The old little boys school, Mrs Jordan, Mrs. Shukla, Kale Saheb, 7 tiles, Gend Tadi......Ravindra Mohan was the best , Vijay Shahi was a little one but growing.....
Then promoted to big school, cricket , hockey, all shocked that I did 10 lenths on my first visit to the swimming pool, giving full marks to Ajanta house...good swimmer Anil Chandra , he learnt in Gomti, I in Ganga....
Won all races, jumps, etc in D category, got a prize for the most improved athlete of the year( sense of humour prevailed, one of the prize books was Lolita), promoted to C group to end my athletics career forever.... So hostelers could prevail....
Watched Simran Singh make 160 runs against Lucknow University, he was 12 th. man in one of India test Matches. Watched Oppu Sen, who was the only batsman to later to stand upto the west Indian Bowlers. Then Ashok Mishra became College Captain, full colours, half colours blazers......
Annual day..... Once the 2 boys who escorted the Governor in NCC uniform , one of them went missing, I was called in in emergency,( my life story, only remembered in emergencies.) and successfully performed with Anand Pal, s/o Shri Yashpalji, the writer!
Safder, the fast bowler, Ram Naresh Singh the athlete, Johri all my friends...
Playing hockey with KD Singh Babu....
Test match .. saw Fazal Mahmood, .. Haneef, Dattu Phatkar, Polly Umrigar, GS Ramchand, Subhas Gupte....
Saw Ramanathan Krishnan win all India universities title tennis in the university....
Brajendra Prasad Bajpayi reading poems, making fun of me, Misir Kare ghisir ghisir Laiya none chabai, ta kothe par se gir pade, MISRAIN CHILLAIN ! ....all the kids waited with baited breath for the last part. Must have been fun thinking about a misrain at that age!
Jawed Akhtar and Vedantist Kiran Shankar Chaturvedi.... when the prof was delayed they would take classes. Jawed would sing kaan me sone ki bali hai.........as only he can!
NCC while marching left right left right , another sound used to come from Vivek Pathak- Kukur Bilar Kukur Bilar.....
Then came High School and again things changed. Forever.
We were playing, below the office when Prof Upadhyaya called me and congratulated me for my good marks. He appeared shocked. I did not know my marks then. Then I learnt that I had come first and passed with credit, only second person in the history of Colvin.
Some of my old friends, bacause of this, refused to talk to me, or play. I had become intelligent suddenly. So made new friends, Ashok Shrivastava, Rajiva Tandon, Rajiva Ratnashah, all geniouses!
Ansari Saheb's chaprasi came to the chemical lab and told me that the Principle saheb has called you. In todays parlance it was like getting the pink slip. Shivering I went to the office , first time in my life. He looked at me and said oh your are Ratnakar Misra , but I have only seen you playing!
As per standards I became a Mechanical Engineer and that ended my simple life......
Goodbye Colvin
Ratnakar Misra
Hi Ratnakar,
ReplyDeleteI am an ex-Colvinian. Was there from pre-school to Intermediate. I graduated from Intermediate in 1957.
The teachers you have mentioned were there in my time too. Including Mrs. Jordan. Her son was my High School mate. He was excellent in swimming!!
Simran Singh and Apu Sengupta were my High School pals too. Apu was a very close friend. I stayed in contact with him. He retired as Lieut. General. Passed away few years ago. When he was in Kharakwasla he was the first Indian to score a century against the visiting West Indies team.
I played soccer and cricket for Colvin team. In my last year at Colvin I was captain of Badminton & Squash.
I left India in 1959 and have been living overseas since then. Worked all over Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Far East, USA etc. I am an American Citizen since early 80's.
I worked in the Oil & Gas Industry. I worked for Mobil Oil in Indonesia for 17 years!!. I am retired since 1998. Settled in South of France.
Thans for posting the Blog on CTC. Brought back many memories.
Stay well and safe.
Karun (Ron) Sen -Roy