36 I join St Mary’s High School, Bombay

It was the summer of 1965, and I was in search of a good school to join in Bombay. Getting into a reputed school in the 8^th Standard was difficult but my Father soon found a solution. He reached out for help from catholic friends both in the Reserve Bank and also at the Sodality House at Byculla. I was invited to take an admission test at the iconic St Mary’s School in Mazgaon, in the Red Tie or SSC section. I did well at this test and was duly admitted to the 8^th Standard for the school year starting June of 1965!

It was exciting to join St Mary’s and to go to School in the blue school bus, from our colony to Nesbit Road, Mazgaon. The School had both an SSC section as well as Senior Cambridge Section popularly called the Blue Tie Section. The School had vast grounds and the legendary Jal Pardiwala was the Chief PT Master. The School was founded by the Jesuits in 1864, and so was already 100 years old when I joined!

I was placed in Class 8^th C which was especially added that year, to accommodate Catholic students from the nearby St Anne’s Parish School which was only up to the 7^th Standard. The main line divisions were A & B, housed in the main School Building; while our classroom was part of an adjoining ramshackle building. Next to our classroom was the visual instruction or VI Room and behind that was the Science Laboratory presided over by the aged but colourful Mr Noronha. So I was part of this motley bunch in 8^th C and I soon discovered that I could outscore all my classmates! That school year I won 8 prizes in all and also the Fr Donnelly Scholarship Award – in fact the only subjects where I did not get a prize were Marathi, Hindi and Drawing!

As you can notice, I was very competitive and I was determined to stand first in the 9^th class the next year, where there were only two divisions. Unfortunately, I soon found out that the students in the 9^th standard were brilliant – students like Brian Martis, Malcolm Monteiro, Leslie Pinto and Abbas Koita. This would indeed be a challenge, as we shall see later!

I was not much of a sportsman but I did play some cricket and also table tennis. I remember we had a table tennis competition sometime late in 1965, and I decided to participate in it. Soon the draw happened and I had to play against Lionel Extross who was my senior. I recall vividly how nervous I got, in front of the school audience – needless to say, I was badly beaten. With this, my sporting activities came to an abrupt halt – I blame my self-consciousness in front of an audience rather than a lack of skills. I was in the throes of adolescence and being self-conscious was just a part of growing up!