Today, my itinerary included meeting an old friend from school. Though we've been bumping into each other during the course of our official work, this was the first occasion when we're able to sit and exchange thoughts and catch up from where we'd left last. I was his 'Prefect' in Jun 1969 and then his 'House Captain' from Jun 1970 till I passed out in May '72 from school!
He was expansive about the manner in which I'd gone about being the class's mentor. He recapitulated as to how I used to egg him and his classmates before a match on the sportsfield and the words of encouragement that I gave before an examination. He recounted a particular football match, in which they'd lost and the whole team felt bad about having let their House Captain down. He was one amongst them who'd cried then and says that he and his mates learnt the art of losing graciously from yours truly, that evening!
To me, hearing about my own self and my antics of those days was a rare insight. Incidentally, many of his classmates are in touch with me and the thing that really tickled me was that one of his friends, Sudhir Ranjan Das, used to sign with the same flourish of the letter 'R' as I do, after having come across my signature! Sudhir, however, is no more with us having left for his heavenly abode, quite a few years back and the narration brought a lump in my throat.
RIP Sudhir! I shall always be proud of the fact that your class has accepted me unconditionally for all that I am!!
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