1199) THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 50 YEARS AGO: My First Day at La Martiniere College, Lucknow: 12.01.1970:

1199) THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 50 YEARS AGO: My First Day at La Martiniere College, Lucknow: 12.01.1970:

Five decades ago, on 12.01.1970, I joined La Martiniere College, Lucknow in Class VII.

 Only four new students had passed the Entrance examination for Class VII admissions - two Boarders (including me) and two Day Scholars. I had given my Evaluation Test at Our Lady of Fatima Convent School, Aligarh, managed by French Missionaries, and, as my father was a Senior Professor in the Medical College affiliated to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the La Martiniere College staff had sent the sealed Exam papers to our Principal there. This was necessitated as I was undergoing Class V Final Exams & could not come to Lucknow for taking the test. I performed rather well in my Final Year exams & had got a “double promotion” to Class VII for which I also received a citation from the Mother Superior of Lady Fatima School.

My parents drove me to La Martiniere College in my grandfather’s old model yellow FIAT – USQ-9000.

As we passed the College Library, where I would spend several hours reading later, I saw the Leader Board on the right with the Crests of all the Four Houses – Cornwallis, Martin, Hodson and Lyons displayed thereon. The Crest of Lyons House with the Lion Rampant, facing left seemed to call out to me. I wondered, as to why this House was spelt after a city in France.

We met Col. HRH Daniels, the College Principal, a little way up, walking with two of his Cocker Spaniels. He greeted us and requested us to wait for him in his office, while he deposited his dogs at his residence.

He caught up with us in no time at all. He quizzed me about my interests and was quite impressed with my credentials, particularly my academic achievements. Meanwhile, a staff member brought a slip of paper, which Col. Daniels glanced through and said that I had been allotted to Lyons House, which pleased me no end.

We went to the College sports outlet and collected Lyons House Games Shirts, two Badges – one displaying the Lyons House Crest and the other the College Crest - and sports shoes etc.

I was allotted to Third Dormitory (or “Third Dorm”) and given a “Boarder number B-112”, which was painted in white on my steel trunk. I was also allotted a bed and a locker.

I said my goodbyes to my parents. This was the first time that I was going to stay away from them. I made my way to Class VII B, was a little late, so I entered through the “back door”. I made friends with Sanjeev Deengar (a day scholar), who became a very good friend, who also helped me out with the allotment of a desk and course books/stationery. Mr. K.B. Lyall was our class teacher, who was also a Hindi teacher.

 I also learnt that henceforth, I would be called by my surname Prasad and only sometimes called Rajeev. So, we had Deengar, Singh, Ledlie, Khan, Bhatnagar, Tandon, Gupta, Banon, Upadhyay etc.etc. The College Warden Mr. Lawrence who was a strict disciplinarian always called me “Sahai” for some strange reason. Despite my pointing out, several times, I was always “Sahai” for him.

At lunch time, we had to gather in House-wise troops and march to the dining hall. I felt as if I had joined the Army. The waiters all wore House colour cummerbunds and badges. After saying grace, we sat down for lunch, house-wise at the long dining tables.

I learnt, that if you did not like a food item that was served at the particular meal, you could raise your hand and “auction” it off to someone who did not mind a second helping, for something he would give you in exchange at another meal, say, a bun exchanged for a banana or a jam tart exchanged for a patty and so on. This system held me in good stead, because, I hated eating bananas which were served at lunch practically every day, and I could exchange them for something that I liked – I still hate eating bananas and my wife Sumita insists, that I should, at least now,  get over this old college time phobia.

After school was over, I went for cricket practice for Lyons Colts, as we had a tough match coming up against Cornwallis Colts who had a dreaded fast bowler in their team.  A few days later, when the match actually took place, I remember, that, despite my having hit a six and a four, and taking two wickets, we lost by two runs, but it was an “honourable” defeat.

After Games, we went to Prep classes, where we could catch up on our allotted homework or brush up on our studies.

After dinner, it was time to call it a day. We went to our allotted bunks and I felt quite satisfied with having had a rather busy and fruitful day and making new friends.

After light out, the boy on my right bunk started crying out loudly. A lot of shouts went up. “Slap him!! Slap him!! Quiet!! Shut up!!” was the refrain. I shouted back, “Give him a break. Let me talk to him”.  I found out, that, he was also from Lyons House, studying in Junior School in Class IV and felt home-sick. He was also frightened of ghosts who “roamed throughout the College” at night, which someone in his class had scared him of. I told him that we were like brothers and that I would take care of him while we were in College, and there was nothing to fear about being alone or of ghosts, which calmed him a bit and he dozed off.... 

The next day, I had a brainwave. I told this young lad that if he could keep a little secret then we were going to become great “ghost story-tellers” ourselves. He was very interested. We spent the next few days collecting and collating all the “ghost stories” which were doing the rounds of the corridors of Mart and gave them our own “spin”.

 A few days later, on a weekend, after lights out, I told my first ghost story - hearing the sounds of the Nawab of Oudh’s horsemen going out of the Junior School building, late one night, (which was used as stables for the Nawab’s cavalry at one time more than a century ago). Then my second story, about the tree near the College Gate, which shook violently, even in a still atmosphere and made a groaning/eerie sound, (like it was possessed by tree spirits), when I was trying to catch up on my studies at 5.00 AM one morning, an occurrence, which did not happen, when other guys tried to sit on the bench near the tree during early hours. The story of a boy trying to carve out his name on a pillar, after hanging out from a railing in Third Dorm with one hand and falling down, several years before our time also engaged everyone’s fascination. There was also the story of a junior school English teacher from another time, taking her classes again and again in the still of the night, caught in a time warp. Her teaching voice would suddenly stop and one could only hear the breeze in the trees.

 My co-conspirator backed me in all the Ghost tales, by saying he too had heard the horsemen shouting and galloping by, before vanishing into the night and an apparition passing by his bunk towards the dorm railings, disappearing and then hearing a desperate “Help me”, and he too had experienced the “vibration and shaking” in that particular tree and so on.

The other third dorm guys first thought that we were making up stories, but slowly our reputation as “Ghost story tellers” and as people with a “Sixth Sense”, seeing apparitions and all, grew and we were much sought after for more and more tales of ghosts caught in a time warp roaming the corridors of Mart. The fascination of other-worldly “visits” always caught everyone’s imagination and our stories, “first-hand” experiences were heard with trepidation and horror.

Other students began avoiding taking “pangas” with us, lest we would put a hex on them or get one of the ghosts to haunt them.








Links:

Links to posts on my Alma Mater - La Martiniere College, Lucknow:

1) Old Martinians Association (OMA-Pune Chapter) Reunion: i) Meeting old friends & making new ones, Games, Music and Luncheon at Sylhet, Bombay Sappers (Bombay Engineering Group) ii) Sylhet Battle Honours for Bombay Sappers - "Remembering the Heroes" - A POW train out of Bangladesh in 1971 on its way to the POW Camp at Agra, stops at Lucknow

2) This Day in History - 50 Years Ago: My First Day at La Martiniere College, Lucknow: 12.01.1970

3) How I bagged the Class X Biology Prize - 1973 in La Martiniere College, Lucknow: Mr. Alphonse joins the Collage as a Botany Teacher in the same year: A Recollection

4) La Martiniere Girl's College, Lucknow Sesquicentennial Celebrations (18969-2019): A Special Postal Cover brought out by the UP Postal Circle of India Post: Year of Postal Cover issue: 2019

5) My First Boxing Bout in La Martiniere College, Lucknow in 1972, which was my Alma Mater from 1970-1975