Basketball: Dedicated to Kelly Sir

I dedicate this post to Kelly Sir for all the hours of practice, all the jokes, all the scoldings, all the warnings of hitting (from outside the court during matches :D), for all the broken chairs during the game, for all the times he fought for us with the referees, for all the winning matches and last but not the least for giving us a passion and not just a game.

So here goes my Basketball journey:

The flood lights were on, score: 28-26, last 2 minutes left: crowd was going crazy with all the slogans and shouts, Amrita had the ball (our captain), Kelly sir was shouting, "pass the ball, don't dribble, pass it to Kokil", I had reached the other court and was screaming for a pass, Amrita heard and passed the ball to me, and I passed it to Kokil, she went in for the shoot and for a second, it was as if the world stood still, everything was in slow motion and then there it was, another score and a long whistle blow announcing : DIS Senior Girls Basketball team had won the CBSE Basketball tournament with final score as 30-26. What a moment it was, we five ran towards each other hugging as if there was no tomorrow, jumping in tandem, screaming our lungs out, then came the rest of the team, crowd and Kelly Sir all rejoicing the winning moment. To add flavor to the win, we beat Jaswant Modern against whom we had lost the finals a year before. It all came together to make the moment absolutely perfect.

It was not a one off thing, basketball has given me numerous such moments to cherish for whole of my life, be it Independence cup at St. Thomas (where we were always runner's up and hoped every year that Welham's doesn't participate :D) or Kashyap Cup at Pestleweed (where we were the winner's for two continuous years and where both of our school's cheer leading team always ended up in verbal fights), or District tournament (where we got to go to Doon school :) and be in the company of some amazing players ;)) or Hilton cup (which was only 5 member team game and tested our stamina to the max.) or CBSE cup at our school (where we always won with an exception of once loosing against JMS). It might sound unbelievable but basketball was so important to our school that before final matches our principle Mrs Mann used to call us inside her house for Prashad and we got treat at President Restaurant on winning. All the wins were celebrated like crazy and loosing meant everyone around literally crying and being upset for hours and hours.

I remember once there was day match during school hours (usually tournament timings are after school) against a Mussourie school (can't recall the name, an all girls school something starting with L). All of us had reached the court and were warming up, suddenly we saw class after class coming out of the academic building (in one straight line and one arm distance:D) towards the court. The scene made me so nervous, all the teachers had come to watch too. Anyway, the game started and suddenly I notice, my class teacher Saxena mam (a nice old lady-hindi teacher) and Shamta mam (social science teacher) shouting things like, "oh god, can't you guys see, number 3 is not been checked, Anshu take her" etc etc. Even though the game was on but for a moment I was confused and smiling. Then came a time out and my smile was gone. Both literally started scolding us as if we hadn't finished our homework :D (teacher's just can't digest that there might be something we would know better of :D). Anyway luckily for us, we won the match and the pride was retained :).

I had started playing basketball at the time when the court was still not cemented and after every vacation, it used have knee length green grasses growing all over. As a solution to it, school used to dig the whole court making it so uneven that it was a rarity of ball coming back to you after a dribble. Gradually we got a cemented court and an amazing coach in the form of Kelly Sir. He made us run for hours, dribble for hours, shoot for ours and ultimately gave us perfect set of boys and girls for a team and what a team it was. Our boys team was simply superb and we were not that bad either ;). We played almost every tournament and won majority of them. Team we had been afraid of, became just another game and list of trophies were added every season. The practice time and match time used to be my best hours of the day and I miss it always. At the end I would just like to mention my amazing team mates : Amrita Shrestha, Amrita Singh, Amrita Gurung, Firfilla, Sanswarang, Kokil, Jasleen, Anuradha Gandhi. And ofcourse how can I forget the other half i.e. the boys team Eman Bose, Mudit, Pal, Bhuppi, Chintu, Moti, Krishad, Sheetal n others. Thank you for always standing by us and especial thanks to Eman bhaiya and Mudit Bhaiya for helping me get over my fear of lay ups :D. Miss you all soooooo much....

Note: Welcome Rahul Nautiyal Bhaiya, who has just joined my small group of followers. Seriously I was surprised and thrilled to see your name there. For readers who don't know him, he was in the senior most batch and one of the smartest guy around in school. Mahesh bhaiya told me a year back that you got married (I hope its correct info. because I am announcing it pretty publically), so Congrats :). Hope you like your junior's writing (if you remember me then it must be as a 5th or 6th class girl :)).

My sweetheart: For my little Bro.

It was that time of the year again when school's hostel used to get new occupants. There were new faces everywhere some sad, some happy and some bidding their final goodbyes. I stood on my hostel stairs thinking how its going to be a special day tomorrow. It would be special because my little brother Rishi was joining hostel. He was to enter class 2nd then, so you can imagine that when I say little, I literally mean it :). Ma had called up and told me he was all excited over the thought that he would get to be with his Didda (he calls me that) and have all the fun. What he miscalculated or shall I say missed out on was that Ma-Pa won't be there.

Finally the day arrived and he was there with Ma. After all the hostel formalities and shopping she finally bid goodbye to both of us and left. And that's when my brother's hostel life started. I can never forget how he cried when she left. It melts my heart every time that scene flashes across my mind of him crying out loud and trying to run towards the gate. I kept trying to distract him by telling him of all the fun we will have but nothing mattered at that point and all he wanted was for Ma to come back. He said call up Ma, she will come back and I replied, there's no phone. And as smart as he is, he said, "no I had seen a phone in the office, call her from there". After a while he calmed down but kept aloof and to himself. As a special case, school allowed him to stay with me in the girl's dormitory for a few days till he settled down. Slowly he stopped asking to go home, not because he forgot things or got fine with being away, but because he resigned to the fact that there's no going back for a long time.

During the school hours, I guess he did ok, but during games I would see him walking alone all by himself and run to him. I used to call little kids and ask them to be with him and they replied, "didi we always call him but he never comes". He was a kid who was loved at home, taken care of like the only baby in the world and here he was, in an unknown place without the comfort of home, love of Maa and his strength and support "papa". It took him a long time to settle down but did it so well. Gradually he settled in the hostel life and things began to change for good. Every sport was new to him and I guess he promised that he won't leave playing any of it. That's why during every vacation when we went home and Papa used to ask him what he played, it was always a new game :D. He was always among the toppers of his class, had "contacts" with the seniors :D. Life had become pretty good for him except for the fact that he didn't get to eat more than one omelette's during breakfast :D and one Sukhdev bhaiya (a helper in junior boys hostel) whom he called "Dukhdev Bhaiya" really troubled him by catching his mischiefs and complaining to the wardon :D. Oh! and one more problem was the canteen coupon of 200/month that we used to get was pretty less for my sweety :D.

All in all, this phase of our life is such that even today when we start talking about it, it can go on for hours and hours with almost the same stories and it never gets boring :).

When I slapped a guy

Some of my friends were confused between Doon and Doon International, well to clarify, Doon is all boys and a very old school whereas Doon International is a co-ed school established in 1991 but of course the best :).

So, now from the campus of Doon, lets get back to my school i.e. Doon International. I was in class 8th and a completely changed person compared to what I was back in days of my 1st blog era :D. One very peculiar character of mine during those years was that I for some reason just couldn't stand boys in general and hated girls who would be all sweet and sugary just to be in their good books. It doesn't mean that I didn't have male friends, I did, but they were selected few whom I found to be genuine souls :). In class 8th, I was made the monitor along with one most unexpected candidate named Vicky Shahu. Now, the reason I said most unexpected is because he was neither good in sports nor in studies and nor was he very popular (I am sorry Vicky, I am sure you must be very successful now in life but back... :D). His only USP was that he was one of the naughtiest student of my class and our teacher Mrs. Jha mam's philosophy was to make a girl monitor who is intelligent (yup! since its my blog, I have full liberty to call myself intelligent, smart, etc etc., hahahaha) and a boy monitor who is the naughtiest. Reason being that making him the monitor would bring in responsibility and the girl would represent the class otherwise.

So, we both were made to sit right in front of the entrance at 90 degree angle to the class, a very difficult place to sit and understand what's written on the black board.

It was hot summer day and school was nearing towards its end for the day. Our teacher for the last session was absent so Jha mam called us and asked us to make sure that class doesn't make any noise. We entered and I announced the same and requested them to talk in whisper's if at all they want to talk. Everyone listened expect this one over smart boy probably because he thought himself to be so cool or whatever. So, he very smartly came over and sat on my desk and the conversation went on something as follows (not exactly):

Anshu: A, please get back to your sit.

A: (with a smirk), chal na, kya ho gaya isme.

Anshu: I am serious, mam ane wali hain and she really won't like it.

A: (showing off like a fool) itna kya serious hai.

Note: all this while Vicky didn't utter a word since they all lived together (all boaders).

Anshu: Thappad parega (its out of habit).

A: acha chal laga

Anshu: (getting angry) main seriously laga dungi, go and sit on your seat.

A: (getting serious) laga de dikha.

This "laga dungi" and "laga ke dikha" went on for a while and my anger was shooting straight up and by this time we both were standing right in front of the class and arguing. The whole class was looking at us and some of our friends sensed that its not going to end just in talks and probably thats why they were standing behind us, just in case. Continuous conversation of ,"A get back to your seat or else I am serious will slap you" and him saying, "acha now you try" wasn't helping me and all of a sudden I lost my temper and there flew my hand right on his face (after all he had been daring me in front of the whole class for pretty long time and I couldn't be the girl who would get scared of boys hehehehe). The moment I slapped him, he was shocked and thank god for that or else I wouldn't be telling this story, hahahhaha. By the time he realised his friends held him away from me but don't know why in the world I started crying..:D...To tell you the truth, Gosh! within a seconds I was terrified :D. It just stuck me as to what I had done, after all if his reaction time would have been less, I would have been in real trouble. Anyway hearing all the commotion, Jha mam came in the class and saw the scene, immediately without even asking anything she blasted off "A" (he was one of the most disliked boys of teachers). That's bugged him even more. So, this is how the day ended.

But then in the evening came tution time when all the boarders go for tutions according to their respective classes, and there we met again. From the conversation that I could hear, he swore to get back at me and I was petrified :D ...But nothing happened and to add to my happiness, he was not promoted to class 9th and I was relieved :D .

Note: for all my school friends (aniket, naman, asjad, apporva etc...) do not name "A" in any comment.

Two days of Sunny winter at Doon School

To tell you the truth, I don't really remember much about what happened in class 5th and 6th. The events preceding my admissions in DIS were something that has run through my mind a number of times, so its a pretty vivid memory but after that its all a blur. So I, from now on will write about random thoughts and memories (just as my URL says) in the chronological order.

So why in the world would I go to Doon School for two day!!! The reason was:

District athletics meet at The Doon School :)

Every year in the month of December, District Athletics meet ( a 2 day event) used to be held where all the schools of Dehradun including IMA (Indian Military Academy) used to come and the hosts was always Doon School, thanks to its huge grounds and amazing infrastucture. The school is a city in itself. On the day of the Meet, Doon used to wear a complete festive look. It had tents selling all sorts of eateries, campus filled with students in different uniforms, sports men and women practicing their events, teachers shouting at students for varied reasons or sometimes no reason at all and of course the sight of Doon boys trying to get a date was pretty common.

From school's perspective this used to be one of the most important sports meet as it was the biggest event of the year and every win was an added trophy of pride in the School's reception area. So the moment dates used to get declared, our school's full focus used to shift from its all time favorite sport i.e. basketball, to athletics and march past. I have never been into athletics so march past was the only way to get into the team for the Meet :). My reasons for getting into the team was because those 2 days were of absolute fun, festivities and we (boarders) used to get Rs 50 coupons to eat (oh yes! it was a big motivation, since going out was a rarity and that too with money was a dream :D). But for some of my seniors, besides these things there was another motivation, Doon boys :). Doon boys had a completely different aura about them probably because they knew they belonged to the best. So, those seniors would try harder than anything else to get their techniques of march past right. Finally on the D-day, our matron Ganga didi used to check our complete uniform to see if everything was spic and span and while getting onto the school bus, another check was made by Thapa Sir (PT sir).

The atmosphere in the bus used to be amazing with we singing in our pathetic voices all throughout the ride and then fighting for the best pair of gloves ( have been in school for 6 years but for some reason it never once managed to get all equally clean white gloves in the exact number as required). While getting down at The Doon, we behaved like perfect students for the fear of being sent back.

The main ground of the Doon was a beautiful site with green grasses sparkling with early morning dew drops all over and surrounded by Doon's hostel buildings. So, the boys who probably would never get their chairs out and sit in the balcony used to be only in the balcony as if the rooms didn't exist. On ground below, girls from various schools used to pass glances or secret looks, trying to gather attention etc. Every school got their separate place allocated and we as far as I can recall, always got the one which was 3rd towards left from announcement center and near one particular building of hostel ( a great delight for a few :) ).

The event started with all the school's march past team marching one complete round on the tracks and saluting the chief guest for the day. And then started various athletic events in their respective places.

Now for the my seniors, once march past was over, what exactly do you think they would be doing :). To tell you the truth, I really don't know, but by the time we got to the eateries area with our coupons, we would see them sitting with some Doon boy, chatting with a smile of triumph :) (I can just imagine the state of mind of our school boys on seeing this :D). And we being the little kids would just wink at them to congratulate :D. Later in the day I would get to hear all their stories about what the boys name, what he said, what plans of meeting they have for the next day etc etc. All this privilege for me was because I was particularly close to those seniors for two reasons, 1) we were all in the basketball team and 2) we all were boarders. I can't name anyone, reason being simple, they will either kill me for it or sue me, but my school mates would for sure get to know who all I am talking about :).

And for my seniors: You guys absolutely rocked!!!!

Bangkok Calling (dedicated to my dadi)

Finally term was coming to an end and winter break was nearing. Ma-Pa had called me up on a Sunday (phone calls from home were allowed only on 2nd and 4th Sundays) before the winter break to tell me that I will be going home to them since my passport was ready and that dadi (Grandma) will come along. Because of which instead of taking flight directly from Delhi, I had to first go to Madhubani. So kaka (from now on I will use "kaka" for my uncle since that's what I call him) took me to Madhubani and from there one of Papa's childhood friend took me and dadi to Kolkata for taking the flight.

At the airport I was all on my own, ofcourse dadi was there but instead of she taking care of me (like always), this time it was the other way round.

Hmm..so I went to the nearest check in counter and showed the pretty ground staff our tickets and passport and she in turn gave me two forms to fill. Now, how exactly do I fill the form, I had no clue. My mind started running on how to get help and then I remembered that uncle who had come to drop me had said that he won't leave till our take-off, so I thought "problem solved". But there was a hurdle, leaving dadi alone inside was a problem, so I went and told her that I will go out for some paper work. My strict instruction to her was, "please do not sit on the floor here, there are chairs and dont worry". With this I went on the mission. Now usually in airports (esp. international) , once you are in, they don't allow people go out but this being Kolkata airport in 1996, I didn't face any problem in doing so. So I got my forms filled and also got to know that only if I had known that all the information was there in my hand itself (passport), I would have been saved the trouble. Anyway, I got in and what do I see, dadi sitting on the floor just as I had feared and talking loudly to herself in Maithily (my language). What she was saying, I will translate for you in English: "Oh! God, where did this girl disappear, I had asked my son not to let me come alone with her but he didn't listen. Now she has left me here, what do I do, where do I go". Now imagine my state of mind on seeing this, I was embarrasses plus angry. I rushed to her to tell that I hadn't abandoned her at the airport and that we would reach safely (even though I doubted this myself). Luckily for me, some staff had heard dadi and came to help us since he too was a maithil. So journey up to boarding the flight was taken care of. In the flight, we again got forms and this time I knew all the answers :D, the only problem was that I didn't have a pen. On getting to know this dadi again started "Oh! God, she doesn't know anything and I have been left at her mercy". I on the other hand wasn't giving a very comforting look either since I myself was all freaked out. Anyway I managed a pen, flight landed, we got off and with the same tension, managed to get out of the airport. There outside stoop Papa with a camera in hand, Maa and the cutest and loveliest thing of my life, my little bro Rishi. I was meeting all of them after over a year. Papa recorded almost the entire first day of me in Bangkok starting from walking out of the airport. It was one of the sweetest things but this video has become something of a trouble for me. Reason being that I was looking horrible thanks to being in hostel and my self judgement of what was good :D. Maa and Rishi never miss out an opportunity to laugh thinking of the condition I was in. Even now when Thailand talks start, I know it will come up and my best reaction is to slip out before the talk moves in my direction and since bhai knows this too well, he makes sure it comes up before I do that :D.

Note 1: From the above post you might think that my Dadi was a pretty weird lady. But that is really not the case. She is an extremely sweet, smart and perfect lady who loves me a looooot. I think the unknown place and she being left onto the mercy of her 9 year old grand daughter got on to her :D.

Note 2:While writing this post, I saw the video again. It's actually weird :D. Had it been someone else's I too wouldn't have missed out on an opportunity to get a good laugh :D.

Early days in School (in the memory of Pooja di)

There I stood on the stairs of my hostel, not knowing what to do and where to go. So I turned towards the dormitory to unpack. As I entered, Ganga didi saw me and called me in her office to introduce me to another girl who had joined a day before and was from Bihar. Her name was Somya Singh and she was my 1st friend ( if you ever read this Somya then just want to say that thanks for being my support, and yes I will talk about Mehak in later posts :D ). I was relieved to meet her not because of finding a company but because I thought oh! here is another girl who most probably has a problem with English. But to confirm I remember asking her "kya sab yahan English main hi baat karte hain?" (does everyone around here talk in English) and at the same time praying that her answer is "no". And she very casually replied "haan", oh I was heartbroken. But then I went in for another dive and asked, "lekin mujhe tou English nahi ati" ( but I don't know English) and she just like before i.e. very casually replied, "koi bat nahi isme kya hai, seekh jaogi" and I thought to myself, "ya easy for you to say, I mean how in the world can anyone learn English just like that".

Inside the dorm I met Harmeen (my to be best friend), her two sisters and Pooja di (aspired to be a model) and Bhawan di, the two best friends who had joined hostel the same year and were to become the most sought after girls of school.

First day in class was pretty normal with I discovering a new word for addressing teacher's as "mam". We in Madhubani used to call them "sister" even though it wasn' a convent school.

First few days passed as pretty uneventful since everyone was just settling down. Then came my introduction to loads of new things such as horse riding, basketball, dancing etc. and slowly life started moving smoothly. First day at horse riding was something I will never forget. I was told to stand in line for a turn to ride and learn and then when my turn came, sir probably didn't notice that I was new and asked me to sit on horse and left it. For those of you who know horse riding, you might be aware that one is supposed to move up-down in rhythm with horse's steps and I was wasn't told that. So the next thing I know was that the horse started running (not as fast as you are imagining :) ) and I slowly started slipping down sideways. God! I held on to horse like never before and was screaming for life. Just imagine a 9 year old on verge of falling from horse, screaming for life holding on to horse badly with both the legs stuck in the saddle, hahahaha. Its hilarious to me now but back then it made me stay away from horses for months :D.

Slowly summer vacation's came when I went to Madhubani for my uncle's marriage. Came back and was struggling to keep up. Then next came winter break of one and half months by which time my passport was ready hence I could go home to my parent's who were in Bangkok, Thailand at that time. I was 9 years old and was to travel alone to Bangkok.......

Reaching Dehradun and my beloved school...

3rd April 1996 was the day when I was supposed to take a bus from ISBT, New Delhi for Dehradun, a city which has been described in some

amazing words by writers all across. I had been packing my stuffs since quite a few days not knowing what to take and what not to take. School had mailed list of things we were supposed to buy for one full term e.g. 6 soap bars, 3 shampoos, 3 coconut oil bottles etc. And yes even the brands of each items were mentioned. We decided to buy all of that in Dehradun itself ( a pretty obvious decision).

Finally came THE day when we (me and my uncle) boarded an overnight bus and reached Dehradun early morning at around 4am on 4th April. It wasn't all foggy and fresh as many (including me) would im

agine a valley town to be like. The only thing there which was similar to my imagination was the early morning chill and hot cup of tea being sold at the bus terminal but my memories still find it extremely beautiful. Anyway, it was very early to go to school so we decided to kill time by sitting at the bus terminal for a while and then explore the city a bit. After few hours, probably my uncle got tired of sitting or saw the anxiety on my face, either ways he decided that it was time to explore. So we strolled out and after few minutes of walk, we saw a clock house known as "ghanta ghar" standing in the middle of the cross road. On one side of it was the famous "paltan bazaar" (which in the coming years was about to become the spot for our outings), the opposite road to it lead to the hang out place of youngster's called "rajpur road" and on a corner lay the famous "kumar sweets". On walking a little further towards rajpur road we saw the beautiful "Gandhi park". Little did I know that its going to become a resting place for every time I reach Dehradun in the wee morning hours. Anyway, we sat there for an hour or so and then decided to finally go to School. So we took an auto, popularly known as "vikram" in Dehradun and reached in approximately 10min. Those lanes with small pebbles all over, china rose growing on both the side of the roads and the lanes either going uphill or downhill and very rarely at one le

vel, truly denote Dehradun.

Hmm..so I got down the auto and stepped in

side the gate of an place which was going to be my home for 6 years. We reached the reception of girls hostel and met my warden whom everyone called Ganga didi. She was nothing like those matrons dressed in all white that they show in the movies. Infact my hostel as a whole was a pretty

normal place to be without all those ultra strict convent school rules that usually denote hostel life.

Anyway, I was registered and then got my boarding number "910", a number that would be synonymous to my name for all the years that I would stay there. It would be written along side my name in every item that I own, my bag, trunk, dresses, toiletries, books..everything. After registration process was over, me and my uncle decided to go to the market and buy all the items in the list that had earlier been given to us. On reaching Paltan bazaar, my uncle was not very keen on buying items in the exact quantity as mentioned since he felt it wouldn't be used, but I on the other hand was adamant on not just buying in the exact quantity but a little more than that. After all I was the one who would be left alone without any money and any outside contact and then what if my bathing soap got over, what would I do...hahahaha..But over the years I did realize that my uncle was right. Finally the shopping was over in a jiffy mainly because there are shops which specialize in selling the items in the list (Dehradun has numerous boarding schools). After that we headed back to school and then came the time when I would actually be left alone. My uncle came till reception where my warden counted all the items one by one and put my boarding number "910" on them.

Once that was done, it was time for my uncle to leave. I still remember standing on the hostel stairs with little drops of tears rolling down my eyes watching him disappear behind the tall gates of my school. I had been away from Ma-Papa for quite sometime so it wasn't like I was feeling homesick or scared or whatever, but I just had a fear of unknown because it was the first time I was on my own at a completely new place with no one to take care of me....I had just entered class 5th then....

journey to my boarding school

I belong to a small sleepy town of Madhubani in a largely denounced (by many of my countrymen, me not being one of them) state of Bihar. Unlike whats usually shown in the movies based on Bihar, my hometown is a complete contrast. It's a small and quiet town with minimal crime, relaxed people and strong and deeply rooted culture going back to the times of Goddess Sita who supposedly belonged to our region (Maithil). No one is ever in a hurry here.

This story starts from the time when I had just completed standard 4th from MLPS (best school at that time :)), Madhubani. My parents wanted me to get into a good school which meant moving out of my hometown. And since they themselves were not in India so the only option left for me was to get into a boarding school. The first step towards this was me moving to Delhi with my uncle and prepare for various entrance exams. Speaking English was my weakness just like hundreds others from my place and so interviews were dreaded. Anyway I gave two entrance exams, one for Hamdard Public School, New Delhi and other for Doon International School, Dehradun. The entrance paper of Hamdard had asked us to write an essay on diwali and you can't even imagine how thrilled I was when I saw it, the reason being that I had memorized the whole essay on Diwali for my 4th standard exam and luckily I still remembered it word by word :D . So in all, the entrance went well. Then came the entrance for Doon International, which too went well thanks to some basic GK questions and an essay on cow which always started with "cow is a holy animal. It has 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 nose, four legs and a tail" hahahha. And seriously sentences after that required some real serious thinking :D. Anyway luckily for me and my confidence, the results came and I cleared both the entrances. Then came the dreaded part, INTERVIEW at Hamdard. God, I can't even begin to explain how it went, I literally couldn't understand a single sentence properly that the principle spoke except, "whats your name?" , "whats your father's name?". My uncle was sure that I would not get through and so he promised that if at all I clear this one then he will take me to Qutub Minar. On the result day just for the sake of it he went to see whether I had made it and the next thing I know is that I visited Qutub Minar just like I had been promised. But due to some reasons I didn't join the School and went on to join Doon International in Dehardun (one of the best decisions of my uncle). My Life began there...........