VMS!!

        

The realization that I have to change my school in the +2 level started the second phase of my school life...  Vivekananda Mission School (JOKA) famous for being a disciplined school, its academic results, studious students ….The word ’co-ed school ‘even worried me more because for the past 12 yrs I had been studying in a girls school where we were the heroes and even the heroines… I knew quite a number of people from VMS because we went to the same tuitions… I never had any friends from VMS   except  Shreyasi  Choudhury , firstly because we went to science tuitions and I was weak in those subjects and the VMS students on the contrary were super duper intelligent…I still wonder how they use to solve the programming’s in computer  even before “Manas Sir”  wrote the full programming on the board… Poulomi and I had a very tough time keeping at par with those VMS –ians…. And second reason for not having any friends from VMS was my mother…Yes that’s the main reason behind..She has been teaching in this particular school for almost 20 years so everyone knew her and as a result my identity became “Sumita Sister’s daughter”… Shreayasi Choudhury and I went to the same biology tuition. We knew each other well and she being in my class became like a silver lining on d dark cloud of VMS…
                                             By first day in Vms  began with a lot of sad and grumpy face… Sad partly because I had to wear off white salwar to school and partly because I wanted to go to Stgs and not VMS…The reason for my grumpy face was for my mother’s decision to change the school.. We both were on Non-Cooperation Movement…Vms opened just the day after my birthday on 7th April,2008.. I was always a tomboyish girl from my childhood and wearing that salwar to school made me feel even more uncomfortable…I reached school almost one and half hours before with my mother… On my way to school I met so many teachers who smiled when my mother introduced me as her daughter.. At round about 10:50 the students started comming in.. No one knew their class so everyone was waiting in the first floor corridor..I could recognize many of the faces which were familiar to me…Some of them gave a smile, others looked in astonishment, some were wondering what I was doing in their school and few others told me hi and enquired which course I was taking… So it was all perplexed and confused minds including mine. Finally someone from the back told Humanities and Eco Science in class XI-D…. I looked here and there a bit and then read a small writing on top of one of the classroom doors… I peeped in nervously and suddenly saw someone waving me from opposite side of the corridor.. I looked properly and saw my mother not waving and calling..I went to her and she told me “Raag kore na ma r upor..Jao bhalo kore class koro..Bhoy peo na…” (Don’t be angry on your mother.Go to the class properly and don’t worry).. .. I felt really weird talking to your own mother in school and some how to avoid that feeling I rushed back to my class.. When I entered everyone looked at me but my eyes were searching for only one girl and that is Shreyasi…I really couldn’t find her so took a seat in a corner…May be it was the third or fourth row…The classroom was small compared to my previous school and the benches were different… I was looking around and wondering when someone told me “Sumita Sister’s daughter no??” I nodded my head with a fake smile and introduced myself as Ruchira… She introduced herself as Rumela and another friend of her as Atreyee…  My class teacher came and introduced herself.. She was my Sociology teacher as well.





leena and me in picnic cls XII

 

The first day in Vms is incomplete without the memory of Leena Bhattacharya..  A small ( in height) girl with spects sat beside me..She was quite an active girl and introduced herself as Leena..We spent almost the first two periods together writing the time tables together, talking about this and that..I don’t remember exactly what we talked but after sometime Jhilum sister called me and told to meet my mother and take my tiffin from her. I then realized that my mother predicted that would be half day but she was wrong and so I was without any tiffin.My class teacher asked me whether I know my mother’s staff room or not but I simply nodded telling no and looked towards the class..As I looked back Leena smiled at me..I smiled back and immediately told my class teacher that Leena will show me.. Suprizingly my class teacher smiled and told “so you are already friend’s with her..good..” I went back and asked  leena whether she can show me the staff room..She told yes and we went down..She took me to the class 11-12 staff room…I peeped in but couldn’t find my mother.. I turned back and asked her “ Do you know where my mother sits?” She gave me a puzzled look and asked “Your mother works here??” I replied “yes”..She again asked me “as what?”… I told her “ Do you anyone called Sumita Sister? She is the co-ordinator of class six” She smiled for more than half a minute and replied back “ So you are Sumita Sister’s daughter?? Great we talked so much but never realized that..I thought you are a student from Vms only and I don’t know you well because may be you were in different section. Come up she sits in different staff room.” And that’s how our friendship began..Till the end of our school days we both laughed at this particular incident..She even wrote this memory down in my diary before we bid goodbye to our schhol life.. I liked her more because she was the first one to call me Ruchi… The next    few days went well with me adjusting to my new environment.. I understood the meaning of adjustment and adaptability well after joining Vms…  Shreyasi  came to rescue me from lonliness the very next day..

My new environment was good with new subjects,new classmates but somewhere I wished I was back in Stgs.. But at this point of dilemma some new friendships helped me to adjust with Vms very soon.. Friends like Sampurna, Urmimala, Shrabani, Rajarshi, Sandipa, Leena and Shreyashi made me feel that I am not new in Vms.. And the best part of these people were that they thought me more than “Sumita’s Sister’s daughter” and that’s what made me fond of their friendship… The first few days  of Vms memories makes me remind of Sourav Saha Roy.. We knew each other from Manas Sir’s tuition atleast the name… But it took a very long time to make friends with him..He was a science student and practically came to our section everyday…He was very cool kind of boy who was always in masti mood…  This unusual character indeed made me think twice about Vms because I always had this conception that they don’t do anything else rather than studies… But this boy was indeed very famous in school for his cartoon drawing and mimicry skills.. He came to our class, joked with other students,talked with Shreayasi, Sandipa ,ate their food…But surprisingly enough whenever I offered him my tiffin he refused…  I asked him oneday the reason for refusing the tiffin every time I offered him and his reason was indeed funny “ Sumita Sister Jodi abar amai bole amar meyer tiffin keno khaccho??( If Sumita Sister asked me why I was having her daughter’s tiffin?”).. This reason was indeed silly but it made Sandipa,Shreyasi and me laugh like anything… And from the next day till the end of my school days Sourav came and the first thing he asked was “ki enechis?” ( what did you bring?)..He was indeed a very sweet boy in his own way and his mimcry of the teacher’s made all of us enjoy our break-time…
                                     When I became the captain of Scarlet House (Red) I became even more fond of Vms…Its bit different from Stgs because in Stgs the Vice Captain is always from the eleventh standard and the Captain from the twelfth standard.. But in Vms the captain was from eleven and the vice captain from ninth standard… I still don’t know why the teacher’s chose me but I am sure its not because of being sumone’s daughter.. Keeping the controversial point aside this captaincy helped me in several ways..It brought me closer to many people and once more gave me the chance to prove my leadership skills..Even my friend Leena was the Cultural Secretary and Sandipa became the Emerald House captain… And my memories of being a captain will always remain incomplete without  the mention Of Kaushik.. He was my vice-captain but as time went on became a very good friend of mine.. He was smaller than me in age but a bit more matured than me and he carried out his duties superbly well… Even other senior members like Sarba, Srijan,Avishek, Chandrani,Bhagyashree were all very helpful and sweet as well.. Without these people I would never have been able to make my house win the champions trophy.. Even there were major contributions of friends like Leena, Raunak,Sourav,Shrabani, Sambit…
                                                    By the end of class eleven I was well setteled in my new environment with my new friends..Now I even had friends from the science sections… Friends from science section always reminds me of my first meeting with Kunal.. We got up from the same stoppage along with Sampurna and we lived quite near to each other’s house… I always wondered what his name was whenever I saw him in the bus.. He used to talk a lot with my friend Urmi… And for once I even thought them to be together but later came to know they were just best friends… It was a silly thinking of mine but only people of co-ed schools understand the meaning of the words ‘If a boy and a girl talks it doesn’t mean that they are together’…. Now I understand these words but at that point I didn’t..Anyway one particular day both my dearest friends Urmi and Sampurna were absent..While going the bus me and kunal exchanged a smile for the first time in so many months.. We also talked about the recent happenings in school and how disguted we felt with some of the rules of Vms..I always  thought that Vms guys never say anything of the weird rules in school but now I know that no one complains about the rules more than the students of Vms…There were some other classmates in my bus and while departing our ways into different classrooms from the school gate  we wished goodbye..  And that’s how our friendship began and when I left Vms kunal indeed became a very good friend of mine…  Even my friendship started with Mainak and Raunak in weird ways…Though we knew each other from class ten due to Anirban Sir’s and manas sir’s tuition but we never talked.. But friendship with Kunal brought me closer with these people and now I can proudly claim them as my good friends…
                                          Class twelve is more memorable than my class eleven… I enjoyed myself more in the company of Leena, Shrabani, Urmi, Sampurna, Shreyasi, Rajarshi, Sumana, Kunal, Mainak, Arka, Raunak, Anupam, Subhayun, Rumela, Moumita, Sohini, Suchandra,Atreyee and Bishwadeep… I knew my classmates perfectly well and even some of the students from science section.. The Tuesday morning first period Eve classes is memorable not for Eve syllabus but for our the backbenchers…I still remember how me and shreyasi shifted to the last bench with leena, shrabani and urmi.. The Bengali classes will always be special now that I know how to take running Bengali notes…The psychology class on Mondays Tuesdays in the  7th and 8th period will always be memorable more for the smiles I exchanged  with urmi at every now and then and less for the the boring lessons.. I still remember how we protested in our own silly way by not studying the book written by Mohanty…   I still remember Bishwadeep’s birthday celebration in school.. 38 luchis (approx), 1 whole big tiffin box of aloor dum,12 guys and 15 mins…… wow!! And the fun we had fighting for the luchi’s will always be a sweet memory in my Vms journey…                                

                                           And the journey is incomplete without our class twelve picnic ..The day which will always be memorable for two things…. Firstly because it was the best picnic I had in my entire life and secondly because it was the last official day of class twelve.. We enjoyed ourselves to the fullest throughout the day without being aware that this is probably the last time when we are having fun together…The bus journey will always be a superb memory ….The announcement of the school life finally being over at 5:30 pm in the evening took all our happiness away..Inspite of being associated with this school only for 2 years I felt sad to bid goodbye… 
                                                     I have got lots of sweet and sour memories associated with VMS… From outside it may seem the most serious school in Behala but only the students of VMS knows how to enjoy the school life  inspite of the strict rules… It did take time for me to adjust to my new surroundings but when I finally left the school I realized how special my journey has been… The last bench gossips, the tram journeys, the 10:30 am meeting with Sampurna and Kunal in Manton, the tiffin breaks, the tom (Rajarshi) and jerry(sampurna) show of class XII D,reading leena’s poetry and then commenting “bah!!fatiye diyechis”, the bawal giris and our own way of handling “chaps” and “cases”, the class twelve picnic, the puja outings, are just few of my favourite things that I miss immensely now… And my journey has been memorable only because of the sweet friends I have got…. Friends who taught me in their own special way that friendship doesn’t depend on how long you have known each other but how better you know each other….  The journey of VMS is indeed a very special journey and now when I am far away from my hometown I simply cherish my Vms days!!! Now I realize that my mother decision to change the school was not at all a bad idea….
                                                     The farewell on 5th February was indeed farewell to my school life which was the best phase of my life.. Miss my school life, Miss my friends!!!