XI D Admaths

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XI-D

Room 32 was built specially for us. When Mr. Lewis was in one of his good moods, he used to admit that as we were a cut above the rest of the school, to prevent us being corrupted by them, we should be segregated. At other times he would say we'd been put there, so that he could hide our activities from the watchful (and suspicious!!) eyes of other members of the staff! Well, whatever the reason, Room 32 was ideally situated for a class like XI D.

Isolated from the rest of the school, it was next to the new gym. Through the shutters, 37 bird watchers could also keep a close check on the passing scenery, without being observed themselves. There was only one entrance to the class for such beings as members of the staff, vice-principals etc. However, the members of the class would frequently use the spiral staircase (which was, needless to say, officially out of bounds!), in case of emergencies, which occurred very, very frequently!! Such emergencies were usually offset by incidents which invariably led to maths periods being spent on important meetings.

Mr. Lewis, in the chair, would question why so and-so had behaved in an unmannerly manner in the presence of a certain master or why the class had misbehaved during such-and-such a period. The Headboy, Headgirl and six other prefects (Shyam, David, Ram, Padman, Srinivasin, and Achinta) were made to stand up and questioned as to the possible motives of the remaining members of the class, even though all the prefects weren’t always as innocent as they seemed! All prefects and the two class monitors - Anil Dayal and Vora - were questioned individually, then the guilty party would be questioned, with his friends joining in, in his defence - (always a 'him!'), and with Ranjit Mirchandani (usually a very 'concerned' party!) arguing ferociously whatever the dispute.

While such interesting discussions went on, all over the class "Charile Brown" comics (distributed by Vora), Chase books etc. would be avidly read, with Peter preferring his Polish magazines which formed an essential part of the contents of his school bag. David and Anil Dayal would be absorbed in a game of darts (Compasses and compass boxes ingeniously replacing darts and dart board!) while Hemant and Jehangir watched wide-eyed. Anil Pal and Imran would be absorbed in making their way through a pile of sandwiches. Hussain, Harshad, Faroukh and Kapi would be bent over one of the endless maths sheets which we used to get, with Kapi following his usual brilliant pattern of getting no. II worked out by Shyam, no.12 by Anjini, no. 13 by Hussain and no. 14 by Harshad - and then loudly shutting his book and announcing that he'd finished, and then looking very smug when Mr. Lewis beamed at him.

In between periods, a quick game of cricket would be organized. Achinta would hold his Malhotra and Gupta with great determination in front of him, all bent on making his century; Anil Venkatrao (imagine 3 Anils in the class!) Pradip Mandyan, Sheetal, Vinay, Padman and Bharucha all bent on getting him out and making their centuries. Dhaval and Ali would vainly ask anyone who looked less engrossed then the others to give them their chance at batting.The game would frequently be interrupted by Bharucha shouting loudly and advising all and sundry.

B. S. Anand and G. V. Arun would be bent over one of their numerous games of chess, with Ranjit Shah, Srinivasan, Patwardhan, Purandare and Madhavan watching over and criticising the moves of these two undisputed chess champions. Vora would be hustling up and down, trying vainly to get everyone into their places, and invariably making the most noise himself. Anil (the other class monitor) would be still engrossed in his darts. Sidhant and Anjini were usually nowhere to be seen, but if a search had been made, they would have been found either playing Basketball in the gym, along with Shyam, Imran and David or drinking tea with either Mr. Ram or Ranchod. Sohrab and Atul would be the only two sitting down, while Ram would be holding forth to Rahul Kohli his views on the latest government policy. Sharad Kanga and Ranjit Mirchandani would be at the windows. Once the master was sighted, everyone would be in their places in a trice, with Macbeths open-all at different pages!).

That's our class at a glance-the brainiest amongst the elevenths (I try to be modest, but it's difficult with such a class!!); one of the liveliest classes in the school, as all our masters will willingly endorse, particularly Mr. Krishna!), who, on occasion, ended up with half the class out of the class!

Though at the end of the year the staff arrived at the conclusion that even the brightest of the angels could and did fall, we managed to keep up appearances (very successfully!) right till the very end!

- Anjini Kochar
(published in the 1973 yearbook)