UTTAM UTTAM

My father was in the Army. He joined British Indian Army in 1940 at the tender age of 17 years and saw service in many sectors. So I did my schooling and college from I don't know how many institutions. But I remember, by the time I was in Standard 8, I had already switched eight schools! In early 70s we were in Bareilly and I was sent to Rookes' School in Bareilly Cantt but there I got violent one day and pinned my perceived enemy to ground, making sure he ate at least a half kg of dust. I was at once summoned to the Principal's office and given marching orders. My father put me in another school in Bareilly, this time in the city. The school was Uttam Public English School in Rampur Garden, Bareilly. By all counts, it was a good school; small, manageable, good teachers and stress on studies. The best was that we had a large ground to ourselves and we played there everyday. It is a different matter that despite we having had a wonderful Mr SS Mishra as our Maths teacher, I could never pick up the nuances of this despicable subject (how I hate it still!). We had Mrs Usha Bhatnagar as our Social Studies teacher. She was one of the most graceful teachers I have ever had. Then there was Miss Shashi Anand, who, as I now realise, was just like a teen and did not treat us well and as a result many children would tease her during the class. Our Principal was Arya Sir. The Vice Principal was his wife, Mrs Shakuntla Arya.

There were few children in our class. As a matter of fact, those days there were few children in almost every class in almost all schools. Population was sparse, resources were not strained and children did not have as much burden of studies as they have today. Long hours were spent in the school ground, which had a lone mango tree in a corner. We had the following children in Class 8:

(a) Vinita Vij. She always stood first in the class and was rightfully our monitor.

(b) Rachna Sharma. She was Vinita's sidekick. A petite, pretty, fair girl whose father was

in Police and younger brother Ajay attended the same school. She was the neatest child

in the school, always immaculately dressed up!

(c) Amarjeet Kaur. She was huge and duffer! Came from a defence family.

(d) Bhupinder Kaur. Not huge but duffer! Harpal & Co. made her life miserable in the

school.

(e) Anil Mathur. Son of a lawyer, came from Civil Lines.

(f) Kamal Vij. A fair, chubby, sweet child, loved by all.

(g) Atul Dikshit. A studious, simple child, who stayed just next to the school.

(h) Deepak Chawla. Son of owner of Chawla Restaurant in the city.

(j) Jitender Sahni. Son of a businessman. I learnt last year that he is no more.

(k) Suneet Sharma. A handsome but naughty rascal.

(l) Krishan Murari Lal. Son of a carpenter with buck teeth. Children made fun of him.

(m) Rajesh Maurya. Son of an officer in civil, well mannered and lovable.

(n) Brijendra Kumar. A mediocre boy, lived in Rampur Garden itself.

(o) Mukesh Agarwal. Brijendra's neighbour and bosom friend.

(p) Harpal Singh. The meanest little lad you can come across. He was a rogue even at

that age. Wonder what must he be like now.

(q) Gurcharan Singh. Harpal's first cousin and a bully.

(r) Harmeet Singh. A meek person who generally went unnoticed.

(s) Hardeep Singh. A simple quixotic who was to bloom later in life! 

I may have missed out a couple of students but then recollecting 39 years after we left the School in May 1973, my score is not all that bad! 

I now recollect those days fondly and long to back to go back to school. Those days were fun. Only if studies were absent. Just play and enjoy life!