Memories of some remarkable years

 

Sunday 29^th June 2025          Day 23206

High School & College days. 1974-1984 Chembur, Bombay and IIT Madras

-          In SIWS Wadala till Class VI. Shifted to Shrinagar CHS in 1974 for Class VII and beyond.

-          General Education Academy, Chembur.

-          Walking above the tracks on the overbridge at the railway station to school. 20 minutes’ walk.

-          Nataraj Theatre. Passed by many times. Not seen a single movie there!

-          Vacation trips to Trichur by train. Hold-All, packed food, Chikki at Lonavala, Bathing at Arakkonam, curd-rice and lemon-rice in a banana leaf.

-          Singing Surangani when Bina manni came to Grandpas home after her marriage to Ambi mama.

-          Made Nankatai at GEA.

-          Getting hauled before the principal for some trivial fun during cooking class.

-          Chemistry in the Chemistry Lab !!

-          Shopping for veggies etc along with dad and mom at Chembur.

-          Buying Phillips coffee powder. The aroma of fresh coffee powder.

-          Buying rice, wheat and sugar etc at ration shop.

-          Carrying wheat to the chakki for grinding into flour.

-          Reading Oliver Strange’s SUDDEN and Perry Mason novels

-          Circulating library Famous Five, Secret Seven, James Hadley Chase etc

-          Playing Cricket in the ground at Shrinagar CHS. 

-       Losing my special steel scale / ruler at GEA. Getting hassled by Dancing, Vishwas Pathak, Sudhir Puthran. Keeping them at bay.  

-          Doing well in the 10^th Standard exam in 1977.

-          Getting admission to SIES College Sion. Travel by train to Koliwada Station (GTB Nagar) and then walking to SIES.

-          No more school uniforms.

-          Hustle and bustle in the local trains. Sometimes changing over at Kurla station. Harbour Line and Main Line changes.

-          Laboratory classes at SIES!!! What a “chemistry” there.

-          Aggarwal classes at Dadar and prep for IIT JEE

-          1011 A.I.R in 1979. Choice of IIT-B vs IIT-M. Good sense prevailed and selected IIT-M

-          Hostel days at Mandakini Year 1. July 1979 onwards. Room 224.

-          Learning to cycle with Ramesh

-          Learnt to swim and play water polo.

-          Weight training at the gym.

-          Early morning jogs at the stadium.

-          Eggs, Beef, Fish, Chicken in the hostel mess.

-          Bald hair-cut, sling bags and bicycles.

-          Cigarettes, Beedis, Liquor, weed.

-          Jethro Tull over pot-speakers.

-          Working out in the room Saras 260.

-          Saturday night movies at OAT.

-          Books, VCR tapes etc.

-          Photography experiments.

-          Plain uthappam and red onion chutney. Heavenly indeed.

-          Veg biryani with fried pieces of bread squares.

-          Milli pouches at Taramani.

-          Special treats at Liu’s Waldorf.

-          Train travel Madras to Bombay and back.

-          1979 – 1984. The five years that made me a bold man.

-          The best five years of my life till then. Friendships forged for a lifetime.

-          The Mukand Iron and Steel internship. Their canteen food!

-          The BARC internship and their Scanning Electron Microscope!

-          GRE, admissions, placement opportunities. The Eicher job.

-          Plans for Faridabad and Delhi.  

Hostel life 1979 – 1984. While I learnt how Steel is made, those five years made me. 

Deepest gratitude for AIR 1011, IIT-M admission, life at Mandak and Saras.