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There I was all of five years old, with my newest buddies and co boarders, Brian Edwards, and Bedford. We all looked similar, or so I thought. Except that I had straight hair define my cranium, Brian had this wierd red brown hair with a fancy curl on top and Bedford had a puff. I…

‘Tis hard to imagine the medicine man old and infirm on a bed.In this child’s eyes all was well for Joe was his Peter Pan! Hard to imagine the medicine man with heart so large and full of love, old and infrm on a bed a battle weary hero whose had enough. Imagine the medicine…

While we boarders spent most of the year in house, we did have visiting Sundays and outing Sundays. The former was to allow relatives to visit their wards, and the latter was to allow the wards to be taken out for a day. On visiting Sundays I would watch with some envy the boys who…

If there’s anyone who remains firmly in my memory, it is Joe who ran the infirmary. He was always dresssed very neatly, if I remember his favorite was a khaki pant and a white bush shirt worn out (as against being worn inside the pant) and it gave the impression of being clinical. He was…

Being a boarder also meant a rigorous religious upbringing. Morning prayers, 6.15 am Mass, Rosary, prayers before and after meals, night prayers, and during Lent who prayed most, We. Then there was being an Altar Boy, but all prayers to be learnt were in Latin. Somehow I managed and frequently assisted in mass from as…

I remember the small pastry shop opposite our school. My Aunt who visited me once on a visiting Sunday took me across and bought me a small cake. The man at the counter was a really nice guy; he recognized me as a boarder. On Sundays he would come around and ask the Fathers if…

… seemed to have played themselves out. Or at least that’s how I saw it till some time ago. On further reflection, I found them to be a good mechanism to set or renew personal ambitions and goals. So, if the Ex-Student Association was a person; I wonder what this person’s New Year resolutions would…

For the first five years of my life I was surrounded by women. My grandmother, spinster aunts, my mother and sister were all the family I knew, except of course for my mother’s elder sister Maggie and her children. At that time in Ahmedabad, I was put in the Kindergarten at Mount Carmel’s School where…

After my tears rolled out of my eyes, I panned all over for my Mom but she had disappeared. I panicked and howled and tugged away from Brother Fonseca who held my hand firmly. He managed to control my hysterics and drew my attention to the small cake in my hand. Then he brought two…

I was all of five years old when my Mom took me to this school in the evening, holding my hand. In her other hand she held a metal trunk and a bedroll under her arm. The very tall church and buildings seemed to zoom into the sky as I scanned the surroundings. We were…