Alvita Fernandes alvita_alister2...@yahoo.co.in School was a mixed bag, as was growing up in the Goa of the mid-1970s and then in Poona, till the mid-1980s. Among my early memories going back to those times, that live on very clearly is wearing a pink ribbon dress and singing a poetry-song at a school function.
The song went something like this: "My stomach is paining, my stomach is paining, my stomach is paining, just now. Call the doctor, call the doctor, call the doctor, just now." It was one of those songs rather popular in convent schools then when teaching was still done in English. A decade-and-half later, in the early 1990s, primary schooling in Goa would shift to the Konkani medium. But, when we were in school, believe it or not, in Goa you still got fined a princely ten paisa for speaking in the local language Konkani. Odd though this may sound, the goal was to get children to learn faster their English, seen as the language of opportunity. Our village school at the time was St Anthony's, located in the picturesque and river-surrounded village of Assolna, almost at the southern end of Salcete taluka, the village we called home. In those days, this coconut-fringed village still had the ferries which everyone depended on to cross the River Sal. It slowed down life, but perhaps the villagers didn't see it in that way then. Mum left for Kuwait, and we moved to Poona, some 450 kms away. Two siblings, brother Emid (Emidio) and sister Ala (Aldila), had made the transition before us, while my sister Clemy and I found ourselves following their tracks. After we shifted from our quiet village in Goa to the city still (till 1978) called Poona, and the seventh-largest city in India, we lost track of our village school. Sadly, we later realised that the school in Goa does not exist anymore. * * * At that time, Poona/Pune was then still the land of thousands of cycles, many statues (it still is) and quite a bit of green cover. It was the late 1970s, two decades before the IT boom changed the city. We settled down at our new school. Much later on, we realised our attachment to it. Early memories from St Anne's are registered strong. In Class IV, along with some others, one got appointed to mind the class during a teachers' meeting. Getting responsibility, and being trusted by one's mentors, comes as a morale booster always, but especially in those junior years. Another high was participating in a spelling competition and winning it. It seemed a tough task after having grown up in Village Goa, where the Konkani language was still widely spoken. It also meant having to cope with talent from a big city like Poona. Physical Training, on the other hand, came naturally to us kids from the rough and tumble of village life. Happy memories at St Anne's including regularly winning all the P.T. house competitions, almost without fail, for us in the Greens. Recess time was handball time, something which our circle of girls took to without much prompting. OF TEACHERS AND THEIR 'LESSONS' Our P.T. teacher, Mrs. Doctor, to my pleasant surprise, once chose me to demonstrate how to march straight, in front of the whole class. My Hindi teacher, Mrs Tressolar, was a real darling. She always wore a smile and was very beautiful even without the bother of make-up. She taught me to think beautiful. My catechism teacher Sr. Doreen taught us values and good ethics, and how to be good students. Mrs Pinto and Mrs Sanyal taught me music; the first took classes in Western music on the piano, and the latter, Indian music classes on the harmonium. Their lessons rang out loud in my little head, and it still does all these years later. How I loved listening to the piano. Maybe that's where my love for music -- and sharing it online via WhatsApp even today -- comes from. In the 1980s, our teachers usually wore sarees. This left me wondering how on earth they made the time to dress up like models on every single school day! Mrs Varma, our Biology teacher, would drape her saree so meticulously that it made her seem almost like a Barbie doll. Maybe that influenced me to address my children as "my doll" as an endearing pet name of sorts. Nobody might disagree that all our teachers played a very crucial role in shaping what we are today. In fact, our teachers left their imprint on us in many ways. My teachers taught me to never give up, and instead to try my best in everything I do. One cannot but look back with affection and love for all they have taught us. For being my teachers and, of course, for not opting to teach in the other prestigious school of Poona, the boys' school of St Vincent's! Talking about which, at most times, I would be secretly envious of my brother's school, for reasons which I am yet to fully understand. Maybe that was because he bettered me as a student, and that too without any help. He came across as so strong and sharp. In comparison, I was a lamb, always on the timid side and preferring to keep a low profile in school. Only after scoring some good marks in French did I gain confidence. In hindsight, perhaps that shaped my life more deeply than one would have expected. My pleasant early brush with a foreign language led me to encounter a world outside India. A TALE OF TWO FRIENDS The are other pleasant memories from those school times too. Miss Thakur taught us French while Miss Chandy took Physics. Both were the best of friends, and their closeness was apparent to us students. Maybe that was the reason why I ended up loving both the subjects, French and Physics. It was a delight to see them together. They murmured so softly, and their eyes barely met when they needed to communicate. This showed me the need to maintain both discipline and friendship at the right time. And there was Mrs Manuel, my P.T. Teacher in primary school. She taught me discipline, and how! Her words still echo. Maybe that was why I participated in the Guides competitions, which many schools took part in. With pride, one can report that St Anne's always won for neatness. Mrs Prabhaa was beautiful. She still is. It would not be wrong to say that the staff of St Anne's was prompt in their work. Everything was so organised too. PERFECT PREFECTS So were others in the school. My prefects, all of them, were just perfect. They respected the school uniform. Joan, of all of them, would make me laugh. I knew she was never too serious or too strict. Tasneem would learn her history chapters by heart. That gave me an incentive to carefully underline my notes, and pick up as much as was possible. Reshma was so polite, it seemed as if she was smiling at all times. It was her approach that made me join the P.T. competitions. Some incidents involving the prefects remain topmost of one's mind too. One day, Venita, the head girl then, noticed the socks I was wearing. They were of a different shade of brown, not quite as per the uniform requirements. Venita crafted her sentence most carefully when she called me aside: "Alvita," she said, "we don't wear design-made socks to school." She just said that and disappeared. It struck me only later that she could have easily taken me to Mrs Doctor for further action. But she chose not to. That only made me realise the power that our words hold, and how sharp each word can be. Her kind words taught me to formulate my own words with much care, whenever I can and wherever its possible. We indeed need to carefully choose the words we use to address to all whose paths we cross. Words should not hurt or wound. THE BERLIN WALL While recalling our campus, I remember thinking of the school building as a little township in itself. All of us felt protected by its 'Berlin Wall'. One felt so safe on reaching school, which was a place that also had the most endearing academic environment. Within the school, everyone could smell the scent of books, pencils, rubbers, and crayons. The Assembly itself was conducted as if it was one big Navy battalion, marching to attack the upcoming day. We were so proud to sing the national anthem. One's mind also goes back to even the humble peons of our school days. I eagerly awaited to see one particular peon, who regularly cleant our classrooms. He would be punctual and I can still imagine him taking what then seemed then like a big broom, or the swabbing rod, to make rounds of the large corridors in a school that today accommodates 2000+ girls. ON THE OTHER HAND So, what did we miss in school? What could we have benefitted from? In hindsight, maybe we could have benefitted from encountering more skills beyond the academic. Perhaps from learning subjects such as gardening, culinary skills, needlework or crochet and embroidery, or at the professional-level having some contact classes or further extra-curricular activities even after passing out as school students. Overall, one can't help but think of the difference a teacher's attitude can make in the life of a child. Sometimes a student might fail due to no fault of her own, but purely due to circumstance. I sometimes wonder whether a teacher, despite her understandable work pressures, could have visited such students' homes, or somehow find out about the situation which led to the problem. A MIX Student life was a mix of the good and the naughty. I loved gifting flowers to teachers. On the other hand, I sometimes copied my homework in class from some other student. Naughtiness accompanies us too, at times with a reason. Once, while in college, I recall boarding a train going to Kalyan, just wanting to be with Mum, as I had been missing her. She was visiting her brother at the time. On the train journey, she was not aware that I was seated in the next cabin, quiet as a bird! It was a long wait for the train to reach Kalyan station, at which point I hopped out, to surprise both Mummy and her sister Bella Aunty. Once, I got 'rusticated' -- a term one doesn't hear much in schools these days -- for some exams. For some reason, a teacher thought I had been copying at an exam, from another student's paper. But how could I have copied from a student who was not from the same class? Anyway, I passed that year, so it ended well. FINDING THE RIGHT 'HOUSE' Sometimes life decides things for you. My association with the Green house remains strong till this day. When I recall our times in sports and athletics, it is always about competitions won for this house. On joining school, I was allocated to the Yellow house. But as both my next-door neighbour Musarrat Malvi, and sister Clemy, were in the Green, I opted for that column. It was also a practical choice; we could share the same tunic if needed. Schools then had their 'houses' divided on the basis of colours -- usually Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow, each competing against the other. Blue, as I recall, was filled with the studious types, the really very clever girls. The Reds were the serious types, though some could also be very funny. The Yellow House was somehow the most loved, and quick on the sports field. Green seemed shaped like nature -- swaying to the brease... or, rather, dreaming most of the time. OF CLASSMATES AND OTHER LESSONS Classmates etched the strongest in my memory are Mussarat Malvi, our neighbour; Sunita, my deskmate; Reshma, my Green house prefect; and Manisha, whom I both played handball with and copied notes from. School is not what one learns only from books and on the benches. St Anne's taught me to care, to share, to make friends, and to be punctual. It also taught me to stick to one's goals, to hurt no soul (at least not intentionally)... the list can go on. Our school was programmed to offer respect and love. We all performed our best at school. Looking back, every girl whom I encountered there seems to have left an impact on my thinking. I loved them a lot, but the pressures of life often take us our separate ways. Four years back, one felt the need to get in touch with the alma mater and with classmates and friends going back decades. One couldn't help wondering where all they were, and what all they were doing. It was an emotional experience. A visit to the school in September 2017 put me once again in touch with the Convent of Jesus and Mary and St Anne's High School, at Camp, Pune. The Convent of Jesus and Mary, earlier an Anglo-Indian school, was amalgamated with St Anne's in June 1960, quite sometime before our times. Our historic school was set up in 1860. Today, we too are a part of that history. Our school has grown on us as well... and on Teacher's Day, here's a tribute to the institution and its teachers that shaped us. ### Alvita Fernandes is from the Class of 1986.