1st April 1995, a bevy of cars, excited parents, tweens and early teens in an assortment of expressions on their faces ruled the green grass and grey paved areas of ‘just –opened- to – the masses’,The Assam Valley School. Little then we realized that it was the beginning of a never- ending ‘sudser’ of our lives. A ‘sudser’ that would become so important and close to heart that each and every character that played a role and shaped the sudser would remain crystal clear in the head even after a dozen+ 1 years have passed by.
After the initial welcome ceremony, we the aviators went off to our respective new home away from home, our houses. Hence began the journey in the first girl’s hostel in the precinct of the Assam valley school, in Bhoroli.
Beginning with a merely two dozen and half or so girls, Bhoroli was spearheaded by Mrs. Sumithra Siromani acting as the first ever housemistress and Mrs.Ratnam as the first ever matron and Mrs. Shakila Banu as our first resident tutor .The fact that even today Bhoroli lies so close to the heart is the fact that it is here that we learnt our potentials, we learnt to be ourselves, we learnt our capacities and we learned our restrictions. To us the betterment of Bhoroli in each and every curriculum in the premise of avs meant everything. Hence we came up with the apt motto for our beloved house, ‘ever onward’.
Whatsoever we did , we did it with immense zeal and a never- ending spree of enthusiasm. For that matter it could as simple as putting up the shower curtains in our wash rooms on our first day in the house or it could be planting the mango trees in the orchard behind the Bhoroli building in the ornamental garden area(which presently I believe is occupied by a boys’ house!!) Being a Bhorolite itself brought a sense of self pride and did a good lot better to our inflating sense of confidence, and this was handed down to us by our seniors and then we as seniors did instill them onto our juniors.
Saturdays were always eagerly awaited upon. Saturday was the day when we got our paper coupons to feast in the goodies sold in Mrs. Alka Pandey’s tuck-shop, it was also the day when we sat in our courtyard gazing at the stars above with our friends talking whatsoever came to the mind ‘cause it was a day when we did away with our prep timings. Worth mentioning is the ‘Saturday night movie’ we always feasted our eyes on which was usually shown from the enormous private collection of films of Mr. and Mrs. Carling’s library. Of course it was that time of the century when we didn’t have hundreds of channels by the switch of a remote. Satellite television channels except for the Doordarshan hadn’t hit the common room television as yet!
There are zillions of anecdotes just waiting to be unfurled and be shared with the rest of you reading the article. I am not sure if I can wrap everything up that I want to say about my formative years spent in Bhoroli house and thus in Avs. Nevertheless it is always worth a try.
As Bhorolites we also did Sunday Assemblies aplenty in the auditorium (which was rechristened as , ‘ The Williamson Magor Hall’ some years after 1995). Another interesting activity that comes to mind are the infamous Bhoroli Productions that we put up in the hall. Every term, either in the spring or the autumn term in the school academic year, we as senior girls (there were only 2 batches above me) would get together and zero on a story-line. When I say a story- line let me tell you it was never ever picked up from elsewhere. Completely built from scratch, the play was written, scripted, directed, performed completely by us ourselves. In the intervals during the play, we also presented some adverts from television built in our own style. One of which I remember was Spice Girls brandishing the popular drink ‘Pepsi’.( It was the time when girl band ‘Spice Girls’ were the talk of the moment.)
The annual march past competition were continuously aced by us for three years in a row, more than winning it, it was the preparation phase which brought about a lot of excitement. Every evening after our dinner, one –two weeks before the competitions Bhoroli alongwith the other houses would be lined up in front of their respective houses and would rehearse and try to put the feet and hands in sync to the beat of the drum. Excitement ran in the air and one could easily feel a sense of competition in the air of AVS. And then came the yearly atheletics where we as bhorolites did leave a bench mark for the other girl hostels. From field events to track events our aim would always be to ace whatever we indulged in.
Academia wasn’t left behind either. Along with all the activities that engrossed us 24 x 7, the academics had to go hand-in- hand. After all, it was a competition among us and the other houses as to who would bring the maximum number of commendations back to the house and who would score the maximum number of A’s.
After we bid farewell to Mrs.Siromani, Mrs. Sanjukta Sivakumar took over the reigns of leadership of Bhoroli and Ms.Atia Khan followed suit as the matron and Mr.Abraham Patrick as the resident tutor alongwith his wife. These were the times where new things were introduced in the house. We had the first bicycles in the campus bought from our house funds and also we started maintaining a mini-library in the house itself. Like in school, we also divided ourselves into teams of socio-culture, for instance, into teams of sports or lets say quiz or dramatics. These mini- groups performed within the house much to the added delight of the girls.
The month of april every year saw us Bhorolites get involved in the annual Bihu celebration and performance alongwith the other house mates which was a tradition in the campus. This diaspora of ethnic culture was always put forward and spearheaded by our long-time tutor who was always an ardent Bhoroli supporter, Mrs.Meenakshi Boragogoi. For as long as we were in Avs this was one activity that always remained close to heart. Not to forget the annual Bengali-day celebration organized by Mrs. Subir Roy which was another taste of ethnic enjoyment.
Before I begin to wrap up my article for the day it is very worth mentioning that in the first ever Round-Square Conference participated by Avs was in the Round square Conference hosted by the Bishop Cotton Boy’s School in Shimla. This was sometime in 1998-!999. Incidently way back then, students were selected to represent the school and for this particular one, all four girls were selected and that too all Bhorolites. What thrill it gave us to have represented school outside! Ruchita, Priyanka, Ipshita and I alongwith Mr. Ramesh Babu and Mr. Carling had very successfully completed this one –week trip to Shimla.
Before graduating, we got to know another person better and learnt under her leadership and that person was Ms.Indu Kapoor who became the house-mistress. Under her, the leader in us grew. We excelled and became confident of our potentials.
With all the happenings and experiences that completed my years in Avs till I graduated, I still yearn for a slice of Avs even today. Even today my old house calls me, even today I want to wear my house-shirt and stand proud with my head held high. It is here that I discovered myself, it is here that I was blessed with people that are close even to this date, it is here that I learned and grasped, it is here that I got the confidence to share all that I knew with my juniors and lead the house. It is here that I survived and got myself ready to face the world…It is here that I learned to be myself and not to have any qualms about it. It is because I was a Bhorolite thus a student of AVS that I have become the person I am today living with only one motto in life,”Ever Onward”. Ever since then…it is the same whistle I have blown while staring at the same moon ……..and reminiscing about the golden phase of my life.
I would like the opportunity to mention my peer-group and fellow Bhorolites because as Bhorolites we lived upto our motto,’ever onward’ …………
Here’s to you girls, Sristie, Ruchita, Priyanka, Animikha, Lubna, Rukhsaan, Runila, Mona, Ipshita, The senior girls and the beloved Juniors. Kudos!!!!
After the initial welcome ceremony, we the aviators went off to our respective new home away from home, our houses. Hence began the journey in the first girl’s hostel in the precinct of the Assam valley school, in Bhoroli.
Beginning with a merely two dozen and half or so girls, Bhoroli was spearheaded by Mrs. Sumithra Siromani acting as the first ever housemistress and Mrs.Ratnam as the first ever matron and Mrs. Shakila Banu as our first resident tutor .The fact that even today Bhoroli lies so close to the heart is the fact that it is here that we learnt our potentials, we learnt to be ourselves, we learnt our capacities and we learned our restrictions. To us the betterment of Bhoroli in each and every curriculum in the premise of avs meant everything. Hence we came up with the apt motto for our beloved house, ‘ever onward’.
Whatsoever we did , we did it with immense zeal and a never- ending spree of enthusiasm. For that matter it could as simple as putting up the shower curtains in our wash rooms on our first day in the house or it could be planting the mango trees in the orchard behind the Bhoroli building in the ornamental garden area(which presently I believe is occupied by a boys’ house!!) Being a Bhorolite itself brought a sense of self pride and did a good lot better to our inflating sense of confidence, and this was handed down to us by our seniors and then we as seniors did instill them onto our juniors.
Saturdays were always eagerly awaited upon. Saturday was the day when we got our paper coupons to feast in the goodies sold in Mrs. Alka Pandey’s tuck-shop, it was also the day when we sat in our courtyard gazing at the stars above with our friends talking whatsoever came to the mind ‘cause it was a day when we did away with our prep timings. Worth mentioning is the ‘Saturday night movie’ we always feasted our eyes on which was usually shown from the enormous private collection of films of Mr. and Mrs. Carling’s library. Of course it was that time of the century when we didn’t have hundreds of channels by the switch of a remote. Satellite television channels except for the Doordarshan hadn’t hit the common room television as yet!
There are zillions of anecdotes just waiting to be unfurled and be shared with the rest of you reading the article. I am not sure if I can wrap everything up that I want to say about my formative years spent in Bhoroli house and thus in Avs. Nevertheless it is always worth a try.
As Bhorolites we also did Sunday Assemblies aplenty in the auditorium (which was rechristened as , ‘ The Williamson Magor Hall’ some years after 1995). Another interesting activity that comes to mind are the infamous Bhoroli Productions that we put up in the hall. Every term, either in the spring or the autumn term in the school academic year, we as senior girls (there were only 2 batches above me) would get together and zero on a story-line. When I say a story- line let me tell you it was never ever picked up from elsewhere. Completely built from scratch, the play was written, scripted, directed, performed completely by us ourselves. In the intervals during the play, we also presented some adverts from television built in our own style. One of which I remember was Spice Girls brandishing the popular drink ‘Pepsi’.( It was the time when girl band ‘Spice Girls’ were the talk of the moment.)
The annual march past competition were continuously aced by us for three years in a row, more than winning it, it was the preparation phase which brought about a lot of excitement. Every evening after our dinner, one –two weeks before the competitions Bhoroli alongwith the other houses would be lined up in front of their respective houses and would rehearse and try to put the feet and hands in sync to the beat of the drum. Excitement ran in the air and one could easily feel a sense of competition in the air of AVS. And then came the yearly atheletics where we as bhorolites did leave a bench mark for the other girl hostels. From field events to track events our aim would always be to ace whatever we indulged in.
Academia wasn’t left behind either. Along with all the activities that engrossed us 24 x 7, the academics had to go hand-in- hand. After all, it was a competition among us and the other houses as to who would bring the maximum number of commendations back to the house and who would score the maximum number of A’s.
After we bid farewell to Mrs.Siromani, Mrs. Sanjukta Sivakumar took over the reigns of leadership of Bhoroli and Ms.Atia Khan followed suit as the matron and Mr.Abraham Patrick as the resident tutor alongwith his wife. These were the times where new things were introduced in the house. We had the first bicycles in the campus bought from our house funds and also we started maintaining a mini-library in the house itself. Like in school, we also divided ourselves into teams of socio-culture, for instance, into teams of sports or lets say quiz or dramatics. These mini- groups performed within the house much to the added delight of the girls.
The month of april every year saw us Bhorolites get involved in the annual Bihu celebration and performance alongwith the other house mates which was a tradition in the campus. This diaspora of ethnic culture was always put forward and spearheaded by our long-time tutor who was always an ardent Bhoroli supporter, Mrs.Meenakshi Boragogoi. For as long as we were in Avs this was one activity that always remained close to heart. Not to forget the annual Bengali-day celebration organized by Mrs. Subir Roy which was another taste of ethnic enjoyment.
Before I begin to wrap up my article for the day it is very worth mentioning that in the first ever Round-Square Conference participated by Avs was in the Round square Conference hosted by the Bishop Cotton Boy’s School in Shimla. This was sometime in 1998-!999. Incidently way back then, students were selected to represent the school and for this particular one, all four girls were selected and that too all Bhorolites. What thrill it gave us to have represented school outside! Ruchita, Priyanka, Ipshita and I alongwith Mr. Ramesh Babu and Mr. Carling had very successfully completed this one –week trip to Shimla.
Before graduating, we got to know another person better and learnt under her leadership and that person was Ms.Indu Kapoor who became the house-mistress. Under her, the leader in us grew. We excelled and became confident of our potentials.
With all the happenings and experiences that completed my years in Avs till I graduated, I still yearn for a slice of Avs even today. Even today my old house calls me, even today I want to wear my house-shirt and stand proud with my head held high. It is here that I discovered myself, it is here that I was blessed with people that are close even to this date, it is here that I learned and grasped, it is here that I got the confidence to share all that I knew with my juniors and lead the house. It is here that I survived and got myself ready to face the world…It is here that I learned to be myself and not to have any qualms about it. It is because I was a Bhorolite thus a student of AVS that I have become the person I am today living with only one motto in life,”Ever Onward”. Ever since then…it is the same whistle I have blown while staring at the same moon ……..and reminiscing about the golden phase of my life.
I would like the opportunity to mention my peer-group and fellow Bhorolites because as Bhorolites we lived upto our motto,’ever onward’ …………
Here’s to you girls, Sristie, Ruchita, Priyanka, Animikha, Lubna, Rukhsaan, Runila, Mona, Ipshita, The senior girls and the beloved Juniors. Kudos!!!!
1 comment:
oi, where is me? lol
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