REMEMBERING SCHOOL AND THE GAMES WE PLAYED!!

By KULBHUSHAN KAIN

I entered the portals of St Joseph’s Academy in 1965, and immediately felt the difference between it and my previous school. It was bigger, and had an intimidating colonial administrative building. It had big play grounds – in the front and the rear.
There were two things which caught my eye immediately. First, the boys were bigger and stronger and looked more or less like college students, and secondly, the absence of girls. The reason was that St Joseph’s was an all-boys full-fledged senior secondary school. On the main academic block was written in Latin, “LABORARE  EST ORARE”, which translated into English means – “ Work is Worship”.
It had a very distinctive block which was called a “rail gaari” – a row of classrooms, adjoining the field at the rear, which has now been replaced by a  swank new auditorium. The block was so called because it resembled the compartments of a train! Symbolically, my train journey started from here!! I would like to qualify, that I was travelling in the best train and in its first class compartment! I was allotted class 5A.
Schooling was fun. In 5A, I was uncomfortable, because I was new and my class teacher was the very strict Mr Thapa. But otherwise it was fun. During the milk break (after eating our bun samosa from “Chocolate Corner”), we either went to the grounds to play marbles or “langree  taang”, a game in which one tried to catch one’s opponents within a small area but on one leg. Hence the name “langree taang”. There were superstars in these games as well. C Harikumar (who was from Kerala) was a wonderful player of langree taang, whereas Vinod Gosain (who was a brilliant footballer as well), was terrific with marbles. We always wanted to be in the team which had these two in it! The teams were selected by choosing two Captains, who would then toss a coin. The one who called correctly, would be given the first choice to choose from a list of boys who were interested to play. Harikumar was always the first choice in langree taang of every Captain. I used to wait with bated breath – I  was always called as the 4th or 5th choice. I did not mind it – I was a bit plump, and my mobility was not good enough to be called in as a first choice in a game which involved hopping on one foot! I also played marbles, and my eye hand coordination was good. I could strike a marble from a fair distance and it was not uncommon to get back home with marbles jingling in my pockets. I avoided playing against Vinod Gosain – I knew he would not allow me to win. He was the ace!
There was another game we played during the milk breaks, and this was hand cricket. Ah, it was a wonderful invention of some genius. Instead of cricket bats, we used our hands, which we folded into fists, and then struck a tennis ball which was bowled. It was a great way to detect who had good eye-hand coordination, because if one could strike a ball with a fist, then one would certainly strike it easily with a bat. And, since it was a tennis ball, the rule was “One bounce, out”. If one hit the ball and if one did not clear the infield, the chances of survival were few – because even a catch after a bounce was out. I was very good at it and got spotted by Bro Dunney as I played outside his carpentry class on the main field. He told me to start practicing cricket in the nets. I became a cricketer who was to represent St Joseph’s, which had a very good cricket team!! I tried my hand at all games – football, hockey, tennis –but I was passionate about cricket.
In St Joseph’s those days, we had teams according to height. So there was a cricket team comprising boys who were  4ft 10 inches and below, who represented the school, or a  team having boys who were 5ft 2 inches and below who would represent the school. And finally, the main Cricket team comprising children of all heights –the best Eleven. Everyone wanted to play for the school in the open height category. But it was almost impossible for a child who was 4ft 10 inches or below to be playing for the school which had boys as tall as 6ft. (One of them was called “Daddy”, I remember, because he was so tall!!). Normally a very good cricketer who was around 5’2 would be in the 9th grade. Hence, there were few from that category who made it to the school eleven. One who comes to mind and was a brilliant cricketer about 5ft tall, and yet played for the school while still in the 9th, was Naval Patel. For all of us, he was a star. It was wonderful to meet Naval on the playing fields of Delhi University many years later. We were coached by a very interesting gentleman by the name of Shashi ji.
Till date, I don’t know from where he came and where he went. What I do know is that he converted  me into a cricket addict and a fairly good cricketer who would go on to captain his college cricket team!!!