Thursday, November 03, 2005

Walking the Path of History

Let me warn you in advance that this is going to be a very sentimental piece. Okay, resume reading now! :-)

I went to my old school Kodagu Vidyalaya today. Met some teachers from the special school there (will write about that separately) and had a great time. Went to the main school and met all my old teachers.

Kodagu Vidyalaya is where I literally grew up, having studied there for nine years. It is the place where I became 'Deepa' from just another girl in the crowd. It is where I became an individual, learnt how people could be good or bad, learnt to live, to survive... The best thing was that my school never gave too much of importance to studies. It was up to us to study or not to study. Development of personality was more emphasised upon. Also the ambience was superb. The school is situated on top of a hill with a small forest around. It looks more like a resort than a school.

I walked around the school today. Every stone, every secret path that only we students knew about, every brick, every turn of the road has a memory strung through it like a little delicate flower in a chain of a long, well lived past. The basket ball court where we shed tears when we thought our team would lose, the graveyard on which we would lie on hot afternoons, just to prove we were brave. The place where we would have lunch... So many incidents! When I was walking back, it was almost as if the years had slipped by. I could actually see myself sitting there with my friends, enjoying life, growing up, having petty fights and making up, all of us with big dreams in our hearts while putting up a devil-may-care attitude up front!

The year I left my school, my Principal Mr Shreedhara Murthy (a very very interesting man) had asked me to write an article about my years in the school. I did write but like then, even now I find it impossible to condense nine years into a few hundred words. Memories are too precious for that. My school is a part of my history, my past that has shaped my today. So much of what I am today is because of the kind of upbringing I had both at home and in school.

Someone recently described me as a maverick (I took that as a compliment!). My school did that to me. It taught me some of the most important lessons I know today, and that does not include academics. Something I wrote in that article seems appropriate here: '...When I reach the last station in my journey of life, I will only look back, reminiscence and say to KV, Thank You.'


PS- This morning I had written this post very well. The nostalgia was fresh in my mind and the words just flew. But just before I could publish the post, something went wrong and the entire matter vanished. Technology sucks! This piece is not as good as I wanted it to be.

9 comments:

IcEyeZ said...

Hi Deepa,

Ur post is capable of taking any one down the memory lane on a nostalgic trip ! gud one :-)

Karthik L G said...

I thought i was the first one to comment, was disappointed when I saw that someone had commented & was dead sure it was san nakji.

but surprised to see a new person
IcEyeZ. Those mesmerising eyes are of supermodel Latetia Casta. isnt it? I bet a million rupees [thats if I have it ;)]

Hey deepa it was a truly amazing post and was indeed nostalgic. Last dec 18 (2004) I had been to my school where I studied from 1-4 after 12 long years and when I walked around the school it was like reliving those years. It seemed jjust yesterday and wow its wonderful to visualise the happenings of the past when ur at that very place of action.


maverick!! wow .. wonder who the someone is.

and yeah Iv been through what u went today.. writing a post just after uv experienced it, when the happenings are fresh and the words just flow and u urself r surprised at the literary abilities u posess ( atleast Im surprised ) and when almosst everythings done , technology fails and u lose it... :)) I know how it feels, and its tough to recreate that magic again. Iv become wise and after that I type the post in notepad and keep saving it every now n then.
but ur second attempt too is wonderful..nice post n nice writing

San Nakji said...

Ha ha, I like to be first Karthik, but you two beat me there! Isn't a million rupees like about $1.50? I think even I have that!
Deepa, you are very lucky to have such good memories of your high school. I have nothing but bad memories of my old school. Even now I can't bear to drive past it, meaning it is difficult to visit some friends who live nearby.
As for technology. How many times has Blogger messed me around! I recommend writing your post in a word document and then copying and pasting into blogger. That way if it lets you down, you still have what you wrote!

Karthik L G said...

san nakji $1.5 :0
was that a joke or ignorance?
1 million rupees is about 20000 USD

Praveen said...

Good..reminded me of my old village school and....

Deepa Bhasthi said...

wow! was almost overwhelmed by that response.
if my writing took u down the memory lane, my job as a writer is done. thanks iceyez.
Karthik, am sure u know who called me maverick!
will surely type in notepad from now. that previous one was really good :-(
san nakji, not all memories that i have are good. but i had such a good time there that i choose to remember only the good stuff.

San Nakji said...

Sorry, poor joke Karthik!

Deepa, it's good to only remember the good things!

IcEyeZ said...

Hi Deepa, Thanx for passing by my blog ! Keep visiting :-)
and to your comment here...yes you can soon become a writer...:-)

Deepa Bhasthi said...

i will certainly keep visiting iceyez. thanks for the vote of confidence that i can become a writer, but i would rather be just a journalist. you know what tey say of journalism? that it is literature in hurry!