THAT WAS THE LAST TIME
We humans tend to have a funny memory system, a brain that tends to forget most
of the things that happened but instead chooses to remember certain select
episodes or moments from the past.
Statistically speaking, I have spent 13,870 days from the time I was born till I
hit 38, that’s enormous number of days and nights that has elapsed but
surprisingly very few have left behind memories worth remembering. There is one
episode that’s worth sharing with all you fellows from SVTS 84 batch that has
remained with me and hopefully will for a long time, unless of course I end up
with Alzheimer’s like so many these days.
It was a fine spring evening in 1984 and our written exams that we studied so
hard for had come to an end, also worth celebrating was the joy of finally
walking away from a life of a Boarder lived in captivity. It was like any new
found freedom, the joys and thrills of experiencing it all for the first time.
Today it looks so mundane to stay out late, to have a cigarette, to go out and
see a movie, but then it was a different time in a different spatial dimension.
It’s very hard to express the true feelings and I guess you can only know what I
am talking about if you have lived through that.
Anyways coming back to my story, we were having our shower in the bathing room ,
one side of the wall faced the road and across the road was a three storied
building that housed various classrooms , on the third floor we had the Brothers
quarters. In one of them facing us down directly lived this gigantic Irish guy
called Br. Hughes. He was indeed huge with a towering 6ft 4 big built. To us
puny 15 year olds he definitely came off as a monster from another world.
It so happened that while we were having our shower, Stuart Grocer was passing
by the road walking with a couple of girls. I don’t recall who they were, but if
I correctly remember one of them was Peter Manion’s sister, Judy. I need not
describe you all how Judy looked, because I am sure we all know it. Wink wink
Nudge nudge!!!. As these girls passed our window they looked and giggled.
We at that point of time were in nothing but our bare minimum when someone from
us spotted them walk along. What do you expect will happen next, some of us who
had a reputation and penchant for trouble making got very excited and jumped up
on the window making noises and hanging on the window sills. The noise level
crossed all levels and I think at one point of time we were just monkeys. I must
add here, that the girls on the road were having great fun watching us perform
and giggling like crazy.
I recall, Alok was the good boy and he along with a few others had finished
their shower and had not taken part in the jamboree. They were getting ready to
go, when we in the shower room saw Br. Hugh step out in a white vest and looked
down at us. I distinctly remember, seeing him come out of the room, take a look
at the happenings below, walks back in, and grabs a shirt and a cane and started
walking down.
By then, we knew what was in store for us. We tried to hurry and get out, but
too god dammed late. We were all wet when he walked in.
Now here is the funny part, he walked in and got hold of Alok and caned him near
the door (poor fellow did not do a thing) and then came to all of us and told us
to line up wet underpants that too.
Now you must not forget that class 10 guys generally did not get caned. This man
was angry as hell, I don’t remember what he said but we were all caned about 2
-3 shots each. They were also the hardest hit. Now when he told us to line up,
Alok came back and stood in the line and got it twice. Now why would he do that,
why should someone get punished twice for a crime he did not commit?
So we got caned too bad for behaving like monkeys, but the story did not end
there. We were all very upset that evening with Br. Hughes for behaving like
that and also with Grocer and the girls for walking down a road that was forever
out of bounds for Girls when we men used to have our shower. To add insult to
the injury, I think we were banned from going out to town that evening.
We met our Beloved Br. Parton and spoke to him about that, and like so many
times before, he must have sympathized with us , because he let us go to town.
I think we all went to bed that night very angry with what had happened to us.
Today after 21 years sometimes I feel I don’t mind doing exactly what we did
then , jumping on the window sills, making catcalls and getting caned just to go
back to where we once belonged, all of us together.
Dtd: Oct 12th 2005
Sabyasachi Chakravarty
Batch – ICSE 84
(This article taken from Weblog : http://stvincent1984.blogspot.com/