A Time to Reflect

By Sreelatha Kumar ('85 Batch)

25 years is a long time – could well be one third of one’s life. 2010 was a really blessed year. It was a great boon from above when our Facebook school contacts grew and grew this year- finally to culminate in tracing nearly the whole of our school batch, except for six more… and having our silver jubilee meeting in a most memorable way on July 24, 2010. This was when we had hardly seen any of our classmates for decades!!! Little did we know that ours was the 100^th batch to pass out of Mount Carmel’s hallowed halls - our twenty fifth year of passing out coincided with the school’s 125^th  year of existence,  and it was so very strangely celebrated in the same month at school- on July 15.

After passing out of Mount Carmel in 1985, I had barely any contact with anyone, except for a few close friends. One moved on with college, work, marriage- time spent in Kollam was never more than two months at a stretch. No mobiles, no internet, no contacts- how one earth does one really keep in touch with snail mail?  Schooldays had become a distant memory- really fuzzy around the edges, you can say like a tapestry with huge holes in between! But yet a few sharp images seem to be recorded in my brain. Memories are like moths trapped within an old chest- once the lid is pried open, they fly out in a veritable flurry. You may not remember everything in sequence, or the so called momentous happenings… but you are left with a few snapshots that have stuck in your mind somewhere. You can watch me on the 'MCC Reunion - What are we up to these days' Video Link.

Mount Carmel – in the 70s and 80s.…

By Sreelatha Kumar ('85 Batch)

I remember the one and only time, in 8^th std I suppose, when we practiced the traditional Kerala Thiruvathira Kali. Our school (MCC) had this ‘refined atmosphere’ where I think we thought we were freshly imported from England- we spoke entirely in English, read only English novels, sang English songs, wore western clothes - I think we effectively forgot that we were part of a predominantly Malayalam speaking society. So doing Thiruvathira Kali was definitely out of the ordinary.  Sreevidya was one of those who taught us the steps. My frustration at being unable to get even one step right still lingers in my mind.  My mother helped with the make up, which is the only time I remember her having stepped into the portals of our new school block. (Just think of the number of PTA’s we attend for our kids today!).  

I remember sitting with my friends near the grotto eating our packed lunch, from where we could hear the roar of the waves hitting the shores in the background.  I can still visualize, the grainy beach-sand coating our legs, as we watched the kindergarteners climb up the scratchy surfaced sand-coloured playground slide. I remember the novelty of our batch being the first one to incorporate the ‘extra’ subject in ICSE and the choice of P.E, and Home Science, the coming to school on Saturdays for basketball, learning the rudiments of Volleyball. For some reason Mary John’s face comes to mind, maybe she was a good volleyball player? I remember enjoying our 10th std, feeling seniormost in the school, taking on the extra workload of studies and the sheer fear gripping me as the public exams approached.