Memories of our school days are among the most beautiful ones in our lives and sometimes they remain more vivid than later memories.
I was fortunate enough to be a student of one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the Doon valley namely the Convent of Jesus and Mary (CJM). It is a 112-year-old girls’ school which stands proudly in the heart of the valley and has been loved by thousands of girls over the years — while they were its students and after they passed out of its hallowed portals.
CJM is part of my being as it formed my personality and laid the foundations for my learning. The Irish nuns were our mentors and guardians. They won our little hearts with their warmth and their love for discipline and goodness. Sometimes, we feared them, no doubt but later we realised that whatever they did was in order to make us better human beings with strong values. They may have made us “kneel down” at times (an experience which no Convent girl can ever forget) but when our knees hurt us, we would ensure that we mended our ways. The love they gave us more than made up for the bit of knee hurting!
Whenever I pass the Convent Road (named after the school) I go back to the days when the building was the focus of my existence and my teachers and classmates my entire world. I knew no other world besides the one, which existed within the imposing red walls of my alma mater. The classrooms the assembly hall, the lovely corridors the gardens outside the nuns’ quarters, the small but well-stocked library looked after by the devoted librarian Mrs Deedkar, the canteen manned by a person fondly called “Sweetman” by the girls, the little bookshop which opened only for an hour (during break time) and where we could buy textbooks, notebooks and stationery. All these were important parts of our world where we grew up, learning to love and respect our teachers, forming lifelong friendships with each other and realising the importance of learning — from books as well as from life.
Those were amazing days. There was hardly any technology in our lives except for the radio and a bit of TV (good old Doordarshan). STD phones were a far-off dream and mobile phones were undreamt of! We had just heard that there was something called a computer but had no idea what it was like. life was very simple. But we were very happy. With our bicycles and basketball, with our fountain pens and coloured sketch pens, with our canvas bags and plastic tiffin boxes, our wooden cardboards for the exams, our plain black Bata shoes and hardy Duckback raincoats with their Red Riding Hood kind of hoods, our Apsara pencils and scented erasers. We put no extra demands before our parents. We were happy to be shuttling between our homes and our school. It was a life of contentment when the only thing we hankered after was getting good marks in the exams.
The Church and the chapel were as beautiful as they are today. The imposing St Francis Church in our campus was loved by the entire city, as it is even today. Sunday prayers at this church are attended by a large number of people from all over the city. We went to the Church sometimes for special occasions. I remember attending Christmas prayer services which overawed me even as a small girl.
Dear CJM, my school friends and I remember all our years spent within your loving environment. We remember every classroom, every teacher, all the sisters, Mother Superiors, the lively school fetes, the Feast Days of all the saints, the walking trips to the cinema to watch classic English films, the nervousness before the ICSE and ISC board exams, the “socials” we had with our brother school (St Joseph’s Academy) in our last year (Class XII) and also the day when we were given a farewell by the teachers and nuns before we went on Prep leave for our ISC /12 exam. The day of the farewell, three decades ago, is still clear in my mind. It was a heart breaking occasion and I remember weeping uncontrollably throughout the speeches made by our teachers. I felt that life would not move once I left school. How would I ever be able to exist without itIJ The love for my dear alma mater an important part of my life till today.