11/06/2008

Good Old St.Mira's Days!!!

Today's morning walk was so cool and weather was wonderful,I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and I do wonder for what reason though,brought back memories of my college days and I decided to put it down here as it all unfolds.So here we go....... down memory lane .......flash backs of life &times between 1970-1974.
Those days it was so easy to get admission to any college,pretty uncomplicated procedures for sure.You just went to the college,bought the application form, filled it and paid your fees,as simple as that.Something unimaginable today.
Anyways I joined St.Mira's College for girls,the commerce stream and had the most wonderful four years of teenage.Coming from a typical Tam brahm family my parents were pretty conservative and so naturally a list of dos and don'ts came along too.The one that troubled me most was the dress code..........I was allowed to wear only "pavadai davani",salwar suits a big no no, unheard of among the orthodox tamil iyers inspite of living in Pune.It was either you go to college the way parents want you to or just stay back,so lost the battle for sure,trying to convince my parents that 'pavadai davani' was embarrassing as college wear.Anyways, I did manage to put my foot down on that one and settled for sari instead though I was just 16 and a little too young for sarees may be.
Our principal dear dear Dada JP Vaswani as he is popularly known used to conduct our assembly regularly,and attendance at the assembly was compulsory (we needed 80%attendance to appear for exams),and it was a pleasure to listen to his lectures and the small bajhan sessions that followed were wonderful too.Of course I probably did not realise the value all the wonderful lectures he used to give,because may be I was pretty immature to understand his teachings.Today I surely take pride in the fact that I had the privilege of studying in an institute which imparted values to its students.I feel more privileged that I had the gift of attending an institute who's principal is an internationally recognised and revered person.He is responsible for starting the World Meatless Day .To learn more about Dada and his missions and teachings go here.Probably this is one of the major reasons for the kind of person I am today.Maybe with or without my knowledge a small bit of Dada's teachings have registered in my mind.
We used to watch everyday our principal going on his daily morning walks and we used to be amused that all his disciples had to run to cope with his speed.These memories I do cherish.His sister too used to take our assembly some days and she was a very pious and religious lady.This year will see Dadaji JP Vaswani's 90th birthday.Back home in Pune whenever we get a chance we do not miss the chance of listening to dear dadaji on Sony tvevery morning at 6.30 am.
Ours was a small class of about thirty girls and we had excellent teachers and we had managed to be together too all the four years.Ekadashi was a special day at college when our college fed the poor.Students too were given prasad on Ekadashi days and the chole bread we used to get those days were simply delicious.I am yet to eat anything even close that till date.Our canteen too used to serve the best chole bread.
I was meted out partial treatment at home(none of brothers I believe got pocket money or so I believe till today) and my father used to give me a pocket money of five rupees every month.This money was basically for transport.I used to save up this money by walking to college with my friends(we were three of us who went together regularly until final year) .This money was used to eat masala dosa once a month at Mangal Vihar on East Street Pune whenever we had an off or when we decided to bunk a class.
Our accountancy classes were filled with fun and laughter,thanks to our teacher Shri ESV.He was a famous chartered accountant in Pune and had his own flourishing practise Today I am told his son's run the office.I also remember D who was the most witty students of our class and always up to some thing. Today D is a lecturer in Mira's College teaching accountancy and it was indeed very nice to meet her a couple of years ago.One of my seniorsUB who is a good friend too, is the principal of the junior college at St.Mira's and I do feel so proud and happy for all these people.Right from my school days I have had this quality of feeling proud and happy for all the achievements of my friends.
The second &final year B.com I did combined studies with one of the very rich Sindhi business girls in our class BK.She was a very good friend too.I happened to meet her at Pune airport in 1986 (with her baby boy and she was living in Bangkok she told me).after 1974.The beginning of final year B.com itself saw many of my class mates getting engaged, married and somehow after that I did not keep in touch with many.D and I were together at Ness Wadia college doing M.com(which incidentally I never completed).The most boring classes were Economics and I remember our class was punished once for regularly bunking economics classes and we had to face our principal JPV.All of us were nervous to face him and we had never before seen the strict side of our principal.He had decided to take action and punish us ,even while punishing us he showed no signs of anger and was very calm and smilingly said unless we were all ready with all the notes in economics (which we missed he would not allow us to sit for exams).After hours of pleading and promising we would not repeat he let us go.This was one incident which I was a little ashamed of in college which was otherwise filled with fun.
We went for a picnic too to Lonavala with our Commercial Law teacher Mrs A who was a very affectionate and motherly teacher.We went to Lonavala by the local train and it was one enjoyable picnic playing antakshari, word building, dumb sharads and many other games too.Not to miss out the famous batata wada at Karjat and also the famous Lonavala chikkis.
Mrs A was responsible for my interest in law.I was very keen on pursuing LLB which remains a dream till date.Will write about this one some other time though.
Will conclude with a couple of quotes from dear dadaji :
"Life is too short to be spent in fault-finding, holding grudges, or keeping memory of wrongs done to us. Forgive even before forgiveness is asked. Forgive and forget".

"An infinite potential lies hidden within us. We are unaware of it, because we think of ourselves as limited, restricted creatures. We have identified ourselves with a biochemical mental organism. Our true self is the atman. Tat twamasi! That art thou! There can be no limit to what we can do – and achieve!

And one which I will always remember "Never, Never, Never, Give Up!!!!!!!!"

A thought right now coming to my mind is that I must 'THANK GOD FOR ALL THAT HE HAS GIVEN ME UNTIL NOW'!!!!!!!!!

whowho was a
Ahe hheJhe PV
Thehe

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