So glad to have been nurtured in times when a "teacher's remark" in the school calendar and asking for Dad's signature wasn't "cool"; instead, it evoked much FEAR and has been one of the vital "nutrients" to shape the man in me! By the way, this was that time of the year when we waited with bated breath for "picnic" announcements to happen! Holding hands with a friend having the roll number after mine and "calculating" whether I would get a window seat in the bus was simply thrilling! Even a one-dayer within LUSH GREEN (those were the days!) environs of the Aarey Milk Colony, Vihar/Powai Lake or the Picnic Spot was so much fun!

Wish I never grew up! Miss you St Theresas. Sorely miss Linking Road in days of yore, long before the likes of KFC and McDonalds happened!

As a student, I always felt that rankers were PERFECT in every sphere: they scored exceptional grades, got an exemption from the final exam, made good Monitors, their names never appeared on the board for 'talking' in class and most importantly they would always be ahead in life, while others would struggle. Though, now I see, how life has lessons to teach beyond walls of the closeted classroom: it takes so much more than a rank and degree to be successful (and humbly rooted to where it all started!)

And how we cared a damn about everything else when girls from Durelo Convent held sports rehearsals on our playground! We were the cheerleaders, eh!

‎1980s. At this time of the year, term exams ended and on the last day of the exam, the moment the bell rang, all boys ran out of the classrooms and screamed, "WE WON HOLIDAY!" HAHAHA....the entire atmosphere was charged and most of us headed towards the school ground or the Patwardhan Park for a game of cricket where we played to our hearts content late into the afternoon!

‎1990. Class VII. Mrs.Shakuntala Hegde was my class teacher. She taught English, dressed elegantly and carried herself with much dignity. A proponent of self-discipline, she always maintained that ''discipline cannot be enforced; it needs to come from within''. 20 years later, I see what she meant; indeed, English is NOT a phoney language!