40 My Progress at St Mary’s and the late 60s

I enjoyed my school days at St Mary’s – I was very competitive and I strained every mental sinew and muscle, to ensure I remained amongst the top five in my class. I was handicapped because I hated Maths and struggled with Algebra and Geometry, however excelled in Social Sciences, English and French. I was a good essayist and a writer of English prose and hence promptly got on to the Editorial Board of the St Mary’s School Magazine. Of course, that the Editorial Board was headed by the very pretty Ms. Janet Oliveira, was an entirely different matter!

I had friends in St Mary’s who were senior to me and I sought their company whenever and wherever possible. The lunch break was the ideal time when after eating, I would spend quality time with them – usually walking around the school perimeter with Joe Pinto who was 2 years senior to me. Joe was a studious person and class topper, very good in English Literature – often walking around school carrying a fat tome or two under his arm – his favourite book was Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield!

Another person that I adored was Darshan Shankar, a year senior to me – debonair, who moved in the upper crust of society, being a resident of the posh Breach Candy. I remember distinctly Darshan describing to me how he met the poet Dom Moraes at a poetry gathering – all this dazzled me and I really admired Darshan’s social agility and graces! Vasant Saini was another person I looked up to – he was a scholar par excellence and a year senior to me.

St Mary’s had a whole bunch of seniors who later on in life became famous and carved out their own niches in public life. I was fortunate to see some of them – people like the actor Farooq Sheikh, the lawyer Gulam Vahanvaty and the surgeon Satish Tibrewala! I distinctly recall Farooq Sheikh speaking to all of us during our school assembly; and also Satish Tibrewala narrating his experience as a Rotary Exchange student when he spent a school year with an American Family. How can I forget the wonderful talk that Gulam Vahanvaty gave us in the 11^th Standard, on why we should opt for a Liberal Arts Education in College, instead of Science or Engineering. These were wonderful experiences and they remain etched in my memory!

We also had great teachers who were fully dedicated and excelled in their subjects – they were fun to listen to and many of them exhibited quirks and eccentricities much to our delight. Mr Ahmed was one of them – he was a Hindi teacher who regaled us with his Hindi / Urdu poetry and did not hesitate when angry to use his favourite expletive – ‘suvar’ which when translated into English meant ‘you swine’. Mr Jacques and Ms Freitas were very lovable French teachers whom I admired greatly – no wonder I scored the highest in my 11^th Standard in French. Finally, there was our School Principal Fr Aran, a Spaniard who had dedicated his life to teaching and also India. Fr Aran was a great teacher, kind and humorous but also firm when required – a personality that you could always look up to as a role model.

In between, during the school vacations both in October and May, I managed to go on holidays to Calcutta and Cochin, two cities that I loved and still like – the memories of these trips are firmly embedded in my mind. Soon I found that the Board Exams were looming ahead and that it was time to pull up my socks and burn the midnight oil!