A Daddy's Boy

I would like to share with you why I studied in an English medium school. To know this you have to turn the clock back to the time when my father was a Professor at Hooghly Mohsin College. We lived in Chinsurah. 

He studied in a village called Nimtita in Murshidabad district. The place was made famous by the legendary Satyajit Ray when he shot his fourth film Jalsaghar there at Nimtita Rajbadi. 

My father stood tenth in the Matriculation examination and stood first in the district. Naturally with this background he wanted to admit me to Chinsurah Duff School. The best Bengali medium school there.

But surprise surprise. My mother didn't want this to happen. She hailed from Nagpur where she had studied at Providence Girls' High School a renowned English medium school. 

My mother had said her son will study in an English medium school. There was a truce. And peace and happiness came back. 

I was admitted to Auxilium Convent School at Bandel. Founded by the Salesian Sisters in 1951. Then it was the only English medium school in that area. I used to travel there by the school bus. Now it is a girls' school. But then boys studied in the primary section till Classes-4. 

There's another background to my admission at Auxilium Convent School. Earlier to my admission we used to live in the older part of Chinsurah closer to the Hooghly river. One of my daily rituals was to wake up and see from our first floor flat students of Auxilium Convent coming from Naihati which is bang on the opposite side of the river and going to school. In case I was sleeping then I used to be waken up so that I don't miss them. 

With this at the back of my mind we shifted to a better house and started living on the ground floor. On the first floor lived a family where the son studied at Auxilium Convent in a higher class. We became very good friends though he used to beat me a lot. 

I have fond memories of my first school. But after a couple of years my father was transferred to Darjeeling and I got admitted to Mount Hermon School. The boy on the first floor also took admission there and stayed at the hostel and completed his schooling from there. 

 I will leave that for another day.