A decade ago….

(A special thanks to Abhilash, Dheeraj, Santosh, Harsha)

As we were set to visit a place that is probably propitious to each one of us in its own way; a little grey hair, slightly bulged beer belly’s, taller than ever before both in terms of height and knowledge and slightly increased eye sights! It was after a decade that we visited a place that taught us the most fundamental things of life. VVSSPHS was standing tall with its head high up in the air probably with a touch of pride claiming its hands in success of each and every individual walking out of the ever-green ‘black gates’. The echo’s of the students shouting at the corridors, the enchanting voices of teachers, it sounded like yesterday!

The warm, stage! followed by the ‘still yellowish foreground on which we stood for millions of assemblies and celebrations’, the dark corridors of all the three floors with still the same old yet refreshing notice board and the ‘state-of-the-art’ gallery classrooms, “uh! Time really has run a long way..” may be more than we all realized or expected.

The staff room dint look new and the faces inside did not look tired either, batch by batch they have shaped thousands of students like us who get ready to take on a new challenge every day. Probably with some more grey hairs and increasing age liners, they looked more refreshing and delirious to shape millions of students yet to come. “Ah! The times were good then..” as they whispered in a voice that was steady as back then. The smile on their face to see those who grew up listening to them was worthless, suddenly the faces that looked so ferocious then seemed like a vast calm ocean with the waves of ‘Satisfaction’ hitting the banks of their mind. “They have changed a lot….” They screeched in surprise, probably with some sense of happiness and probably with some sense of sadness; it was these teachers at VVSSPHS who stepped the first steps of our lives together along with us, held us when we tripped, guided us when required. “Have you forgotten chemistry?……” questioned MCV and CVP, this time with a pinch of sweet smile on their faces. TSM sat there as ever majestically, as TGK and NRS resorted to formal talks but this time with a hint of humor. KNM, was every busy cutting marks seeing through a magnifying glass and GDS sat back listening to our funny stories. On the other hand GK was all excited to learn Harsha Shastry getting married and VR was busy recognizing whether it is dheeraj or dheemanth! While others were as usual busy in keeping an eye on students err! I mean individuating the students on their 100^th re-exam huh!

As we stepped back to the room that held the unit of VVSSPHS together for over a decade now, KR seemed more energetic, with the beguiling smile she welcomed all of us who had set on to regain some of the magical moments of our lives.  Memorable classrooms, unforgettable teachers, unexpressed happiness, a self satisfaction; VVSSPHS was an epitome of our lives, which laughed with us, cried with us, achieved with us, probably that had bound us.

As I walked out of the gates of the school perhaps for the first time with a heavy heart, I did not miss my chance to meet AR and thank her for all the kannada that she had thought which today I use to write 100’s of Kannada plays and stage it all over.

A tribute to VVSSPHS, my way- Abhishek S Iyengar