…Down the memory lane

Remembering Gnana Bodhini Primary School

An Article written on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of my primary school Gnana bodhini School in 2016 – It was published in the school’s golden jubilee magazine.

Gnana Bodhini School Motto

Holiness Through Wisdom

Chandrashekar B U, Gnanabodhini 7^th Std 1982 batch, M.E, (ECE), Senior Staff Engineer, Synopsys

I feel privileged to pen this article for the memoir commemorating the golden jubilee celebrations of Gnanabodhini school. I studied from 2^nd standard until 7^th standard from 1976 through 1982 in Gnanabodhini English medium school. Innumerable delightful reminiscences are embedded within my memory from those years. The morning assembly, our school band, the affectionate faces of our beloved sisters and teachers, all the students, most of who are still in contact and many of them are still my best friends, father Archie and his memorable songs, the church and the grape orchard behind the church, the magnificent trees below which we shared our lunch boxes with friends, Nadan and driver Lakshman, the list is virtually endless.

With deep gratitude, I would like to express my sincerest appreciation on behalf of all my fellow Gnanabodhini students to teachers and staff of the school for nurturing our childhood throughout our primary school life. The school provided a conducive, encouraging and comfortably relaxed learning environment for us. Under the caring, dedicated and virtuous leadership of the school’s wonderful teachers, I am humbled, yet happy that most of us from the school today have blossomed and flourished as respectable individuals following the disciplined path of hard work, dedication, honesty & integrity and yet being fun-loving, enthusiastic, passionate and humble. All these traits were powerfully planted way back in Gnanabodhini. We are indebted to the school forever for building a generation of global citizens that India will be proud to call as its model progeny.

I have numerous anecdotes to share about my teachers, and let me start by honouring some of the names that I can recollect: Sisters Doreen, Anne, Van sister Jumma, Jessy, Immaculate, Antonette, Vinola, Gracia, Eva, Teachers Celine, Babitha, Rita, James, Lucy, Leena, Juliana, ….

I want to share one instance with you which shows how deep we were bonded with our teachers. Mother Doreen, who was our head mistress had to leave our school to take up higher responsibilities elsewhere, sometime in late 1970s. It was mother Doreen’s farewell and she was standing on the stage holding a bouquet presented by some children. All the students, as part of the farewell plan, started to sing a song, to the tune of the Hindi song “Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai, Maujonki Ravaani Hai” (एक प्यार का नगमा है, मौजो की रवानी है). The lyrics were different, in Kannada:

ಇಂದು ನಮ್ಮನ್ ಅಗಲುವಿರಾ? ಬಹು ದೂರ ತೆರಳುವಿರಾ? ನಿಮ್ಮನ್- ನಾವು, ನಮ್ಮನ್- ನೀವು ಅಗಲಲೇ ಬೇಕಾಯ್ತು.

(Are you parting far away from us today? We comprehend that it is unavoidable, …)

The song was sung exceptionally by the students without missing a musical note, which is the hallmark of any cultural event in Gnanabodhini even today, but somewhere in the middle of the song, tears had started flowing down all of our cheeks without realization. Mother Doreen, who was our driving force, who stood as the symbol of courage and determination of Gnanabodhini school, broke down, weeping uncontrollably. All the students were also crying, as though they are being separated from their own mother. I have never witnessed such an emotional farewell elsewhere in my life until now. One cannot even imagine or picture this relation or attachment unless they studied in our school in that era. You can probably relate this through a quote by Carl Jung: “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”

Shannon L Alder said “The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn’t know about yourself.” My handwriting was bad, and I believed I can never improve. Thank you, my favourite Celine teacher, you knew it otherwise, so you made me write two pages of copy writing every day. I still have your handwriting which I am proud of. Come on, I am quite good at Mathematics too because of your foundation and have an electronics masters degree from IISc!

Thank you, Immaculate sister, to correct the spelling of the word cought as caught in 4^th standard, sitting in that school bus garage which acted as a make-shift class, sometime in 1978. Ever since, it is imperative for me to make sure that I don’t make any spelling mistakes and by the way, I also I have been a good wicket keeper and seldom missed any caught behinds. That Higher English text book that we followed would make any British primary school ashamed. English teaching was, I am definitely not exaggerating, world class in our school.

Thank you Sr. Antonette and Sr. Jessy, for making us remember the poetry verses easily by converting them into tunes and sing them to us so that they could be easily sung and therefore remembered. I still remember the tunes of “बारबार आती है मुझको मधुर याद बचपन तेरी” and “Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass!”

 “You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.” quoted the American Author J. D. Salinger. This aptly applies to everybody’s beloved Babitha teacher. She showed everyone that you can instill discipline in children without punishing, with just lots of love.

While these memories inside the school form one part of my wonderful childhood, the other part is time spent inside and outside the school with friends. I remember climbing the Badam (Indian Walnut) tree in the school to pick up and eat fresh Badams straight from the source.

While returning from the school, there was a railway track on which we used to stick a 10 paise coin using bubble gum or wetted tamarind and wait for the train to pass over it and enjoy showing off the smashed elongated coin to other friends.

Moving ahead besides the railway track was a cactus bush from which we used to pick those pink fruits, dissect them using, of all things, a blade, we used to keep to sharpen pencils (we never used pencil sharpeners) and eat them, being careful that the mother thorn within the fruit does not pierce the tongue.

The tongue would be coated so pink, and sticking out that pink tongue to astound others was another amusement! The tongue would be coated orange or green also during other times, this time when we licked that corresponding colored ice candy we purchased from the push cart ice candy vendor. There was one friend who could catch a garden lizard live, crucify it on a wooden board and dissect it while the poor thing was still alive and show its heart beat for a few seconds before it eventually died. I know now you are expressing disgust or pity but that used to be such an immense affair which every kid used to watch with gaping eyes without blinking their eyelid even for a moment!

Watching today’s commercialized educational institutions, Gnanabodhini stands out as an outlier and a pioneer in providing impeccable world-class education and ethical ideals at affordable cost for every child, be it poor or rich, or belonging to any faith, right from the 1960s until present day.

Let the torch of Gnanabodhini School blaze forever!

And light the whole world with its radiance!!

JAI HIND!!!