period used to be an event not only for the students but also for the residents living around the school busy with their routine.We were used to suspending play because some vehicle needed to find its way or a group of people walked along . At times the cow would have its day and gatecrash in our party and would force us to run for our lives.Just another smart way to ensure that the students (and the teacher) remain physically fit and fine.It was no wonder that we used to rent a big ground from another school for our annual sports meet.
All the facilities mentioned above came with a price tag and quite a big one at that.The fee structure at my school used to be the steepest in town.A minor twist to a retail brand's tag-line and what you get is one that does utmost justice to the bazaar-esque nature of my school : "Is se ghatiya aur mehenga kuch nahi".The school manager's job was that of a collections guy coming to the classrooms and announcing the last date for payment of fees.Once he showed up in a class for the same reason but before he could utter a word , the guy besides me said "we have already paid the fees " :-) .The entire class was in splits except the guy himself who took a slap from the manager.Charges in the name of comp lab fees , science lab fees etc were a part of the monthly fees.The most absurd of them being a "miscellaneous development charge" .The principal - I wud like to call him the owner bcose he was always more of the latter than the former - was the man running the show.All the development charges went to develop a resort @ Uttan which used to be the only MCC camping and also the only picnic stop for students year after year.He also used to rent it out to other schools to make some cool moolah.All things concering him and his family developed except for the school.We were forced to buy a book on English Grammar penned by him , buy uniforms from the vendor with whom he had a tie-up,buy notebooks from the school @ "special" rates, to attend special classes as part of SSC preparations and the list goes on...One thing to his credit was the newspaper reading sessions conducted on a couple of days in a week.It was a first in Mumbai as was reported by TOI at the time.The man also was successful in ensuring that we remained a disciplined lot atleast while he was around.He made his presence felt with a typical perfume that he wore...many of us would still be able to recognise that fragrance.Well leaving all the rules and restrictions aside , our school had more than its fair share of "hooligans"....part of the game i wud say.All said , the things that i miss is stealthily eating tiffins during lectures , that 50 paise chatni pav from aunty, venus ka samosa , that fighting for space with others ( since space used to be a perennial constraint) , those nasty surprises in the name of "Hindi Vyakaran tests" among other things...all in all a very good learning experience that went beyond textbooks and conventional wisdom due to many reasons(pun intended)....anyways its time for me to dine..I will leave you with ur memories of schooling times...as a famous cricketer says in his TV commercial these days ,
"its time to move on"....
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