Thursday, September 20, 2012

Our School Baranagore Ramkrishna Mission Ashram

 Our school " Baranagore Ramkrishna Mission Ashram"( BRKM) founded in the late 18th if not then dawn of 19th century, some expert comment on Swami Vivekananda's presence  on the foundation day, he probably took a boat ride from belur moth to Kuthi ghat or Ratan babur ghat to come to our school.  Those of you who are not familiar with the exact location; it's on Gopal Lal Thakur Road which is  a good 20 min walk from Sinthir More towards Baranagore Bazar and not too far from Ganga.The place barangore might be less familiar to the new generation but this place was blessed with plenty of stalwarts like Thakur Ramkrishnadev, swami vivekakanda, keshav chandra sen and sister nivedita. To write me a blog about our school is not easy since so many fragments from the past involved and it's been a long 20 years as well. But lets see what can i do my best and my schoolmates will help me on this as well i hope.As, It's a long journey and there's so many memoirs that i need to pluck them in several short ones i guess


1. about the school = during our time( as there's a lot of change took place as of today) there were 2 big buildings primarily teaching units, ashram, playground,a charitable clinic, nursery, mandir, boarding house, lawn, garden and lots and lots of trees, flowers and greenery. even in the heart of a densely crowded concrete jungle locality our school campus was like an oasis. The campus was pretty well maintained and the students had basic amenities but never pampered with any luxuries. we loved it that way.

2. Our head sir / Maharaj ji= during our time Head sir was always maharaj appointed by the Ramkrishna mission headquarter from Belur Moth. Initially we were under the tutelage of "Swami Girijatmananda" and then later under " Swami Biswanathananda". Both of them were highly educated, hard working and a strict disciplinary type of person. we normally find our heart beat always faster even if any minute chances we overlap with them by good or bad reason. There was an another maharaj from ashram " swami Nityarupananda" who was very soft spoken, gentle type of person and always offered us with candies whenever we bumped onto him at his office.

3. our teachers= Being honest i have  very few names mentionworthy. The first face which appears in my mind is our bangla teacher" Sadhan da". The word teacher perfectly fits his personality, i never came across someone nicer mentor than him in my life. I don't need to explain anything about him i guess, my batchmates who knows him the name speaks all. He left us long ago probaly a good 15 years atleast but he will be with us as long we live.Then  SKG1 our math teacher a tuff  shelled person but soft inside , subhas da who had a  prolific knowledge in english literature and the one who was my inspiration to distinguish between a good and a bad taste in literature and reading habit, i use to took private tution from him as well in class XI and XII, Jogesh da our bengali teacher was a brilliant teacher and a very funny guy. He was more of our friend than our teacher. He was solid in his education  who showed us the necessity of growing a reading habit beside regular text materials. I still remember his passion about works of "Jibanananda das" and Manik Bandyopadhyay. It's him who first showed us that there's hidden treasure chest of bengali literature and always inspired us to explore it.  among other teachers i liked chandranath da who was an excellnt teacher of math and physical science, a nice gentleman and among very few who never used any other  parts of the body beside his eyes to give a hard time to his students. Dinesh da was good at teaching bengali but can get carried over sometimes with his emotional outburst, Rishikeshda with the photochromatic glass and a very mysterious person who looks so tuff but never beat any students probably,Nitish da( who looked like Our late CM Jyoti basu!!), kali da and achyut da from office was another 2 character, I use to bump onto sudipto da every year in bookfair, he was a big fan of Gabriel Garcia marquez and Lorka, nanda da will be remembered for his melodramatic voice and famous "thappor" and chor for many of us,Kaushik da joined later when we were almost done and the only teacher with whom i've played soccer!, Bancha da always complain that the students of C section are very noisy and he is sick always by a wide range of diseases( teru-adu claimed all are " pure Dhop"),Bera sir( students call him " BARANTO BACCHA" OR COMPLAN BOY" as the lenghth of his pant was always smaller than his legs!!!) mani da 's famous dialogue" ei er roll number ta tuke rakh to", batuk da's spiritual stories and baba ji classics, bablu da's nice behavior, asit da's constant threat  and the eternal dailogue " eta addakhana noi" ( god knows for how many times we've leaked the air pressure of his bicycle wheels in mission teacher's hostel....shhhh it's a kept secret!!), RC 's "manushgular ki sahosh" and Mukul da's " Finyl and kali toir  sekha is very essential in life"are the prominent ones still stuck in mind.

4. Our C section and few other idiots = it was composed of like any other school, good ones the front benchers, the middle class and finally the eternal backbenchers( i still feel proud to be a part of this Bad boys club!!).  I am not interested at all to discuss our position, status, education and other trivial issues about where we stand today, or what we do now in our career, because it means nothing to me. we are friends and we are friends; that is the last piece of information i want to carry for the rest of my life. Lets talk about something which makes us distinct. Like, Suparno( bandu) was a total nut case but a gifted student not a mere bookworm and probaby the only 1st bencher who selflessly helped the backbenchers like us, Chandan ( chandu) is a very nice guy and equally a good friend in need always, Kaushik Mitra( ADU)-Arindam( TERU) was a peffect combo of all  paglami and chitialgiri, they always choose to sit on the 1st bench not because of study rather that they can mimic the teachers more attentively from close, Anirban Dutta( aka Gorto, Nafa) was a very nice friend and most of the people in our class use to like him, another gone case, total mad man from that age, his hadwriting was so horrible that one teacher( i can't recall who it was) gave him the task of 5 page hadwriting everyday in his daily duties!, kaushik Gupta( mintu) we all call him mintu was a quite gentle guy who stays neat and alen in his school dress always and we wicked ones in the class always put ink or mud on them to irritate him, Sankha( chatu) was our monitor in class V and VI and also played for our soccer team in defense, joydeep from madhyamgram was a very polite, well mannered person and a very descent guy, i never heard any slang out of his mouth which is so surprising to us as we can't complete a sentence without it, , Porichoy( kaku) was a very quite guy but always loves to hear secret porn stories from dirty magazine from us as well, rajat was a good person, at that time he was probaly a 30 kg structure and he once took severe beating from nanda da( gorilla), god knows how rajat survived and we kept talking abt this miracle for years,soumyajit was very good in science stream, atanu was good in math and he once took me and pushparghya to his home to show me that how great his rooftop is strategically located in the neighborhood to watch beautiful girls ( it was a great loaction indeed!!), ardhendu was brilliant in painting, sambuddha was son of our math teacher subodh sir and we always pick him up with teasing comments about sir, subhom( dhol) was a gentle person but he could be as  mad as a Raging bull  if you try to disrupt the perfect grease of his shirt or poke the back protion of his hair( we use to do that pretty often), Abhijit( PENGUIN) was always with a  smiling face, Chirodeep( " KOYA KANTHAL",  if u call him by this name you are a dead man:)Ayan raha( nochke-phoochke) was a very quite, social  and till date a very good friend of all of us, Jishu was a champion gollachor player,subhendu wasa  man of few words( we hear may be 10-12 complete sentence from him over 5-6 years i guess!!) Rudranath( ladies) was another monitor of class VII or VIIII who was infamous for " Mirjafar" type of acitvities against his own class mates, we took revenge later, tme brings down everyone afterall..ha ha, banibrata ate chutki's alukabli for 5-6 year at a stretch everyday and a mystery how he defied all diseases, Rajib(Baby) 's normal activities could be a comedy picture ingredient and a  poker face in all high and low incidents going around,Halder(ambrose) was already over 6 ft at that age( god knows how tall he is now??),Debtanu was a gifted reciter of bengali poems and his all normal conversation with us and teachers became mutated like that ( we all remember " amar nam?/ debotonuuuuuuu dutto!!!) beside this dabtanu will be always remembered for his infamous ' SANKALU' episode in class VIII, anindya( patkati) was a quite guy and more into books always,arnab( mamdomama) had a big repertoire of bad jokes which we eagerly listen at tiffintime,sudipta sarkar( dudh ka karz), mukul da once tied his both hands together for playing tabla in class bench, he was ordered to stay like that for the rest of that day:) need no intro i guess. Now lets come to my favorite ones the backbencheres: the Lion in the jungle the king of all rotten apples was Manojit banerjee aka "Jungle", he was an epitome of " dushtu chele of our school" his stories can be compiled to a best selling novel, we backbenchers even caught in surprise how much " bichhu" a student can be?, there's not even a single day passed that manojit didn't received punishment from teachers, rest of us did all the works diligently to keep our good will as a bakcbencher like beating the 1st bench fellows regularly, bunking class and private tution to watch moviees ( to be more specific B grade semi porno noon show movies in sonali, narayani or Jayashree hall with ultimate respect to Silk smita ), stealing cricket bats and balls from school store room, drawing cartoons about teachers in school wall and maramari, loitering, class a gondogol were the regular incidents. amal( bokku) and arun( chokku) are 2 brothers who are affectionate very much to each other but we heard each other calling them" suworer bachha" when a fight evolved between them( it was a great lesson to learn that even siblings are allowed to call each other by that title during fighting:), Suryarshi was like "bhara kora gunda" who can take supari to beat any people in the school if you offer him a good free lunch( he had a very tuff build physique and i used him several times to utilize his muscle power), Goutam debnath( ishhhe) was the nata bichhu and very funny guy,finally Uttam( uttomia) the ultimate moksha of any school friend, his stocks of jokes, his caricatures, mimicking other people, instant parodies was an awesome experience for us all, he remained like that till now and we love him for this reason.among other section idiots, i remember the good ones  as they were outstanding students like Diptangshu, sagar, kushal and the math prodigy Arunjit, beside them i remember Shibaji Bakshi with whom i still kp in touch ,a gentleman and whom my chotomama even likes a lot( shibaji knows, need not to explain), Dipangshu, somnath sadhu khan, natuke-sibu( who is a prominent face in tollywood now)Upamunyo, Bila-bibhas, sabyasachi, subhasish( dodo, who shared with us on class VI and later moved to Rahara mission), kushan, chibu(forget his real name), sourav palchowdhury, ankur basu mullick, Forsha-kaushik, then paradeep ,Pravankar, ananga and tamas( all of them represented our school in Bankim cup and subroto cup). among our seniors, we all remember Sougata da who came 2nd in HS and one of the most outstanding student of our school history and Anirban Khamroi da who was a honor student as well. beside them i can recall debarshida and arghya da( chatu's dada). missing a lot, i know but can't help. you need an encyclopedia for this not a mere blog!!
5. making fun of each others dad was kept in highest respect during that time. once we noticed than none of us calling each other by their own first name instead using a insulting version of the baba r nam. well it was purely for fun no disrespect really to our old man. I'm not mentioning those here, as we all love our old man.But i bet when we meet in person will do it again for sure.

6.Inter school Football league= i was a regular member of this team played every year in right back position. C section was famous for it's losing record. even after so many practice, meeting, oath we consistently lost the matches and all of them in tie breakers. I was a culprit among this as i always use to to miss the most crucial penalty and next day can't come to the class to avois th Juto peta and dholai from my other friends:)










7. street side food vendors= we would never even forget the taste of " monoranjan dar alur dom, ghugni or Chutki( he had tuberculosis and that's why his food was so tasty) alukabli, jhalmuri or chola makha. both of them never tooka shower probaly in their life and never clipepd their nails. I regret i don't have any pic of chutki otherwise i could upload it there. he is a one single piece that god makes  every 1000 years apart. Once uttom stole alukabli from his stall and he chased uttom up to baranagar bazar to get it back :) among other neighbor food vendors the kachuri stall neat kalimandir in baranagore bazar, the tea stall and the mukhoruchir chop was so palatable.

8. annual school sports= arun joysawal, kamalda or our nafa was the champion runner. Keshav( jomat) was a great long distant runner. most of us never was remotely close to win anything but always used this opportunity to do chablami, bawali and masti in the big ground with some very unhealthy snacks life churmur, chatni or kul-amra makha. Giving tumul awaz and slang to several teachers from back whom we don't like on this day was a high priority as well.

9. saraswati pujo= we stand for 2 hours, took all scolding from asit da or birenda and still end the day on a happy note after eating khichuri bhog. It use to take place on the boarding side of our school and was a very enjoyable event. This was also the only day in the year when we get a chance to visit " rajkumari girls school"  or " Sinthi sikshayatan girls school"for a dream girl watching session.

10. 12 th Jan procession = we use to enjoy this a lot. procession usually started early morning, proceeded thorugh streets of baranagore, witnessed by the whole city from balcony and front yard, (occassional sweet faces of some pretty girls was an added bonus) and ends back at school, fighting for food packet and then playing cricket for few hours was an added charm.

11. Finally few serious words about someone = I am fortunate enough to get a handful of good friends in life, among them Sumato Ghosh was my best friend. he joined our school in class VI and we remain best of the best buddies for class VI, VII. On a winter month of 1989 sumanto died from Cerebral encephalitis. it's almost a good 23 years now but I still bleed inside when his face comes in my mind and sometimes i still see him in my dream. This incident will always haunt me for ever as long i live.Life is unfair at least to some people like sumanto.

The most important point is that we've lived our school days and enjoyed every bit of it. something we can tell to our family, spouse and children who will like it listening for sure.well that's it for now. "A tale told by an idiot may be significant in some way to someone" .my BRKM friends hope you will enjoy reading my blog. pls join this blog and comment if possible.

6 comments:

  1. Osadharan ... ekk lohomay sei sob din guloy fire gelam... inek purano katha/ hasi kushi anonde bhora din gulo mone pore gelo...

    Chalie ja Ayan!!!

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  2. Ayan Kudos to you. Made me really nostalgic. Can not be a better write up than this. still laughing reading this master piece in my office. Your article made my day Bandhu. Keep it up.
    I do not find a single person so passionate of school and school mate than you. Bravo man.
    Honestly speaking you can try your hand on English literature like Chetan Bhagat.

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  3. Darun laglo Ayan. Tor je eto khutinati mone achhe eta dekhei aschorjo laglo :) Infact tui amake niye jeta likhechhis seta ami nijei bhule gechhi...onek puro katha mone pore gyalo. Banchhada khub ekta bhul kichhu bolten na. Sadhondar mato ekjon oto santo manush amader class chhere chole gechhilen...mone achhe? ami sotti sotti mone kori je school life ta amr jibone sob theke sera samay.

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  4. Wonderful Ayan...the post made me nostalgic and it reminds me of all the good /bad times vividly in our school..I think you are not in my batch probably..but who cares..lets be friends!!

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  5. I had passed 10th in the year 1983. I am Dipak Mehta and was always in Section B from V to X. Our HM Swami Girijatmananda Maharaj was a very educated person and was our english teacher. I missed my beloved school where I was a student from class III to X. Never I get back those days. Dipak Mehta

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