A NOTE OF GRATITUDE TO MY ALMA MATER

My dear Alma Mater,

I entered inside your huge gates as a tiny tot of three and a half, holding my parents’ hands. The sudden familiarity and comforts of the home were soon replaced by strange faces all around. I never could understand why my parents had to leave me with you every day and then pick me up after some time. As the A-B-C-Ds and the 1-2-3-4s started sinking into my mind, I realised that it wasn’t that bad after all to spend some time in the company of strangers!

Within a year, I was made to understand that you were to be a part of my life for many more years. Though it was difficult to fathom what that actually meant at that time, the picture became pretty clear when I saw the Report Card at the end of each year.

I am grateful to you for all the sweet and sour memories that I have had with you that have played a crucial role of shaping me into what I am today. It goes without saying that I am grateful to you for having such expert teachers who instilled the subject knowledge into me. I still remember some of those difficult formulae of Maths and those experiments in the Chemistry lab which would invariably end up with someone breaking a test tube resulting in severe reprimanding.

And yes, these days when I see people going crazy for physical fitness regimens, I often remember the compulsory PT (Physical Training) classes each week, which we would often look for convincing excuses to skip (but could hardly ever succeed to escape from the vigilante team that were assigned the task of exposing such escapists). I find many of those exercises I did at school then, in the fitness training modules today. A salute for incorporating such ageless fitness regimens!

I am grateful to you dear school, for training me in three languages so well. I can vouch for every student that our English, Odia and Hindi speaking, writing and reading abilities are among the best. It is such a misconception in our country that English-medium schools compromise with regional languages training. But, a school like you wonderfully dispels such doubts by churning up multi-lingual scions.

I am grateful to you for the discipline and values that you have imparted, that actually made you one of the best in the city. Rules were a bit too harsh, I must admit. But, they have moulded and made me.

As I am grateful to you, I am so much more grateful to my parents for introducing me to you – one of the best decisions they have taken for me!

I can go on writing letters running into pages to express my gratitude, dear School, for what you have been to me. But, more on it when I meet you in person in the Alumni Meets!

Gratefully yours,

Rajnandini

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