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The rite of passage

From the albums
Last Updated 19 October 2014, 15:31 IST

1969 was a historic year in more ways than one. Man had landed on the moon.

That was the year, we graduated from Baldwin Girls’ High School, a prestigious school that was spread over a large campus in the fashionable ‘Cantt’ area with vast, open spaces and beautiful  trees!
 The picture above is of the graduating class taken on the day of commencement exercises, though why it was called so, was never understood by us at the time. 

‘Grad’, as it was called, was spread over two days with the first day’s programme being conducted jointly at the counterpart school for boys nearby. It was indeed a momentous rite of passage as it marked many firsts for us 15-year-olds. It was the first time we got to wear a sari, the first time we visited a beauty parlour and excitedly got our hair done up in the prevalent trend of ‘bouffants’!

And the first time we got to formally interact with the boys during the ‘socials’. I don’t remember who the chief guest was and what ‘words of wisdom’ were handed down to us. In sharp contrast, as a school teacher in later years, I always paid total attention to the words of the commencement speaker. Perhaps the attentiveness that came in later years was partly because I had to present a report of the programme the next morning.

The night had to be spent sleeping in such a way that our hairdos were in tact and presentable for the event at church the next evening. A beautiful service in the charming Methodist Church in Richmond Town was made more memorable as I got to sing solo two lines of a hymn presented by the class choir. Each of us got a copy of the Bible. After that we lingered on in the premises not wanting the event to come to a close.

  That part of Richmond Town, with its gracious British-style homes and quiet roads, was like our own personal space. The old lady who sat in the corner selling guavas, ‘polly’ mangoes and ‘jignuts’( we haven’t used that word for peanuts, since then!) were the hot favourite when we could muster up 4 annas or so.  I can still clearly picture her deeply- lined face though sadly, we never got to ask her name.  Alongside the tree-lined O’Shaughnessy Road, was a lake filled with aquatic birds.
 Walking was the preferred way of reaching school; even in our graduation attire. A few girls who were much envied, rode their bicycles to school, sometimes keeping pace with those who walked!  Today’s kids may not believe it but some teachers too would come cycling to school. 

Times have changed. But the longing for those simple pleasures amid Bangalore of bygone times, cannot be stilled! 

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(Published 19 October 2014, 15:31 IST)

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