NP Days & NP Memories

THOSE WERE THE BEST DAYS….

“The bird a nest

the spider a web

the human friendship.”
-William Blake

There is perhaps no better or stronger kinship than with your schoolmates. Last month I happened to visit my old school North Point and casually snapped some pictures on my mobile cam.

After downloading them on my Facebook profile I was suddenly flooded with comments from classmates, seniors and juniors alike who all had so much to say and remember.

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You, too? Thought I was the only one." - C.S. Lewis

Some have not been back in school for almost 20 years, some even more but even then, trivial recollections were made almost as if they happened just yesterday.

And for the ones reading those comments, just a phrase or sound, which possibly hadn’t been heard in decades, brought back such fresh memories it was almost like we were back in school again.

And what memories….

Mount Hermon was a co-ed school just below ours and they had a open swimming pool which our boys used to visit sometimes when our old indoor pool used to spring a leak. NP now has a second outdoor pool and there is no need to walk down to MH but as Binay Shrestha helpfully pointed out it also has its disadvantages. No more chick-seeing?

I don’t know if that word exists in the English dictionary but who is there from that period who cannot understand what it means? Such is the secret codes of schools.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person? -Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Binay, as I mentioned to him too, was a sweet guy while in school and not quite given to bursts of wit but that seems to have changed.

Socials, is another of those convent school words whose inferred meaning is greatly different from its grammatical one and which brings with it visions of coy dances with the ladies of Loreto Convent.

However during the Rector-ship of Fr. Peter Pappu it was discontinued.

Sadly for Binay this was also the period when he was in school.
No wonder now when he says ruefully “Pappu cant dance saala.”

But going by his FB pictures, Binay saala, has thankfully learned how to dance. Just FYI.

Great Education is not only about books. It should also prepare you for practical life later. Even business maybe.

At NP the boarders got early practice at this. Young children running between tables every morning during breakfast shouting egg for chips, egg for chips is probably what is now helping run the economies of most south east asian countries.

Just as running towards an empty bench in Fraser Hall and shouting “Capturedddddddddd” is what helped many boys, bag a bride later in life.

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. - Mark Twain

The long aisles between the beds in the dorm used to be laid with an equally long carpet. And as Subu Shrestha remembers (and probably with good reason too) after lights out every night, the boys (not sleepy at all and with too much time on their hands and mind) used to roll the carpet half up and leave it in a bunch for some poor sod to come and trip on his way back to bed from the bathroom. The falling thud sound that followed would be further followed by (in Subu’s own words) "some of the choicest curses ever heard this side of the Kanchenjunga."

Now that’s something you’ll never learn in a classroom.

If you want to know the exact details then call Subu on his mobile today, while he is sleeping and you will get a sample of it.

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. - Mark Twain

And Freedom restaurant just outside the school boundary.
Tempting the kids to sneak out and bunk for a quick round of momos and chowmein.
Has there been a café more appropriately named? I don’t think so.


Tenzing wrote in to remember “ those times when he used to attend the friday mass in the school chapel so that he could bunk the study period” and all around the world, a thousand non-catholic North Pointers sighed in unision “Aah Yes”


Conservatives say teaching sex education in the public schools will promote promiscuity. With our education system? If we promote promiscuity the same way we promote math or science, they've got nothing to worry about. - Beverly Mickens

We now have access to the best restaurants and choicest cuisines but mention Boss’ Canteen and the keema paratha and keema buns and our mouths all begin to water.

I think it was all best summed up by Arjun Nevada who wrote:

“Thanks for the pictures. I still remember how I cried when my parents dropped me off the first time and how I cried more when I was leaving after giving the ICSE.”

Amen.

Ciao

Vish


It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations -Winston Churchill

NP and the World

TRADITION NEVER GOES OUT OF FASHION

The current Rector Fr. Kinley giving us a tour and explaining his vision for the school

The Pavilin as it stands today. The main structure hasnt changed or been tampered.

The View of the Palivion from above the School Gardens

A small part of the stunning front facade of the school.

 

After waking up lazily this morning on the first day of the weekend (Fri & Sat for us

 here in UAE) i was sitting at the loo going through the morning paper. When i got to the Sports section, in between all the hoopla about the ongoing IPL was a small column by as Aussie journalist.

Imagine my surprise when i found that it was not connected in anyway to the IPL but was just a beautiful write-up about the UD Flat Pavilion in North Point.

My Alma Mater.

David McMahon not only played for the Aussie team but is also an ex North Pointer.

Attached below is a screen grab of the online version of the newspaper as well as a reproduction of the article for your easy reading. Also attached are some pictures taken last week of the Pavilion and the School.

Enjoy,

Vish 

Nostalgic moments in a jet set era.

By David McMahon, Special to Gulf News
Published: April 23, 2009, 22:51

To us pre-teens and the teenagers among us whose voices were starting to break as decisively as a well-pitched Kookaburra outside off-stump, it was simply called The Pavilion.

It was a beautifully-crafted adjunct to the boarding school where I completed my education. St Joseph's College in Darjeeling, India, had one of the most memorable sports pavilions I've ever seen.

It was like a Kiplingesque pagoda and it had (and still has) one of the most striking views anywhere in the world. The Raj-era craftsmen who created it made best possible use of the school's unique location

Because it was the main pavilion of the three playing fields, it was built directly in line with Mount Kanchenjunga, the third-highest peak in the world. No geographical feature and no manmade structure would ever impede the view of the stunning mountain that changed colour depending on the time of day and angle of the sun.

I have been privileged to play cricket in many cities across quite a few lands. But never have I bowled with such a stupendous vista before me as when I bowled from the pavilion end of our school ground, with a 28,000-foot mountain dominating the scene.

To get to the eyrie that was the scorer's box, we had to climb a ladder with well-worn wooden rungs. Sometimes, just sometimes, bigger isn't always better. Nor is it a corollary that a modern construction is necessarily more attractive than something it has replaced.

Glass and steel and concrete are all very well, with amazing shapes and sharp angles that defy the laws of physics and simple gravity. But once in a way, woodwork and tongue-and-groove craftsmanship take precedence.

Cricket must embrace change. But equally, cricketers cherish the game's traditional facets.

Like pavilions on some of the world's highest cricket grounds.

 

VOTE

VOTING IS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT

Dear All,

On the top left hand corner you can see a new poll.

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I may or maynot follow the advice/suggestions but then, what the hell, isn't it fun to vote anyway?

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The Choice. My Dear is....

PRO-ADS

In the eternal argument, I dont know if you are Pro-Life or Pro-Choice and i actually dont care, but if there ever was a good case made out for the use of a condom then these 2 AD's are it.

Enjoy.

luv

Vish

Those Gentle Pachyderms

ELEPHANTS AND THE ASIANS

In South East Asian countries the elephant has been always venerated and a spiritual connection between man and beast runs through every folk story and mythology narrated in the region.

Below is a series of 6 stunning pictures of the same.

Just thought you'd enjoy them.

Luv

Vish

Life's Little Surprises

NEVER BEEN KISSED???

SEEK AND YOU SHALL FIND....

On a reality TV show called Britain's Got Talent, a dowdy old lady from a small Scottish village came to perform. Her ambition, she said, was to someday have a recording made and maybe, just maybe, one day be as famous as Elaine Paige.

Ofcourse music and theatre lovers will know Elaine Paige as an actress and recording artist extraordinaire, who has made a major contribution to the modern musical and quite justifiably has earned the title “The First Lady of British Musical Theatre”.

She is a star of such hits like Evita, Cats, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar etc.

So when this matronly lady said she wanted to be as famous as Ms. Paige, there was the expected snickering from the audience and even the judges were doing all they could to have her over and done with so that they could move on to the next contestant.

An unmarried, unemployed, ungainly, middle-aged woman who lives alone with a cat and who has never been kissed in her life wanting to be famous....???

She's better have been kidding.

And the song she chose wasnt inspiring any condfidence either.

She had chosen the very difficult "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables.

THEN SHE STARTED SINGING....

and all hell broke loose....

If you havent seen it by now then do go to YouTube and watch and judge for yourself.

I am sorry i could not download the video here but do take the trouble and i promise that you wont be dissapointed.

I have included the lyrics of the song below for your added enjoyment and the parts marked in red is the portion she did NOT sing (time constraints).

I dont know about Elaine Paige, but Susan Boyle's different clips on YouTube have collectively already had more than 15 million hits. She is being featured in news programmes all over the globe and this morning its being reported the she will be featured on Oprah and has also been invited to sing at the HM Queen Elizabeth's annual garden party.

I guess this is GOD's way (even if its is through the medium of reality TV) of reminding us to never take anything or anyone for granted.

Enjoy.

Luv

Vish

I DREAMED A DREAM

from LES MISERABLES

There was a time when men were kind,

And their voices were soft,

And their words inviting.

There was a time when love was blind,

And the world was a song,

And the song was exciting.

There was a time when it all went wrong...

I dreamed a dream in time gone by,

When hope was high and life worth living.

I dreamed that love would never die,

I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid,

And dreams were made and used and wasted.

There was no ransom to be paid,

No song unsung, no wine, untasted.

But the tigers come at night,

With their voices soft as thunder,

As they tear your hope apart,

And they turn your dream to shame.

He slept a summer by my side,

He filled my days with endless wonder...

He took my childhood in his stride,

But he was gone when autumn came!

And still I dream he'll come to me,

That we will live the years together,

But there are dreams that cannot be,

And there are storms we cannot weather!

I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I'm living,

So different now from what it seemed...

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed...

Best of Nat Geo

Here's a selection of some of the best wildlife photos from the National Geographic acrhives.

Enjoy.