If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older - Neeta Mohanty

This is straight from my heart for the Souvenir. 
 
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A 9-year old girl in 1977 came for an entrance exam in DM school to follow her two older brother’s footsteps. Memory is fading as to what the entrance exam was about, however the girl didn’t make it and ended up in first place in waiting list. DMS forgotten, she started in another school. About couple of months later, a letter came from DM School that a spot has opened up in fifth class and if the family was interested? Her father was happy with joy and jumped in to the opportunity and took her to the school next day. The ride to school (standing in front of his father’s Vespa scooter) was a long ride. As soon as they entered the school campus, the little girl was delighted to see the vast fields, the rows of Karamanga trees, the garden, the while compound wall that became daily routine for next 8 years! 30 years would pass by since 10th and the little girl named Neeta Mohanty would be fortunate enough to write for the golden jubilee celebration of the beloved school that laid down the foundation in her life. 
 
Joining school late was little challenging and there was lot of catching up to do. The structured education system in DM School was little challenging as well since my primary school years was split between multiple schools. Being one of the shortest girls in the class, I defaulted to first row along with Gayatri and Kaumudee, hence bonded with them the most initially. I always envied the tall girls, Minati and Sasmita Mishra who would get the prime location, the back row!! It did not take me long to feel like home, the teachers and friends, and the silly incidents would leave a permanent sweet spot in the memory. 
 
Sankar Sir, B.B Nayak, P.N Mishra, G.N Das, Sarala madam, Kalpana madam, Hanan Sir to name a few have laid the foundation. Salute to all the teachers.

Memories are many. Along with the academics, HPER, SUPW, and the language classes were one of a kind at the time. Home science was mostly for girls but I do not recall doing one thing right in that class. We had to knit a pair of socks once and mine did not look anything like a sock!! Remember building a board game in the electric class and some house hold items in the carpentry class. There was rivalry between boys and girls in the same section then there was rivalry within each section. Many nick names were created for friends and teachers. I had one too!! The nick names became permanent in the friend circle. I was afraid of some boys from senior classes and would not make eye contact and look the opposite way if I had to go past them for some reason. Recess was the most enjoyable part of the day. We used to run to the little hill behind the library (named as Mount Everest by us) as soon as the recess bell rang to have lunch at top of Mount Everest!! At times I would accompany Geeta to her house during recess. Toward the end of class 10th, we girls decided to have a feast. An all-girls meeting was called and it was unanimously decided not to include the boys, do not recall the logic behind it. We selected Minati house’s roof top as the feast spot. In the menu was bhata, dali, egg curry, and salad. Not bad for bunch of 15 year olds! I recommended a whopping 5 kg rice for 11 girls and wanted to confirm that with my sister to make sure we would have enough!! The rest is history; she still makes fun of me to this day.

Making fun of the teachers and then getting caught was not uncommon. Tattle-telling was part of life so was kid romance. Nothing has changed much though, life has come in full circle and I see the same in my 6th grade kids. I am looking forward to relive my childhood days by going back to school for the Golden Jubilee celebration. 
 
There is a saying “If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older”. Long live DMS tradition.

Also published in the DM School, Bhubaneswar's Souvenir on the occasion of its Golden Jubilee celebration.