I attended the SJBHS sesquicentennial, that’s Latin for 150 years. It was a bittersweet experience. There was a huge turnout and it brought back a lot of memories. Met some old mates whom I last saw as gangling teenagers with bulging Adam’s apples. There was a reunion on Friday. Basically a lot of old fogies droning on about the school. You’d think they’d have learned basic oratory skills in 150 years. It was fucking painful. Arjun Rao didn’t turn up so Manu and I had to sit and heckle all by ourselves. Manu is now Mannnnu or something now, by the way. Some astrology thing. But other than that nothing much changed. Nandan sat stoic and dignified and clapped at all the right places. Thomas gave him company. The function on the whole was really quite sad. They had these spastic looking drawings of cherubs holding torches pinned onto Styrofoam and cellotaped to the walls. The backdrop to the stage looked like it was made for a Zilla Panchayat meeting and of course, the star of the evening, Rahul Dravid was there with his hair neatly combed and parted. The only guy who makes more boring post-match comments than Azhar and we had to get him as our celeb guest. Brrddhiuh Brrrrrhhhwwhn Berrrhiufhdui… thank you. Several old OBA guys spent a lot of time in obsequious fawning of Dravid and one in particular, some Jimmy Anklewhatever, made a plaintive speech about how he would go on his ‘hands and knees’ to raise funds for the OBA. I’ve been subsequently told that Jimmy does a lot of good for the OBA and help raise funds for old teachers and attenders. So I take back what I said. Good on you Jimmy. Thomas, Mannnnu and I went and got a drink at the nearby Tavern on Museum Road where we scrapped plans to attend the Blue & White ‘Bash’ solely on account of the stupid name. A bash? What the fuck? What am I, eight? Kuncheria had a Bangalore style ‘house party’ the next day after he and Merril put their baby to sleep. It was great. He had some strong sangria and brilliant food. And I banged my Dad’s car in the fuckin rain. Sunday was the big OBA breakfast and group photograph. I went there fully expecting it to blow. But it wasn’t half-bad, to be honest. I’d gotten beyond being judgemental about the aesthetics of the building, the signage, the t-shirts and was actually enjoying renewing 15 year old ties. There were a lot of guys from the batch. Govardhan, Karna Patil, Blackout Rajiv, Srinivas ‘Rags’ Ramanujam, Vishal Kumar, Tashi Luke, Nandan, Grenold, Thomas, Mannnnnu and self. Attended mass. Sang the school song. And … ok I’ll admit it, the rising chorus gave me a lump in the throat. Even though I still can’t figure what ‘Evil’s onset hold in defiance’ means. Then for the next hour, it was like being in 9C, 10C again. The Pavillion. Abu’s canteen. (Hersha Pomai still owes him 740 rupees). The new building, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, is a pile of shit. Nandan says we’re needlessly romanticizing the past and the old rooms were dungeons. Said the education scene isn’t the same anymore and SJBHS had to make these improvements to keep up with the Jains. Paying the teachers more would be a start. Allright, allright. To me, however, what made Joseph’s great was its heritage and the quality of its teaching staff. The heritage, they’ve pissed all over with this new Philomena’s Hospital for a school. Fucking Sabeer Bhatia wing! Could our dotcom billionaire be a little less Punjabi about it? No. And the teaching staff, there still remains some of the old guard. Committed teachers like Gowri Mirlay have stuck on. But I wonder how many of the new teachers match up to that calibre. With 15k- 20k p.m. salaries, it’s little wonder. There are carpenters who get paid more than that! I’m all for the corporate world taking over schools. It’ll inflate school fees but that’s the price you have to pay for good education. My verdict on the education system in India is that great schools like SJBHS are, sadly past their prime. They will never measure up to the quality of their glory years. And this is not just nostalgia speaking. The future will be a Harrow/ Eton franchise that makes education a money-spinning industry and hopefully result in some decent schools we can send our kids to. It may not be immediate and it will take a lot more than mere faith and toil.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Evil’s onset hold in defiance
It’s been a crazy few weeks. The Priyanka Chopra shoot is finally over. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. There’s been bombs in Delhi. School re-unions. Liverpool finally beat United and Amitabh Bachhan is doing Shakespeare, just to give you an idea of the zeitgeist. The bombers – the mujahiddeen or some pissed off fundamentalist outfit say they’re mad at the Hindutva nuts who were responsible for the carnage in Gujarat. I get that. What I don’t get is how it makes sense to bomb some poor aunties out shopping in Karol Bagh. Bomb the BJP HQ. Bump off Advani or Vajpayee or Modi. That’s the logical thing to do.
I attended the SJBHS sesquicentennial, that’s Latin for 150 years. It was a bittersweet experience. There was a huge turnout and it brought back a lot of memories. Met some old mates whom I last saw as gangling teenagers with bulging Adam’s apples. There was a reunion on Friday. Basically a lot of old fogies droning on about the school. You’d think they’d have learned basic oratory skills in 150 years. It was fucking painful. Arjun Rao didn’t turn up so Manu and I had to sit and heckle all by ourselves. Manu is now Mannnnu or something now, by the way. Some astrology thing. But other than that nothing much changed. Nandan sat stoic and dignified and clapped at all the right places. Thomas gave him company. The function on the whole was really quite sad. They had these spastic looking drawings of cherubs holding torches pinned onto Styrofoam and cellotaped to the walls. The backdrop to the stage looked like it was made for a Zilla Panchayat meeting and of course, the star of the evening, Rahul Dravid was there with his hair neatly combed and parted. The only guy who makes more boring post-match comments than Azhar and we had to get him as our celeb guest. Brrddhiuh Brrrrrhhhwwhn Berrrhiufhdui… thank you. Several old OBA guys spent a lot of time in obsequious fawning of Dravid and one in particular, some Jimmy Anklewhatever, made a plaintive speech about how he would go on his ‘hands and knees’ to raise funds for the OBA. I’ve been subsequently told that Jimmy does a lot of good for the OBA and help raise funds for old teachers and attenders. So I take back what I said. Good on you Jimmy. Thomas, Mannnnu and I went and got a drink at the nearby Tavern on Museum Road where we scrapped plans to attend the Blue & White ‘Bash’ solely on account of the stupid name. A bash? What the fuck? What am I, eight? Kuncheria had a Bangalore style ‘house party’ the next day after he and Merril put their baby to sleep. It was great. He had some strong sangria and brilliant food. And I banged my Dad’s car in the fuckin rain. Sunday was the big OBA breakfast and group photograph. I went there fully expecting it to blow. But it wasn’t half-bad, to be honest. I’d gotten beyond being judgemental about the aesthetics of the building, the signage, the t-shirts and was actually enjoying renewing 15 year old ties. There were a lot of guys from the batch. Govardhan, Karna Patil, Blackout Rajiv, Srinivas ‘Rags’ Ramanujam, Vishal Kumar, Tashi Luke, Nandan, Grenold, Thomas, Mannnnnu and self. Attended mass. Sang the school song. And … ok I’ll admit it, the rising chorus gave me a lump in the throat. Even though I still can’t figure what ‘Evil’s onset hold in defiance’ means. Then for the next hour, it was like being in 9C, 10C again. The Pavillion. Abu’s canteen. (Hersha Pomai still owes him 740 rupees). The new building, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, is a pile of shit. Nandan says we’re needlessly romanticizing the past and the old rooms were dungeons. Said the education scene isn’t the same anymore and SJBHS had to make these improvements to keep up with the Jains. Paying the teachers more would be a start. Allright, allright. To me, however, what made Joseph’s great was its heritage and the quality of its teaching staff. The heritage, they’ve pissed all over with this new Philomena’s Hospital for a school. Fucking Sabeer Bhatia wing! Could our dotcom billionaire be a little less Punjabi about it? No. And the teaching staff, there still remains some of the old guard. Committed teachers like Gowri Mirlay have stuck on. But I wonder how many of the new teachers match up to that calibre. With 15k- 20k p.m. salaries, it’s little wonder. There are carpenters who get paid more than that! I’m all for the corporate world taking over schools. It’ll inflate school fees but that’s the price you have to pay for good education. My verdict on the education system in India is that great schools like SJBHS are, sadly past their prime. They will never measure up to the quality of their glory years. And this is not just nostalgia speaking. The future will be a Harrow/ Eton franchise that makes education a money-spinning industry and hopefully result in some decent schools we can send our kids to. It may not be immediate and it will take a lot more than mere faith and toil.
I attended the SJBHS sesquicentennial, that’s Latin for 150 years. It was a bittersweet experience. There was a huge turnout and it brought back a lot of memories. Met some old mates whom I last saw as gangling teenagers with bulging Adam’s apples. There was a reunion on Friday. Basically a lot of old fogies droning on about the school. You’d think they’d have learned basic oratory skills in 150 years. It was fucking painful. Arjun Rao didn’t turn up so Manu and I had to sit and heckle all by ourselves. Manu is now Mannnnu or something now, by the way. Some astrology thing. But other than that nothing much changed. Nandan sat stoic and dignified and clapped at all the right places. Thomas gave him company. The function on the whole was really quite sad. They had these spastic looking drawings of cherubs holding torches pinned onto Styrofoam and cellotaped to the walls. The backdrop to the stage looked like it was made for a Zilla Panchayat meeting and of course, the star of the evening, Rahul Dravid was there with his hair neatly combed and parted. The only guy who makes more boring post-match comments than Azhar and we had to get him as our celeb guest. Brrddhiuh Brrrrrhhhwwhn Berrrhiufhdui… thank you. Several old OBA guys spent a lot of time in obsequious fawning of Dravid and one in particular, some Jimmy Anklewhatever, made a plaintive speech about how he would go on his ‘hands and knees’ to raise funds for the OBA. I’ve been subsequently told that Jimmy does a lot of good for the OBA and help raise funds for old teachers and attenders. So I take back what I said. Good on you Jimmy. Thomas, Mannnnu and I went and got a drink at the nearby Tavern on Museum Road where we scrapped plans to attend the Blue & White ‘Bash’ solely on account of the stupid name. A bash? What the fuck? What am I, eight? Kuncheria had a Bangalore style ‘house party’ the next day after he and Merril put their baby to sleep. It was great. He had some strong sangria and brilliant food. And I banged my Dad’s car in the fuckin rain. Sunday was the big OBA breakfast and group photograph. I went there fully expecting it to blow. But it wasn’t half-bad, to be honest. I’d gotten beyond being judgemental about the aesthetics of the building, the signage, the t-shirts and was actually enjoying renewing 15 year old ties. There were a lot of guys from the batch. Govardhan, Karna Patil, Blackout Rajiv, Srinivas ‘Rags’ Ramanujam, Vishal Kumar, Tashi Luke, Nandan, Grenold, Thomas, Mannnnnu and self. Attended mass. Sang the school song. And … ok I’ll admit it, the rising chorus gave me a lump in the throat. Even though I still can’t figure what ‘Evil’s onset hold in defiance’ means. Then for the next hour, it was like being in 9C, 10C again. The Pavillion. Abu’s canteen. (Hersha Pomai still owes him 740 rupees). The new building, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, is a pile of shit. Nandan says we’re needlessly romanticizing the past and the old rooms were dungeons. Said the education scene isn’t the same anymore and SJBHS had to make these improvements to keep up with the Jains. Paying the teachers more would be a start. Allright, allright. To me, however, what made Joseph’s great was its heritage and the quality of its teaching staff. The heritage, they’ve pissed all over with this new Philomena’s Hospital for a school. Fucking Sabeer Bhatia wing! Could our dotcom billionaire be a little less Punjabi about it? No. And the teaching staff, there still remains some of the old guard. Committed teachers like Gowri Mirlay have stuck on. But I wonder how many of the new teachers match up to that calibre. With 15k- 20k p.m. salaries, it’s little wonder. There are carpenters who get paid more than that! I’m all for the corporate world taking over schools. It’ll inflate school fees but that’s the price you have to pay for good education. My verdict on the education system in India is that great schools like SJBHS are, sadly past their prime. They will never measure up to the quality of their glory years. And this is not just nostalgia speaking. The future will be a Harrow/ Eton franchise that makes education a money-spinning industry and hopefully result in some decent schools we can send our kids to. It may not be immediate and it will take a lot more than mere faith and toil.
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6 comments:
ha ha ha still the same nirmal. very accurate and scathing view of the school. i'm not the nostalgic type but i couldn't agree with youmore on the new building etc damn disgrace.
old abu still around?
"a Zilla Panchayat meeting "
rofl
what does Evil’s onset hold in defiance mean anyway?
Dude josephs is the place where alcoholics anonymous hangs out on sundays. that's your claim to fame. cottonion for life.
"cott -ONION ?" Tsk tsk. Nec dextrorsum,nec sinistrosum didnt learn to spell some.
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