All about life in Sainik School Goalpara and Dreams !

"A lambu, ettna jada khana khata hai, phir  v cross country race may 431 position atta hai’ .…It was hard to escape from the witty humour of Mr. B K Sonowal sir!  But that’s when I realized only jada khana is not enough to be a champion in our school, you need to have the josh and confidence to overcome all odds.

 Within one month of joining Sainik School Goalpara I wrote more than a dozen letters to my parents, sometime drawing my tear full face, requesting them to take me away from the school.  For one month I cried, I played sports. Again I cried, I played sports. But after two months I only played sports and never cried again. My friends and their friendship became everything for me.

After reaching class VIII, I suddenly found my jumping and hitting ability improved.  I wondered how I could improve so quickly just by practicing  few minutes a day. Later, I found the answer to my sudden improvement lies in our “Reading room” (the big dormitories where juniors stay is called reading room). There was not a single day when I was not punished for dogging off to sleep before the mandatory sleeping time. I was a common prey of the “Class IX Prefect”. Three to four rounds of frog jump and 10min of chair position was my regular dose. Today I have the strongest pair of legs. Thanks’  to the “extra long” Reading rooms.

For two years I was in Aniruddha house and we Anirudhian’s where rechristened as “aboriginals” as we used to enjoy living a nomadic life. Late night trips towards the jungle with javelin and baseball sticks for Jackal hunting (never succeed though), fishing in the school fishery at night with mosquito nets and stealing corn from Sonowal sir quarter was our normal routine.  Indranil da , Jitu da and Gojen da  were the master hunters and we were their trusted lieutenant . Anirudhian’s belongs to a common ancestor of snake eaters. Snakes never dared to come close to our house, we had to explore new ground in search of them.  The strict discipline of hostel life combined with the nomadic lifestyle had taught us to adjust to any kind of situation.

Very few schools of India in those times, could have matched the sporting facilities we had in our school. There were more than eight football ground, equal number of  volleyball court, four basketball court, athletics tack, indoor gymnasium inside the school campus. What more a sports crazy guy like me can ask for ? We practiced very hard under our coach Mr. Routela and won the east zone inter Sainik School volleyball championship for three consecutive years. Throughout the year we remain busy competing among ourselves in various inter house tournaments .We developed a strong fighting spirit, never to surrender under any circumstances. 

I had the first experience of how a weak team can completely overshadow a stronger opponent through sheer confidence and josh. in the inter sainik school volleyball meet at Purulia. I was in X standard when I lead a young team from our school to beat a very strong senior side of Sainik school Purulia at their own ground. Had we played only with our skills, we would have been thrown out in just three set, but our confidence and josh overplayed our skill to beat the mighty Purilians. 

Before the final match, Navajyoti das came up to me and said, “you are the best and we will never lose today, come what may”. After winning the final points we all shouted, we jumped, we hugged and tears rolled down , those were the priceless moments. I would never forget the inspiring words of Naba in my life. He was more than a friend to me. (sadly, he expired a couple of years later, leaving behind a big void in my life)  

That day I realized what a young team with confidence and josh can achieve.  Today when I play against a mighty team, I recall the Purulia magic. 

In my childhood I was very aggressive, my energy was unchannelized, I was directionless. Fighting with my friends, hitting my elder sisters with hammers, throwing stone at neighbors orchard and running away from home was very natural for me. But later, after joining Sainik school I got the opportunities to explore my talent, which probably channelized my energy. I learned to share my feelings with my friends, started respecting my sisters and above all I realize the importance of pursuing a dream.

  I started dreaming big, in fact my friends made me to dream big .Even they started dreaming with me. We used to go on long walk in the evening to eat Narayan da’s eggrolls and “puss”. Gazing at the red sun going down behind Xurja pahar we discussed about our dreams and ideas…we discussed everything from finding a volleyball player as wife to how it feels to fly in an aero plane! Nothing in life could match those lovely feelings. 

But the very next day on Monday morning Mr. N N Singh (our senior master and math teacher) would ask us to find solution to yet another dy/dx problem. I used to struggle hard with those dy/dx and theory of relativity for the next five days without understanding a single formula. My brain was full of dreams. I waited for the Saturdays and Sundays to go into my own world of fantasy. I fantasies of standing in the victory podium and singing  the national anthem , I fantasies  what  would  I  say if  I win a  medal for India?  Which colour TV I would buy for ma and dauta with my first match fees?…..oh ! the list seems endless. 

One day when I was in class XII, in Udaygiri house , the  ‘Sri Bishnu’ bus driver came to me with an envelope (Shri Bishnu was the name of the bus which starts from our school in the morning to Guwahati and return in the evening and was our quickest source of courier). In it was a letter from my district coach Bagawati sir, informing me about selection trials for Assam state schools’ team along with an eligibility form. I was supposed to report at Dispur sports complex the very next day. More than me, my friends were excited. As usual I was without cash, within the night Pranab Saikia arranged for my journey, filled up my eligibility form and said “if u play for India someday, I will proudly say I was the one who filled your form “(Today Pranab is no more with us, I will always miss him).

 That year Assam team reached the quarter finals for the first time, and I got a call for the Indian team selection trials.

After two month of rigorous training at Patiala, on the day of Vijaya Dasami the panel of selectors  announced the name of selected players to represent  the country in the  Asian school championship to be held at Macau. I heard my name too.

 Two days later I was in an United Airlines flight to Hong Kong. As the flight took off,  I went into flashback mood for few minutes thinking of our evening walk to the ‘western’ canteen, the long dy/dx periods, mess duty days, the bara khanas, the red ASTC bus on second Saturdays, after dinner fall- in, house picnics and off course the ‘back boys run up’ commands of our beloved head master Lt. Col S K Verma sir.