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!

39

Let me spend some time writing about the 3 Wars that I experienced, during my childhood and youth. The Chinese War of 1962, and the two conflicts with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971 – I was staying in Bombay in the Reserve Bank Colony on Club Road in the Bombay Central area, during this period. Wars were alien to us children. When they erupted, I felt for the first time a sense of fear and foreboding along with anxiety for the future.

The Chinese aggression was very unexpected and India was totally unprepared – I remember earlier Chou En–Lai, the Chinese Premier had visited India. Wherever he went with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the streets resounded with the slogan of Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai! The war was a total rout for India and many of our soldiers were killed –pictures in the Times of India told of how our soldiers suffered due to lack of winter clothing and proper arms. The Chinese suddenly stopped their advance and unilaterally declared a cease fire: and with this the 30 day conflict ended abruptly!

I was 12 years old when the Chinese aggression happened, and I distinctly recall the tremendous support for our army jawans that was generated after the conflict was over. Funds were raised for their welfare. Many film stars joined in huge processions across Bombay collecting money for them. Within 3 years, there was another war, this time with Pakistan. Of course we were better prepared and we had a new Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri leading the nation in his own inspiring way!

The Indian Army punched their way through on the Western Front and rapidly crossed the Ichhogil Canal, racing to the outskirts of Lahore. For the first time, Bombay felt the war came to our doorstep as there was a total blackout declared across the city. We also heard the ack ack guns firing at the Pakistani planes – the Colaba Batteries opened up and there were ‘red onions’ flying over the skies from our anti-aircraft guns!

The heroes of the 1965 War were the Keelor Brothers, Trevor and Denzil – they were known as the ‘Sabre Killers’, for they were able to shoot down sophisticated Sabre fighter planes in dogfights. The Indian Armour was also were effective in knocking out the state-of-the-art Patton Tanks of the Pakistani Army. Later when the captured Patton Tanks were put together in one place, they named it Patton Nagar! No doubt Lal Bahadur Shastri was the hero of the 1971 conflict and just after signing the Peace Agreement in Tashkent; he suddenly died of a heart attack and the Nation was stunned!

The 1971 Indo-Pak War started just as I turned 20, and the war culminated in the liberation of East Pakistan into the present day Bangladesh. Again Bombay was under blackout, but this time most of the action was east of Calcutta. Mrs Indira Gandhi and General Sam Manekshaw (later Field Marshal) were undoubtedly the heroes of this conflict. The capture of Dacca was a historic event and the classic picture of General Niazi of East Pakistan signing the instruments of surrender, along with General Arora still remain fresh in my mind!

As mentioned earlier, my wanderlust grew with successful trips to Delhi and Cochin, and now I embarked on a solo trip to Calcutta in the far eastern part of India. Before going, I researched my trip well: the trains that I would travel by, the places and streets that I would explore; as well the colonial history of Calcutta.

I decided to travel by the long distance train, which in the colonial past was called the Imperial Mail and now was called the Calcutta Mail. I traveled first class and dined in the Dining Car, which at that time served a full 4 course meal along with the attendant cutlery. I vividly remember seeing the Howrah Bridge as the train steamed into the Howrah Station. My uncle, the genial Mr Pai received me at the Station and whisked me to his house, which was located on the Rash Behari Avenue in South Calcutta.

My uncle Pai was a very affable person – his father happened to be India’s first Patents and Trademarks Attorney General, headquartered in British Calcutta. Though Konkani speaking GSB’s, the Pai family had assimilated so well with the local Bengali culture that they spoke to each other in Bengali rather than in Konkani. He was a foodie and he reveled in bringing home delicious Bengali sweets in earthen pots. He was at that time the CEO and General Manager of Bengal Potteries, a very well-known Company in India and Bengal. One evening, uncle Pai took me to Dacres Lane to a South Indian eatery in the basement of a building, and plied me with steaming Idlis and Vadas along with some delicious Filter Coffee, all in the heart of Calcutta.

I explored Calcutta very systematically, every day I would consult a large sized map of Calcutta and chalk out the areas and streets that I would like to visit. My favourite mode of transport was the Calcutta Tram; I would board this on Rash Behari Avenue and ride in it till Dalhousie Square now called BBD Bagh. I carefully walked down every street and checked out all the buildings, shops and other important landmarks about which I had read earlier.

I walked around the Esplanade and down the Strand and also visited the Indian Museum and saw the Egyptian Mummy – I sauntered down Park Street and had tea at the famed Flury’s Tea Room. I also visited streets like Clive Row and admired the neo Gothic and Saracenic architecture. I also went down to Burra Bazar where the Marwaris had congregated and from where many of India’s business barons and industrialists had begun their humble careers. From there I went down to Babu Ghat and saw the majestic Howrah Bridge looming in the distance.

I stayed the whole of May in Calcutta – at this time the weather gets sultry and the heat stifling. In the mid and late 60s, Calcutta had massive load shedding(power cuts) extending to 7-8 hours per day and sometimes even in the middle of the night. But I was lucky to stay near Hindustan Park in South Calcutta where Jyotibabu, the Communist Chief Minister also lived and so, the whole area escaped load shedding!

Finally, I loved the street food of Calcutta especially the masala muri, the aloo dum and luchi along with piping hot singhadas – I also enjoyed Tewari’s Samosas and Ralli Singh’s delicious Gol Sherbet! But all good things have to end and it was now time to go back to Bombay – I boarded the Calcutta Mail, this time via Nagpur and reached Bombay. This was my first visit to Calcutta but certainly not my last as I was to come to this City of Joy again and again!

The first year in St Mary’s flew by and in no time, I was in the 9^th Standard, Division A in the main School Building. As I mentioned earlier, I was very competitive and wanted to score high marks and stand first in my class, so here I was amidst fellow classmates who were equally brilliant and ambitious! My bench mate was Godfrey Rodrigues who was a very quiet but an outstanding student, very studious and with a very neat handwriting.

Adolescence hit me very hard and all my hormones seemed to be at full play! Adolescence does strange things anyway and in my case I suffered several of its effects – I became very self-conscious and worried unduly about the impression that I had on other people. I was ambitious but I began procrastinating on daily tasks like regular study hours and homework. The desire to study regularly was there, but I somehow perked up only before the terminal exams.

I developed a phobia for Maths and this put me at a disadvantage whilst competing for high grades. I was very good in subjects like English, French and Social Studies but the Sciences left me cold. I recall preparing hard for the first terminals but fell ill with the flu just before the exams, missed several of the papers; and was disqualified from being ranked at the end of the Term. This was a great disappointment and I really felt that I had started on the wrong foot that year!

Adolescence also changed my reading tastes – from the books of Enid Blyton and Frank Richards, I graduated to the crime novels of Perry Mason and James Hadley Chase. I also developed mild crushes with a couple of our teachers, though solely in my imagination! Another important phase of my development was increasing wanderlust – the desire to travel alone during Diwali holidays as well as the Summer Vacation. Hence I started making regular forays to Cochin and later to Calcutta: these two cities fascinated me no end!

Book collecting and book buying was an activity that I cultivated during my adolescence – whichever city I visited, I would visit the nearest book shop, and if funds permitted buy some books! This interest continues even today and I have managed to accumulate a very large quantity of books in my house!

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!

So I was back in Bombay from my holiday in Delhi and this first maiden solo trip had stirred my wanderlust. As I mentioned earlier, there was a Family Wedding happening in Cochin immediately after my Delhi trip and I was all eager to go and attend this event! Along with my aunt and uncle and my cousin Sudha, we left Bombay by train to Cochin via Madras.

My Uncle was a Railway Board Member and he was entitled to travel in a saloon car which was then duly attached to the Madras Express from Bombay. So there I was, travelling in colonial luxury which had its own living room, bedrooms and a small pantry manned by a waiter who travelled in the saloon with us. It was a remarkable journey as at every important junction, railway officials would visit our saloon to greet my uncle who, as a Railway Board Member, was high up on the totem pole.

We halted in Madras for a day and had lunch with a close relative in the city, after which we boarded the Mail train from Madras Central Station to Cochin. I loved the train journey and early in the morning, we crossed through the Palghat gap and soon entered Kerala crossing the expansive Bharatapuzha river near Shoranur. We steamed past Thrissur and Chalakudy, where one could see elephants hauling logs from the river running along the railway line – what a picturesque sight! It is still etched in my memory!

Soon we reached Cochin Harbour Terminus where we were received by my grand uncle who sent his car to pick us up. Whilst we were crossing the Wellington Island on our way to Mattancherry where my uncle Dammanajja lived, we saw at a particular point three modes of transport running parallel – the railway line, the airport landing strip and the ships in the harbour!

I fell in love with Cochin including Fort Cochin with its spacious British and Dutch Bungalows – henceforth I made it a point to visit Cochin every summer during my school and college holidays, for the next 10 years right up to 1974. Once the marriage was over, I returned to Bombay along with my grandmother – we were chaperoned by my uncle Ganpatmam who decided to take us by air to Bombay.

This was my first air travel experience – I remember it was a Fokker Friendship plane carrying around 40 passengers and it was indeed an unique experience travelling through the clouds; and suddenly within a couple of hours, landing at the Bombay airport. It was sometime in May 1965 and soon in early June I would be starting a new chapter in my life including joining a new school in the 8th standard!

The disappointment of not being able to continue as a boarder at Spicer High, constituted a mini crisis at the age of 14 in my life. So there I was without a School to attend till June, and it was only March now – it was the interregnum of my life. My Mother and my Father were worried about the limbo but finally my Father suggested that I visit Delhi to visit his elder Sister as a sort of enforced holiday. This lifted my spirits and thus began the first of my many such solo travel odysseys! My Father decided I should travel by the newly introduced AC Deluxe Express train running between Bombay Central Station and New Delhi twice a week. I fondly recall standing patiently in the ticket purchase queue for almost 4 hours with my Father, as there was great demand to travel on this luxury superfast train.

Ticket duly obtained, I got busy poring over the Bradshaw to check the route and the various stations that this train would travel through. I also discovered that there was a dining car attached to this train, where you were served a 4-course meal in style. So one sunny March morning, my Father dropped me at the Bombay Central Station and I happily boarded the AC Deluxe to New Delhi. It was a chair-car-only train with reclining seats and this is how you passed the night too! To dine I had to inform the attendant, who then duly called me to the Dining Car at the designated time. It was a full service dinner with cutlery and napkins and included soup, starters, main course and dessert – this was indeed a unique experience for me.

The next morning I arrived in Delhi, and there was my Uncle Umanathmam who drove me to their home on Pandara Road. Umanathmam was a senior civil servant and a member of the Railway Board, and he was entitled to a large bungalow in Lutyens Delhi. Staying with her grandparents, was my pretty cousin Sudha who was a few months older than me and who was studying at the Mater Dei Convent in Delhi. The capital of India was a regal city with wide-open spaces in those days. Close to our residence was the iconic Khan Market, and I remember strolling through its shopping area in the late evenings. I did the usual sights of Delhi and immersed myself in the history of this old city.

The days flew by and it was soon time to go back to Bombay. Around this time when I was in Delhi, the news came that my favourite aunt Purnimakka was going to get married in Cochin and that I would also be going down south for this marriage. My Uncle and Aunt also decided to attend, so all of us including my cousin Sudha traveled together to Bombay first, for Uncle’s official work, after which we would all head south for the marriage.

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 7^th Standard. This gave me the opportunity to go to Spicer High School in Kirkee, Poona from the 8^th Standard onwards. I breezed through my 7^th 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 8^th 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.

It was 1963 and I was attending ANZAS, the school that I had joined, when I first came to the Colony in 1959. As mentioned earlier, I was obsessed with the Boarding Schools that I read about in the Billy Bunter Books at that time. Coincidentally, my friend Richie triggered this obsession further. Richie intended to join a boarding school in Kirkee, Poona in about 2 years’ time. This boarding school was affiliated to the Seventh-day Adventist School, which Richie and my siblings were attending next to our Colony. This Bombay School was only up to Class 7 and a natural progression was to go to the Poona boarding school from Class 8 onwards. Keeping this in mind, I promptly decided to leave ANZAS in 1964.

My decision to leave ANZAS was not just on an impulse, because my introduction to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, had exposed me to some wonderful people in the church and also the Seventh-day Adventist School. The Church Pastor at that time was an Englishman who loved India and Indians – Pastor K.G. Smith. Soon a young Canadian couple, the Hetkes came to Bombay and Mrs Eleanor Hetke joined the Bombay Seventh-day Adventist School as the Class Teacher for Class 7. Meeting the Hetkes spurred my decision making to leave ANZAS. Soon in January 1964, I joined the Bombay School in Class 7 – and a new era began in my life, at the ripe old age of 13!

Joining the Bombay Seventh-day Adventist School was a very different experience. For instance in Class 7 we had no school uniform, and we were totally about 8 students in all. Mrs Hetke was a wonderful teacher, and we all had a highly personalized attention since we were very small in number. We had interesting subjects like Music and Bible Studies, both of which were entirely new to me. I have always been tone deaf and unable to carry a tune but funnily, I scored an A+ in the theory of Music by reading the musical notes! We had weekly tests and followed the American semester system which had grades – and I managed to top all of them, soon becoming Mrs Hetke’s favourite student. And of course we had a five day week and every Saturday, I started attending church as the Seventh-day Adventists, believed in observing the Sabbath as the day of rest and held their church services on Saturdays.

The school year flew by and soon we were coming to the end of 1964. Before that we had a school picnic and retreat for which we went to a place called Malavli. This was a week long camp and jamboree and we were joined by Seventh-day Adventist School students from Poona. We left Bombay by train and it was my first experience travelling by Janta Class or 3rd Class as they called it in those days. I was always used to traveling 1st Class with my parents earlier. I had some trepidation but of course once I got into the crowded compartment, I was okay and in about 3 hours after traversing the ghats, we arrived at the little station of Malavli, where our campsite was located.

We returned from the November cold of Malavli and went back to a warm and sultry Bombay. Thereafter, we had our final exams and we all graduated and after a grand Christmas party – we all broke up having spent a wonderful year in close comradeship! Richie and I decided to go to Spicer High School in Kirkee, Poona; a boarding school set in a campus of over 70 acres. We looked forward to leaving Bombay in the first week of January 1965 – I had just completed 14 years of age!

We played cricket in the evenings, on the ample grounds of our Colony. Many of us were from the Colony itself but there were also some friends from the neighbourhood. One such person was my friend, Richard Samuel – we called him Richie. Richie used to also visit our home often and came to know my parents and siblings well. Interestingly, my Brother and Sister were classmates of Richie’s in the School just around the block from our Colony.

One day Richie invited me to attend a lecture at the Church that he attended, across the road. My first impulse was to say no, as I was not very comfortable going to a Church, as I considered it to be an alien place of a different religion. I feared I would feel out of place – but Richie persisted, and finally I agreed to attend the lecture! I distinctly recall looking over my shoulder when I entered the Church, to check if anyone from our Colony was observing me!

Analyzing my reaction to the above incident today, I realized that we had a very different impression of Christianity in India. My reluctance and discomfort was due to a prejudiced mind based on the stereotypes of Christian characters in Hindi movies, who were typically shown as drunkards, revelers and merry makers. This rebelled against my sensibilities and my upbringing of a strictly vegetarian, teetotal and orthodox way of life.

Once I entered the Church building, I was in for a surprise – I had expected to find all the Christian emblems including statues of Mother Mary, Baby Jesus, Candle Sticks with an elaborate interior having stained glass windows along with Priests in cassocks, but instead I found a plain hall with a seating arrangement in front of a podium! My expectation was based on the fact that I had all along studied in Catholic Schools and seen Catholic Churches having all the above religious paraphernalia – apart from this plain room, I could not even find a Cross!

As I attended the lecture, I found there was no religious liturgy being recited and instead all the prayers were impromptu which were interspersed with hymns sung from the Hymnals provided to the Members. There were no priests officiating and all those who took part and led in the lectures were ordinary Members of the Church. I also learnt as I kept attending these lectures that this Church advocated abstinence from alcohol and tobacco and also preferred a vegetarian diet for its Members – this was truly amazing, and very much in synch with our lifestyle.

This was my first glimpse of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which I learnt was a Protestant denomination that believed in Bible Christianity and also Jesus. Another distinguishing part of this group was that they worshipped on Saturdays, like the Jewish people, and called it the Sabbath unlike other Christians that went to Church on Sundays. The address of the Church was 16 Club Road and the year was late 1963 or early 1964 which made me just about 13 years old and this was my first introduction to Christianity!