Haute Potato's School Days
I won my coca cola. Mom had said that if I make it to class 4 entrance test of Salwan Public School, I could have a coke as a reward. I had gone through the class 3 maths book of Salwan with some devotion as preparatory for the entrance test. Perhaps all that was not required. We were tested on a question that required application of division. In the section on English and Hindi, there were fill in the blanks and essays. Mr. Haldar a senior teacher of school took the test. A short list was prepared after the answer sheets had been checked. I was to report to class 4A in the junior wing.
My tryst with Salwan Public School opened a new dimension in my life. My earlier school – Roop Nagar Public School – was at walkable distance from my home at Shakti Nagar. Going to Salwan Public School at Rajinder Nagar meant that we had to travel by the school bus. One spent about an hour going and about an hour coming in the school bus which had kids from different classes, many much younger and many older, traveling together. Traveling by school bus also meant a good amount of Delhi darshan. How else I would have seen the grain mandi of ‘Naya Bazar’, Pul Bangash, Azad Market, Dilli gate, Sita Ram Bazar, Lal Quila, Cannaught Place, Kashmiri Gate, Roshnara Gardens on a daily basis.
We used to travel in charted buses hired by a travel agency named ‘Punja Sahib’. Kids nearer school were ferried by three buses owned by school, which were named ‘mini bus’, ‘new bus’, and ‘buddhi bus’. These buses were driven by ‘maalis’, who used to double as bus drivers. It is interesting how the concept of multi-skilling so much in vogue in industry today, was in practice in a school in 1960s.
Our everyday journey gave us an early insight to roads and routes around Delhi. On occasions when the driver will be new, one of us will become a guide for the bus routes and stops. A sight unforgettable in Delhi of those days was the cinema hoardings. Made in larger than life cutouts they left a big impression on our young minds.
Class 4A was an interesting bunch. Teachers formed an equally engaging lot. We had Ms. Singh teaching us social studies, Ms Kapoor teaching Science, Mrs. Wig teaching maths. Mrs. Wagh was the music teacher and keeping her company was a gentleman who will play tabla and speak very little. We later on came to know that he was also the dance teacher. We also had a lady sports teacher who shielded us from the might of Mr. Bhardwaj and Mr. Dube for whom sports only meant mass PT (something that was utterly disliked by all kids).
I have only a faint recollection of the initial two months before the summer break. Ms. Singh had this endearing quality of calling me ‘Sanju’ – the first time I recollect any one calling me so. Mrs. Wig the maths teacher was prevailed upon by students to tell us a story. What a wonderful story teller she was! She told us the story in hindi of ‘The Mill on the Floss’ and ‘The House of Wax’ as I later discovered. I don’t remember much of the 2 months, as a big change was set to happen after the summer break both in terms of class composition and the faculty.
After the summer break we discovered that a number of teachers had changed. Mrs. Wig probably retired. Ms. Singh left. Mrs. Sharma was our new maths teacher. Soon enough there was a big reshuffle in the class. Most of the students of class 4A were sent to 4B and many from 4B came to our section.
Prominent new comers to 4A were Atul Bagai, the studious kid with specs, who was the class topper, and others, namely, Rajiv Bagai, Charanjeet Singh (called Charna), Arun Ohri, and Deepak Bhatnagar (called Bhatta).
The class also had dominating presence of three little ladies – Poonam Trikha, Neelam Mahajan, and Neeru Seth. Usually girl students in a co-ed class tend to be mild, submissive lot. But not this trio. Neeru Seth matched boys in her wit and talking abilities.
Shortly we were joined by a new teacher Mrs. Nanda, who taught us English and was also our new class teacher. Along with Mrs. Nanda came Ashish, her son. Mrs. Nanda had one of the biggest impacts on me. An extra ordinarily good natured person – she had a motherly demeanor. A wonderful teacher, she was ever encouraging and provided a degree of comfort to our small worlds.
Ashish did not wear specs then. His first claim to fame in class 4A was his recitation of a hindi poem he had learnt in his earlier school. I still recall its words :
‘Mote Lala chale bazaar
Haath me pakde thaile chaar
Mota thul thul unka pet
Jaise ho India ka gate
Lala chalte ludhak ludhak kar
Munna bhaage fudak fudak kar
Badi sadak par zara thahar kar
Lala ji ne kela khaya
Kela kha kar, munh bichka kar
Chhilke ko phir wahin giraya
Paon badha kar jyon hi rakhha
Paon ke neeche chhilka aya
Chhilke ke bal Lala phisle
Badi sadak par gire dhadam
Haddi pasli dono tuti
Munh se nikla hai Raam’
Ashish will present this poem complete with enactment. It soon became one of the biggest hits in class 4A. At the end of the poem the entire class will shout in unison ‘hai Raam’.
The new class 4A had a very good mix. We had studious lot like Atul, Ashish was just coming up then. He had promised his mother that he will try to come first and nearly made it in the end. Second in class 4, and had to wait for a year before topping in class in 5. Ashish and I sat together in class 4, and chose each other to write the essay on ‘Best friend’. There were portents of future in young Ashish. I remember Mrs. Nanda telling us the difference between ‘dear’ and ‘deer’ in a class and asking students to make sentences to bring out the difference, when Ashish came out with this original one, “Dear, deer is very dear’.
Deepak Bhatnagar – Bhatta – was ahead of us in his interests. Best in the class in sports – he had this able lieutenant – Arun Ohri , who led the bunch comprising Rajeev Bagai and Charna, and was the biggest fan of Bhatta. Bhatta was good in athletics and had won 1st prize in races and such events which were a part of our annual calendar. Bhatnagar was also a great one in telling stories. He would be the constant source of film stories – some real some imaginary – that ended in us being thrown out of the class in punishment.
There were other interesting characters – Adiesh Jain and Kuldeep who were remarkably chubby. I was once a witness to a fight between the two. It was a fight in slow motion. Still I did not realize why kids should not be afraid of bullies in the lower classes who have weight advantage. The correct strategy was shown by Sunil Kurana my class buddy in VC. The approach to take on an overweight kid is simple – ‘hit and run’. It is impossible for a chubby kid to run after you and catch you. Soon the overweight kids will give up and start avoiding you.
It would be impossible to end class 4A experience without remembering B Umesh, Jaiveer Srivastava (who also joind school in class 4) and Shashank. Shashank and I knew each other before I joined Salwan as both his mother and my mother taught in Daulat Ram College, and I joined Salwan because Shashank was in it. Shashank had picked me in his essay on best friend and I felt guilty when I wrote Ashish in mine. Shashank had written that not only us but our mothers are best friends too.
My tryst with Salwan Public School opened a new dimension in my life. My earlier school – Roop Nagar Public School – was at walkable distance from my home at Shakti Nagar. Going to Salwan Public School at Rajinder Nagar meant that we had to travel by the school bus. One spent about an hour going and about an hour coming in the school bus which had kids from different classes, many much younger and many older, traveling together. Traveling by school bus also meant a good amount of Delhi darshan. How else I would have seen the grain mandi of ‘Naya Bazar’, Pul Bangash, Azad Market, Dilli gate, Sita Ram Bazar, Lal Quila, Cannaught Place, Kashmiri Gate, Roshnara Gardens on a daily basis.
We used to travel in charted buses hired by a travel agency named ‘Punja Sahib’. Kids nearer school were ferried by three buses owned by school, which were named ‘mini bus’, ‘new bus’, and ‘buddhi bus’. These buses were driven by ‘maalis’, who used to double as bus drivers. It is interesting how the concept of multi-skilling so much in vogue in industry today, was in practice in a school in 1960s.
Our everyday journey gave us an early insight to roads and routes around Delhi. On occasions when the driver will be new, one of us will become a guide for the bus routes and stops. A sight unforgettable in Delhi of those days was the cinema hoardings. Made in larger than life cutouts they left a big impression on our young minds.
Class 4A was an interesting bunch. Teachers formed an equally engaging lot. We had Ms. Singh teaching us social studies, Ms Kapoor teaching Science, Mrs. Wig teaching maths. Mrs. Wagh was the music teacher and keeping her company was a gentleman who will play tabla and speak very little. We later on came to know that he was also the dance teacher. We also had a lady sports teacher who shielded us from the might of Mr. Bhardwaj and Mr. Dube for whom sports only meant mass PT (something that was utterly disliked by all kids).
I have only a faint recollection of the initial two months before the summer break. Ms. Singh had this endearing quality of calling me ‘Sanju’ – the first time I recollect any one calling me so. Mrs. Wig the maths teacher was prevailed upon by students to tell us a story. What a wonderful story teller she was! She told us the story in hindi of ‘The Mill on the Floss’ and ‘The House of Wax’ as I later discovered. I don’t remember much of the 2 months, as a big change was set to happen after the summer break both in terms of class composition and the faculty.
After the summer break we discovered that a number of teachers had changed. Mrs. Wig probably retired. Ms. Singh left. Mrs. Sharma was our new maths teacher. Soon enough there was a big reshuffle in the class. Most of the students of class 4A were sent to 4B and many from 4B came to our section.
Prominent new comers to 4A were Atul Bagai, the studious kid with specs, who was the class topper, and others, namely, Rajiv Bagai, Charanjeet Singh (called Charna), Arun Ohri, and Deepak Bhatnagar (called Bhatta).
The class also had dominating presence of three little ladies – Poonam Trikha, Neelam Mahajan, and Neeru Seth. Usually girl students in a co-ed class tend to be mild, submissive lot. But not this trio. Neeru Seth matched boys in her wit and talking abilities.
Shortly we were joined by a new teacher Mrs. Nanda, who taught us English and was also our new class teacher. Along with Mrs. Nanda came Ashish, her son. Mrs. Nanda had one of the biggest impacts on me. An extra ordinarily good natured person – she had a motherly demeanor. A wonderful teacher, she was ever encouraging and provided a degree of comfort to our small worlds.
Ashish did not wear specs then. His first claim to fame in class 4A was his recitation of a hindi poem he had learnt in his earlier school. I still recall its words :
‘Mote Lala chale bazaar
Haath me pakde thaile chaar
Mota thul thul unka pet
Jaise ho India ka gate
Lala chalte ludhak ludhak kar
Munna bhaage fudak fudak kar
Badi sadak par zara thahar kar
Lala ji ne kela khaya
Kela kha kar, munh bichka kar
Chhilke ko phir wahin giraya
Paon badha kar jyon hi rakhha
Paon ke neeche chhilka aya
Chhilke ke bal Lala phisle
Badi sadak par gire dhadam
Haddi pasli dono tuti
Munh se nikla hai Raam’
Ashish will present this poem complete with enactment. It soon became one of the biggest hits in class 4A. At the end of the poem the entire class will shout in unison ‘hai Raam’.
The new class 4A had a very good mix. We had studious lot like Atul, Ashish was just coming up then. He had promised his mother that he will try to come first and nearly made it in the end. Second in class 4, and had to wait for a year before topping in class in 5. Ashish and I sat together in class 4, and chose each other to write the essay on ‘Best friend’. There were portents of future in young Ashish. I remember Mrs. Nanda telling us the difference between ‘dear’ and ‘deer’ in a class and asking students to make sentences to bring out the difference, when Ashish came out with this original one, “Dear, deer is very dear’.
Deepak Bhatnagar – Bhatta – was ahead of us in his interests. Best in the class in sports – he had this able lieutenant – Arun Ohri , who led the bunch comprising Rajeev Bagai and Charna, and was the biggest fan of Bhatta. Bhatta was good in athletics and had won 1st prize in races and such events which were a part of our annual calendar. Bhatnagar was also a great one in telling stories. He would be the constant source of film stories – some real some imaginary – that ended in us being thrown out of the class in punishment.
There were other interesting characters – Adiesh Jain and Kuldeep who were remarkably chubby. I was once a witness to a fight between the two. It was a fight in slow motion. Still I did not realize why kids should not be afraid of bullies in the lower classes who have weight advantage. The correct strategy was shown by Sunil Kurana my class buddy in VC. The approach to take on an overweight kid is simple – ‘hit and run’. It is impossible for a chubby kid to run after you and catch you. Soon the overweight kids will give up and start avoiding you.
It would be impossible to end class 4A experience without remembering B Umesh, Jaiveer Srivastava (who also joind school in class 4) and Shashank. Shashank and I knew each other before I joined Salwan as both his mother and my mother taught in Daulat Ram College, and I joined Salwan because Shashank was in it. Shashank had picked me in his essay on best friend and I felt guilty when I wrote Ashish in mine. Shashank had written that not only us but our mothers are best friends too.
posted by haute potato at 10:43 PM
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