Retrospection among the four walls of, 23 Darga Road

 "They say, when you gain a lover,
 you begin to lose a friend. 
That's the end of the beggining,
the beggining of the end.
They say, the day you were born,
is when you start to die.
The day we first said, ' Hello,'
began out our last goodbye."

                   It was 1:30 PM. For some us, just another regular Friday. For the other lot, the story was different. The last bell has generally been our saviour at DBPC. The lot of us heave deep sighs of relief, when we hear it ringing. It shrill cacophony was such, as if to say, "Your home awaits you." That day, the 21st of November, it was different. Tht moment the bell rang, it wasn't a cacophony anymore. As if its sweet melody said, 'STAY.'  A deeper meaning than morse code, I tell you. The sound was the magic of the moment. What many people might call MAYA. No people, this is not an open invation to start your endless chants of, "Sovv e maya." That sound people, brought back memories. Ones stored in the recycle bin of my brain, seemed to be manifesting themselves. 

                                                 

                                      It brought back to me, the memories of the past 12 years.

 When I come to think of it, wasn't it just the other day when Valentino's rap was reverberating through the green corners of the classroom? Wasn't it the other day that I danced in the Talent Contest? Wasn't it yesterday that I had performed the first Bosco Impact of my life? Reminiscing about the old good times, spent at the school canteen(where one got more joy feeding the others, than oneself) and the unparalled nostalgia of the last minute project submssion and banging our heads in unision over our Chemistry marks. These memories know not whether to put a smile on my face or bring out tears.

                      My school life, these 12 years were unique. They were unique for every Bosconian, but in different ways did the four walls of DBPC prove to be a second home for us. From greeting father with a good morning (or getting an observation signed) to the delicious nimbu paanis of Salim Bhai percolating down our dry throats, I have cherished all of it. Somewhere between the 'Father Albert be the best,' and the ever favourite 'Application based sums,' in Maths, we all grew up. 

                    Don Bosco School Park Circus, has been our second home and the stage has been the place I respect the most. I am sure some of my talented co-actors like Yudhajit, Prithwi and Arnab do share the same feeling. I cannot fathom the way it has transformed me these two years. From a mere 'singer' in the Rector's and Parent's Day 2013 without any dialogues to Bosco Impact 2014, and performing four fests as part of the School Drama team. Till date I have never regretted being the 'Spot boy' for some people at Youthopia, 2014. I respected that job and took my risks. I faced the criticism of many but after winning two gold medals and winning Bosco Stagekraft 2014, with the word 'Brilliant' from one of the MAD founders, I felt rewarded. That memory still runs pure, devoid of any silt in the river of my brain artery, when they asked some of us to attend the MAD recruitments. I felt genuinely rewarded. "Shob uttor stage ae diye eschi, jey." 

                     "I know that these will all be stories, someday. And our pictures will become old photographs. We'll all will become someone's mom or dad. But right now these moments, are not stories. They are happennig..."

                                                                  -Steven Chobsky (The perks of  being a walflower)

                      

                        Stories indeed and memories stored. As John would put it in, memories which to get back one can exchange the whole future. But then what has always stood out in the DBPC campus is hope. Hope at DBPC is when 'you are standing outside the class HOPING the red ink shall not be able to fine mention in the yellow pages' , Hope at DBPC is 'when you advance towards the hall with having purchased an ANNA snack, which you are HOPING no one will rob.' Hope at DBPC is the synonym of every 'Gimme a B...' that escapes our mouth during BOSCO CHALLENGE SHIELD and 'Ae O, Ae O' during the SAVIO Cup. Little things do mean a great deal.

                                     "Remember Red, Hope is a good thing and no good thing, ever dies."

                                                                            - The Shawshank Redemption

                             

                                 

                            The farewell of a 10th grader and that of a 12th grader is different. A 10th grader leaves the school with regret and  tears of sadness. A 12th grader leaves the school with satisfaction and tears of joy. A 12th grader passes out as a BOSCONIAN throughout. But for a 10th grader the story is different, he does not have the chance to bid a proper goodbye to the school which has been his second home for 12 long years. A 10th grader passes out as a proud Bosconian, but that too is mutated by another school, which me might have been forced to call his second home. Again this is relative and this is just venting the general feeling. But then, "Once a Bosconian, forever a Bosconian."

                             To end with, Yudhajit's words shall forever ring in my ears, "You know Soumyadeep, if I ever make it big in life and they ask me where I belong, I will tell them I am a Bosconian. Regardless of where I complete my final two years of school." 

                              This is dedicated to all those who share the same feeling with me and of course Yudhajit.

(Soumyadeep Saha now writes on his own website. You can read his latest post on overcoming public speaking nervousness here.) 

                   The GANGNAM SIGH - A tribute to talent contest 2014

                           So it all started on Tuesday, 7th of May 2014. I entered the public courtyard, of my school with my hair cut short and a mind constantly pondering on the time period of its growth. On catching sight of me, Ishan uttered an audible giggle, put his arm around me and asked, "Ki bhai, shob thik toh?" Before I could answer back, Yudhajit entered the already dramatic situation and burst out with spontaneous laughter pointing at my hair, and stroking his own a second later. Arnab meanwhile, was either lost in deep thought or trying to eavesdrop on a conversation going on. As my faint memory would permit me to recall, the conversation was about the Economics Unit Test syllabus. Ishan uttered another giggle and whispered to me "Bhai, I gave your name for the Talent contest Dance Competition!" and promptly called out to a busy Sparsh. He pointed at me and said, "Sparsh bhai, he'll dance for our house!" Sparsh, extremely elated picked up his MAX AIR, and shouted "Cool." By that time the bell had rung, and Ishan, leaving me no time for even the faintest negotiation with Sparsh, took leave. I stood there transfixed, perplexed, shocked and confined. Only four words left my mouth. They were, "The competition is tomorrow." 

      





The Courtyard en route to the Assembly hall, where Ishan just started the worst experience of my life. 




                       The first period had not ended, when Sparsh walked into my classroom and scanned all the fifty three faces. I opened my glasses in a desperate attempt to dodge his eyesight. But then, all thanks to my hair, Sparsh came jogging towards me, and took down my name. He asked me for more dancers. I just pointed out random names in my house, leaving Karan, Rachit, and Bikash in a state of utter shock. Madhav promptly got away, by taking advantage of his figure, for the very first time. The rest of the day, all I got to hear was abuses from Karan. It was not that we were not game enough to dance for our house, rekindle the hopes of our house, and keep it in the "Best House 2014," race. We had enough house spirit to do that. Just that, what could a group full of non-dancers(except Craig) put up in a day? Our confidence suffered a serious setback. 

Macaulay Culkin portraying our expression.

                         Nilloban Da trained us along with Craig and Aakash. One very amusing anecdote about the practice after school, was that Nilloban Da -on being asked to teach us some steps-had looked at me and said, "Why don't you teach them some steps! You are a good dancer, I know." Nilloban Da was always the same old cool personality (No wonder Dadlani clicked a selfie with him.). He was perhaps the only person calm at that moment. Sparsh, who had very sportingly at that time promised us a treat for dancing, had nonchalantly, after the dance, stated he was, BROKE. And after coming back from vacations, he will expect me to believe, he went to New York, with an empty pocket. JUST  WOW.

                      We were 7 dancers. I don't remember their names. Sorry about that. But here is an interesting fact. Our music CD was not ready till, 20 minutes before our dance. WANT TO KNOW WHY? Nilloban Da had mixed the CD pretty early, but his IPOD was out of battery, Father would not allow us to play it on phone and there was no way we would be allowed to go out and buy a blank CD. I swear. The whole world was against us, that day. Seriously, the IPOD had no other day, to go out of charge? But, 

                                          "Where there is a will, there's a way!"

                       Green House allowed us to use 7 blessed MB's of their 350 MB free disc. We did not have enough words to thank them. Period. 

                       So here it was, TALENT CONTEST DANCE COMPETITION, 2014. We entered the music room, to practice our final moves which included a chicken dance and a robotic dace. While training, Akash had told us to be ourselves. Then why be a CHICKEN and a ROBOT? Contradictions at their best, I say. While practicing I prayed to God, to spare me from any more excitement, or heart-attacks. 

                       No sooner did my wish reach God, the Green house dancers came rushing in and grinned. 'Your house goes FIRST' they shouted in unison. That was the EVILEST GRIN (or GREEN is it?) I have ever known in my life. The biggest heart-attack of all had revealed itself. We had not even, had a COMPLETE practice for 10 minutes, and there, the doom was knocking on our door. My entire body shook. The tongue numb, and the fingers bereft of any movement. I somehow dragged myself for the sequence not knowing what awaited me. 

                     What happened then is just too embarrassing. I did not even know what happened. 5 deadliest minutes, of my life were over in a flash. I did not know if it was bad or good. But I am sure, that the audience enjoyed regardless of whether it was a success or not. And inadvertently I had learnt a lesson. 

                          " The greatest talent of a performer lies in his audience. Regardless of what happens, if the audience applauded you on your success, you were successful. If you made them laugh enough at the comedy of your failure, success is then just a 'word.' " 
                                                             
                                                              - James Bacardi

                             Well, that took long to sink in, right? Don't worry. It still is just another quote for me. And, the reason is unknown. Maybe because my friends had so many excuses to troll me now, that I refused to let it sink in. 
                            
                             That day, I could not even face people. My friends just laughed and found every possible way to troll me. They probably mistook me for MAD BRIAN. They thought too high of themselves. Accept it people! You all are not RUSSEL PETERS! Well, Ishan is close I suppose. He even went on to shout in a public bus, saying "Tui Ladies seat ae boshe ja re! Tor darae Gangnam chara ar kicchu hobe na!" Yes, and how could i possibly forget Subhyan! He went on to take assurance from Ishan and Yudhajit that they would like his post about my dance. Thankfully, that post never appeared. I praise the lord, for it.

                            The whole day I was extremely low. My fingers even trembled while logging into my facebook account. But then, I realized that I had given everyone a good time. For some of us, maybe this is the last Talent Contest. Maybe this is one of the last mass bunking and class skipping experience that we've had for 10 long years. 10 long years of companionship. 10 long years of unparalleled happiness which had gone through in a flash. Maybe this year will pass before I reckon and ICSE will have come and gone. And then, some of us. Maybe just some of us, will not wear that tie again. Maybe this was the last Talent Contest for some of us. I had definitely given them a memory to cherish forever. A memory of a BOSCONIAN. For not all of us are famous or hotshots. But that, one name binds us together. One game shall keep our memories alive forever. And, I was truly happy that I had done something which will make the momentary GANGNAM SIGH remembered, regardless of which tie you wear.

                        As, entered school the next day. 50 eyes looked at me, and instantaneously Ishan and the group shouted in unison, 'Ayyy GANGNAM!'

                                                                          SIGH. 

(Soumyadeep Saha is now writing on his website. You can read his latest post on overcoming public speaking nervousness here.)