I've been seeing a lot of posts on Facebook of how Valentina's son Adam and Kamal's son Karl are both starting primary school first standard or should I say first grade or grade 1 ( that's the style now) and it brought back fun memories of our school Apostolic Carmel Convent.
I remember moving to a new standard would mean new books obviously which were normally purchased from Navjeevan or BBC from Linking road Bandra or Navrang book stall, a small shop on Bazaar road which would always be packed more with parents than students.
Since school always commenced in the monsoon, we had to buy " Rainy shoes" or rain shoes which were famous for giving shoe bites ( in my case) or the blue and white Keds from Bata or one of those shops on Hill Road which no longer exist anymore.
New bags, new " water bottles", new pencil boxes etc.
Talking of pencil boxes, remember the press button ones, where you would have some ten buttons and if you pressed anyone, a sharpener would suddenly pop out or a ruler or a pencil, God alone knows what else popped out!!
I also remember some class mates with clocks on their school bags, that was pretty funny!! If I knew such bags existed, I would never wear a watch, would have referred to their bag if I wanted to know the time. ( Apologies if anyone who is reading this had one, written in jest).
Also our uniforms would be crisply ironed and new. But seriously I've never seen so many shades of grey anywhere else but in our school. There was the light grey, there was a greenish grey, a turquoise grey, a dark bluish grey, an aquamarine grey, a blackish grey.
We all managed to look so colourful even in grey!!
Our socks too were different. Best part was most of us wore our socks ankle length or some even below the ankle. I was the only doofus who actually wore them all the way up. ;).
But it made Sr. Theodmira happy!!
I remember those " Squeezy" bottles which were in fashion at one time and also remember Charlotte Pinto having a bright red one, which was used by me to spray her back in the ninth (Charl if you're reading this,you can kick my ass when you meet me next) and was bullied by Shonaly Alva to get the dirty swob and clean the floor.
Whenever we purchased school bags, we had to ensure that they were tough and strong as we had to carry a heavy load for nine or ten periods. Those days the math class and bio class etc. were called " Periods"and we were given time tables with timings and the subjects and the tenure of each period.
I don't remember how we were allocated classrooms or divisions so if anyone remembers, please enlighten me. But I remember if a new girl joined, we'd ask " Girly Girly what's your name??"
The " Girly" bit was so funny.
I remember Shruti Channa and Manisha Murthy as the new girls in the seventh who ran faster than Usain Bolt. I'm sure they still do but I guess now it's after their kids.
We'd choose our partners till the class teacher herself would ensure that friends would not be together and the naughty ones were normally put with a studious one or a quiet one. I remember Salima Kolsawala as my partner in the tenth, but the best part was we both were naughty and talkative sitting on the last bench being pulled up many times by Teacher Maryanne.
There's so much more but I guess I'll leave that for another post.
Only now I feel that our parents had it so easy then, they had to decide whether they wanted us to join an SSC or an ICSE school where there were not so many, unlike today where you have SSC, ICSE , IB, CBSE, etc etc...and in Dubai it's even worse where you have so many options that we parents are so confused.
But I just hope that wherever my son goes, he makes happy memories like I have, of Apostolic Carmel Convent. Cause' no matter where you go after school, maybe you study in the same country or go abroad or don't study at all, you can never forget your roots and your first school years. During these years you make friends, where some of them turn out to be friends for life.
Yes, you make great friends along the way too. But for me school friends will always be school friends, you can never forget them. No one knows you better than they do!
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