33 My Boarding School Experience at Spicer High
My goal was very clear – I simply had to go to a Boarding School! For this I switched schools and joined at first the Seventh-day Adventist School in Bombay, which had classes only up to the 7th Standard. This gave me the opportunity to go to Spicer High School in Kirkee, Poona from the 8th Standard onwards. I breezed through my 7th Standard and finally the time came to leave Bombay, to join Spicer High in the first week of January 1965!
I had always been a day scholar and never experienced boarding school life nor had I stayed away from home for any extended period of time hence had no idea of what homesickness was! My Mother by that time, had become interested in Judaism and was reading extensively Jewish literature and prayers including the Torah. So as I was leaving home that chilly January morning, she gave me a handwritten Jewish prayer, instructing me to read it every morning and night. That prayer was:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.
I vividly remember my Father and my close school friend Anjum coming to the Victoria Terminus Station in Bombay to see me off. I was on my way to Kirkee, Poona by the Deccan Express to start my life as a boarder. Anjum could not resist the temptation of giving me a light slap through the window, as the train glided out of the VT Station. I saw my Father and Anjum receding into the distance and finally the train took a sharp turn at the end of the platform.
Spicer High School is located in the quiet Cantonment town of Kirkee (now Khadki) on the outskirts of Poona (now Pune) and is part of the 70 acre campus of Spicer Memorial College. This was established in 1915 and run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Spicer High School ran a Senior Cambridge Program and there I was in the 8th Standard as a boarder. Richard Samuel, my Bombay friend joined me and we became hostel mates as well as class mates. The first few days were exciting, and it was a novel experience getting up at 5AM, going for breakfast in the cafeteria by 6:30AM and starting classes by 8AM! It was a co-ed school and it was fun to make new friends – both boys and girls. The campus was vast and self-contained – there was a College Farm where vegetables were produced, and poultry, eggs and milk were made available; along with a Bakery which baked fresh bread and produced delicious cakes. The food in the cafeteria was vegetarian which suited me and there were ample sports facilities available on the campus grounds.
But soon loneliness and homesickness started to reach unbearable proportions – I pined for Bombay and craved for home food and a less regimented way of life. My homesickness reached epic proportions – it was a joy to even get a glimpse of the red BEST Buses even though they were only seen on films which they showed us on weekends. Towards the end of January, I took leave for the weekend and went home – it was sheer bliss to taste home cooked food and it was sheer agony to leave for school again!
The month of February was full of agony for me – my spirit was totally broken and I found no joy in continuing in Spicer – I wrote a desperate letter to my Father to come and take me home. My Mother was naturally worried and to cut a long story short, my Father landed up towards the end of February along with my little Sister. The School Principal tried to reason with me, saying that I would get over my homesickness and that I would slowly start enjoying my stay at Spicer High. But I sadly returned home with my Father and Sister, and all my dreams of a boarding school life came to naught.