Entering a new School-- New Era: Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling 1957

MOUNT HERMON SCHOOL Darjeeling

1957 and a new Era and a new environment and a new School up in the hills of Darjeeling.

So early March from Dim Dima Tea Estate 4 steel trucks were tied up in the tea garden Willy's jeep to take our belongings up into Darjeeling. Our Tea Estate Manager Uncle Austin had two children George and Gwen who were my seniors by a few years already were students of Mount Hermon and my elder sister and me were joining the new session hence all our belongings were loaded and shipped off early in the morning.

Baba decided to take the old Ford Prefect 1928 model into the hills as he wanted to show off that he too owned a car. We left Dalgaon at 8 am post a hearty but tearful breakfast with Didibhai howling away and me in tears. We took 3 hours just to get into Siliguri as our car heated up and we had to fill up the radiator time and again which in itself was a long story (Blog 3 had details)

We had packed lunch in Sukna forest area and then we started the climb into Tung, and our car really struggled on the road. Our refill were much more and thankfully the mountainside had these cute bamboo water connection so getting water was not a problem but wearing a suit and then doing the exercise was an odeal. By the time we hit Kerseung our Car and Didibhai both got sick. My sister started puking all over and our car refused to move and needed longer cooling down time.  By the time we hit school it was late evening and children from all over the world were checking in. The car just broke down near the school gates and we walked the last few steps into the compound tired and hungry.

Mrs. Williams who was going to be our Teacher was there to greet us as was Mr. and Mrs. Murray as well as Mr. and Mrs. Steward and a host of pretty looking teachers all from New Zealand and UK etc. I was in shock as the school was huge. I mean huge with kids like me running around wild and screaming or crying as the case may be and my sister who was two years older than me holding my hand and telling me to run back to the car.

A matron took us inside and took me to the boy’s dormitory while someone else took my sister to her dormitory and soon we assembled for dinner. The dining room was like a palace to me… so much food and so many kids eating all at once. This was facanating for me as I came from a middle class joint family back ground and now rubbing shoulders with the “who is who” of the world was just a dream. Their ENGLISH WAS PURE WHILE MINE WAS JUST ABOUT ADEQUATE and the first friend I made was Sonam Wangyal and Shankar Dev. Sonam is still with me in FB and that night as I lay down tucked in my blankets I felt cold- confused and scared and felt that my parents had abandoned us and run off.

Next morning at 6 am while it was still dark we were woken up and I went to the locker room and took out my tooth brush and paste and was helped by a beautiful Angel Tara who was the Ayah under the matron. Tara spoke fluent Bengali so conversation was not difficult and she helped me with my new uniform and slipped on the tie and soon I was ready for breakfast.

I was taken to my new class and saw Mrs. William there and I think it was class 2 and soon I was given a huge pile of books and brown paper and labels and everything smelt new. I never had new books before and a school bag too and my own seat and chair. WoW and an angel sat beside me. She was Sasi Burloung from Siam (Thailand) and I fell in love with her instantly….. Maybe I still am. She was stunningly beautiful and we became great friends too.

The day passed off well and we had PT for one period and what I did not do during class I made up in the PT class. I was very very good in sports as it came naturally and whatever sports task was given to me I did well and became a pet with PT Mam Miss Samson. Post classes we were allowed to play in the front of the school ground reserved for the juniors and now I had good cricket equipment to play with and wooden wickets too and a real bat. My sporting career got shaped up here.

In meanwhile my homesickness was getting cured but whenever I met my sister and saw her cry as she never got over her sadness I too would hold into her and cry too.

In fact Ma had to come back for her the following Saturday and the 3 of us stayed in Planter’s club for the weekend and things got slightly better as for the next one month we were allowed to go out on weekends.

I loved the swimming pool as we had 2 days of swimming which was great. We really had a blast and in spite of the cold it was fun. Open air and the Queen of mountains Kanchanghanja right in front of us with her peak covered with a huge blanket of clean snow and I never got tired of that view EVER.

We had forests all around us and Mrs William would take the class out on walks during classes and show us nature and we saw how spiders spun webs and how seeds became flowers. We grew flowers in beds dug by us and we planted the seeds and watered it too and my learning was more outdoors than books and today if I love nature and mountains it was because of Mrs Williams. We went for picnics to Lebong Race course and had our own adventure with monkeys. We invented adventures too and Robin Hood was my favourite.

We saw movies in school and John Wayne was my hero as was Tarzan and other movie characters. Comics were read and reread so many times and I never got bored. We were taken to town once a month I think and given Re.1/ to spend and I would use it on pony rides and toffees. We could not leave Mrs Williams reach and she kept a great watch over us as would some of our seniors too.

I don’t remember which house I was allotted to but our leader was Benu Chatterjee who was the hero of every one. My heroics in the sports field got our team points and in junior school I was quite popular. Organised games in Cricket Football and hockey happened as per season and I learnt the fundamentals through good players and Robin Sir. Mr Murray played for New Zealand in cricket and he was a great wicket keeper and my first sports hero. Although I was fond of bowling I wanted to keep wickets as that is what my hero would do. He would stand right up to the stumps even to fast bowlers and that was exciting. We never were allowed net practise as only in class 2 but he would come to our junior school compound and show us the correct way to hold the bat and also help me with my bowling etc.

Within the end of first term my grades improved and my English was good and when Baba came for a week end visit he was and so very surprised with my progress and Mrs William had good things to say about me and my report card showed good marks. This excited my father as I was coming from a Bengali medium school to an upper lip English medium school and one of the best too and I did well. He spoilt me silly in town and I got to take my first photograph with school uniform and cap in Das Studio and Baba got many prints to send back to his family. He was so proud of his children and it showed. In Calcutta Baba was very strict and I feared him but on this visit he was so very different. Kind hearted and full of humour and he remained like that till his untimely death in 1966.

He had gone out of his way to get a good job in the tea garden and as part of the perks Didbhai and me were given education by the organisation and he felt proud to see simple children running around with the rich kids who were giving that much respect back to us….. Baba never understood that in school all were equal.

Soon monsoons came to Darjeeling and for days and weeks it just poured. I never saw so much rain in my life and this weather fascinated me and even today I love rains. Life carried on for us and we even had swimming classes in the rain and it was quite comical to wear our swim suits and on top of it wear our rain coats and then swim….. Come back in rain coats……Don’t ask me why???

I remember North Point School and other schools come and play matches and we would all stand in the side  lines and our cheers leaders would go…1-2-3-4 who are we for…5-6-7-8 who do we appreciate and we would howl and enjoy ourselves in the side lines win or lose. And we had our class matches too and it would be fun.

Weather changed again and it was October and in another month we would be home. Now school sports practise had started and I was entered in various events and my house captain made us practise our events over and over again and we spent hours perfecting our craft. D day came and I remember it was so colourful. The whole area was marked by huge flags and ropes and tracks were coloured in white and whole of Darjeeling came to see our events. My parents were there too and I remember I got 3 prizes in running and spoon and marble race and sack race…..Standing on the podium to get a prize was a great high…..

We would now sing some songs about going home and I can still hum the tunes and forgotten the words but it used to be great singing together and having a blast.

Group class photo and school photo sessions was a new experience for me and my sister and we had a holiday as we changed dresses so many times for various group activities and I really admire Uncle from Das Studio who had come to photograph a bunch of co-ed naughty but fun loving brats…. Some glimpses

The day school closed for us juniors and we went to Darjeeling Station and boarded the toy train to Siliguri and “Boy Oh Boy” was it thrilling or what….. No one could stop us from singing Do Da DO Da Day on the top of our voices and running all over the small compartment and at times even sneaked on to the road when the train was climbing slowly to Ghoom. Batasiya Loop saw us stop our sing and dance as someone told us we were going back to school….Oops!!!!! What a ride we had and I did not want it to end…… We chug chugged into Siliguri and there was Baba and Ma ready to take us into their arms….. Our Ford Prefect car “Jagarnath” was waiting for us and also the Willey’s jeep and we returned back in style as Baba being an engineer and Duar Garage Uncle Dhatt did things to the car and she ran quite well. No filling up water in the radiator every 10 km and soon by evening we were home.

A great first year in a boarding school in new surroundings and I came out better and strong. Thank you Mrs William and my friends for teaching me to live together and share things….. Sonam if you ever read this Thank you brother for being there for me.