I love my friends, my school and my school days - Pranati Mohanty

Hello, friends. I am very late to share my feelings of my schooldays. All of a sudden, I wish to write something about our '83 batch mates. I was having a very nice time with my cousins out of Bhubaneswar during the summer holidays of 1977. All of a sudden my father called back me to attend the written test at D.M. School. I was a little bit hesitant to attend that test as all my old friends had joined other schools. However, I appeared the test in spite of my unwillingness. And, to my utter surprise I found myself to be placed in the 12th position of the merit list.Till today I couldn't forget that day. However, following my elder brother in Std. IX , I joined the school.

On the first day I met Sailaja at the corridor of the school. When I entered the classroom I found a shy girl sitting on the first row of the class that is Kaumudee..... Presently, she is Dr. Kaumudee of that day. I had some interaction with her. In the boys' side Ashutosh was sitting on the first row whom I could know after our interaction with class teacher. Now I am refreshing my memory with Ashutosh's Kotha Bhoga Khiya bhajan of that time. Later I met Sasmita Patnaik, Geeta, Gayatri, Subhra, Sasmita Mishra who used to be my previous classmate. At that time I was thinking Subhra as an old student of the school as she was having a leader type personality from that time also. Even today I couldn't forget Geeta's all-round performance in study, art, music, dance, debate so ... so. Subhra was outstanding in sports activities; was enjoying my tiffin time with Sasmita Patnaik, Neeta, Kaumudee , with the Chat & gupchup walas. In Std. VI, I got two prizes in 100 mts race and skipping race in Annual Sports, which was my starting career in the school . That I got haphazardly without any practice.

In SUPW, I had prepared a metal mug out of coconut oil container with Satyabrata as my silent partner. Actually our teachers at that time created tremendous enthu among us to move forward in all fields.

One of our friends, Suchismita Mishra died in tonsillitis operation in Std. V, in whose memory our Kabbadi Championship Cup was promoted. Fortunately, to our utter grace we won that Kabbadi Championship Cup consecutively for three years since Std. VI defeating our strong seniors & also won Khokho Championship for two years. Thanks to the effort of Ms. T. Roy, who is no more. Thanks to the tremendous effort put forth by our team members namely Minakshi, Meeta, Kamakshi, Biswajita, Neeta, myself and Subhra as the Captain of the Kabbadi Team.We were seriously enjoying those games at that time. Sailaja was the Queen of the track at her times and was having Sports Championship for few years. I still remember Sailaja telling me "To Munda To Lanja". I don't know what she was meaning at that time.

We enjoyed our picnics to Kapilash and Baliharchandi with our seniors at that time. We had gone for a study tour to Ajanta, Ellora in Std. IX with my friend Geeta, Chandrama, Kaumudee, Meeta, Minati , Debadatta, Siddhartha, Sandeep Dhawan, Palash accompanied by our Head Master Mr. K.C. Das, Mr. S. Das, Mr. J.N.Das, Sandhya Ma'm, Renu Ghosh Ma'm. We enjoyed the trip a lot at that time.

Mriganka, Geeta, Himanshu, Parthasarathy, Madhulita, Biswaranjan's outstanding academic performance still live in my memory. Minati entered into our batch later in Std. VII. She used to perform several dance programs with Geeta at that time.

I still remember Ambuja's swift and fast running in the corridor of the Assembly Hall in spite of strict warning of our Head master Mr. K.C. Das, who is no more with us now. Ambuja & Satyajit's naughty & haughty activities of that time shall be in the memory of all our friends. Sorry, for the sad demise of Satyajit at such an early age.

I admire the innocence of our Oriya teacher Mrs. S. Devi & our geography teacher Mrs. Anjali Tripathy's annoyance, Mr. P.N. Mishra's dynamic personality as our class teacher, Sankar Sir's Maths class, Uttam Sir & Madan Sir's Oriya Drama & poems.

However to my utter surprise in 2009 or 2010, I was astonished & delighted to see one of my classmate named Pradeep as my teacher in my MBA Class, whom I couldn't recognize instantly. After his self-introduction he informed me about some of our friends.

Although I left the School after Std X, still I am in contact with both the Sasmitas, Gayatri , Bhubaneswari, Ajit, Susant, Byomojit , Siddhartha, Manoj, Manoranjan who are staying locally We had gone for picnic at Dhauli, Ramchandi, Puri , Chilka during last 7/8 years.

Cherished with the sweet memories of those school days still I feel myself to be in that age, Still I am longing for those sweet memorable days. However, most of our friends are well placed in several fields and some of them are also settled abroad who shall be missing our school and schooldays a lot, but we the friends staying locally are refreshing our memories of schooldays while passing at the side of the school.

At last I wish to say that I love my friends, my school and my school days.

Also published in D.M. School's Golden Jubilee Souvenir, 2014.