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Back to School Again!

By ⋅ April 17, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Loreto’s ban­ner gaily floats
In lands both East and West
Loreto’s name each girl reveres.
And holds it ever blest.
– LC Anthem

Loreto Convent
A view of the front of the school

On March 19 we go around the lovely hill sta­tion of Shil­long, where I spent most of my grow­ing up years. I had attended Pine Mount and then later Loreto Con­vent from where I passed out. On a few ear­lier visit, I’d just had enough time to give the school a cur­sory glance while pass­ing by. This time, I made it a point to re-visit Loreto again.

Chit chat, bas­ket­ball, school plays, yoga, throw­ball, vol­ley­ball, chapel, cathe­dral church, mrs beena ahmed, mother supe­rior, sis­ter john fran­cis aka sis­ter mar­garet, shared lunches, the four lovely girls I found to form the famous five (arpita, rhea, preeti, nee­lam), sports days, play­ing joseph’s sheep, gray sweaters with red bor­ders, red ties, tagore house, pinafores, potato chaat out­side the school gates, gum­boots dur­ing the rain : a whole lot of mem­o­ries come back on my walk down mem­ory lane.

A week or so ago, Arpita emails enthu­si­as­ti­cally about the offi­cial North Amer­ica mini LC re-union they’re hav­ing : four of them are get­ting together over the April 4/5 week­end in New York City and it promises a time for much fun, catch­ing up, and craziness.

It has been a long time. And yet, it’s amaz­ing how lit­tle everyone’s changed.

Out­side the main entrance of the school are a few green benches : added much later I think. But noth­ing much has changed perceptibly.

Walk­ing down the schools dimly lit halls and cor­ri­dors, I feel like I’ve been trans­ported back in time. A gag­gle of girls emerge in the cor­ri­dor and then quickly step into class as they see the teacher approach­ing. Another bunch is ready for the play­ground as they drib­ble a bas­ket­ball along the way. Another lit­tle one has just fin­ished her kinder­garten classes and holds on to mommy for dear life. She looks relieved to be out of class!

Back to school again! Break Rushing...

Down the cor­ri­dor, a cou­ple of girls emerge from the chapel : the same one where I’d go and say a small prayer once in a while. A sanc­tum where the peace and quiet was both reas­sur­ing and com­fort­ing. I’d just get away dur­ing a break and spend a few quiet min­utes kneel­ing down on those famil­iar wooden benches.

I peek into the hall down­stairs, the one where Arpita and I spent many hours learn­ing how to skate. I think we were among the few who mas­tered bal­anc­ing on roller skates early on.

I am excited to find a pho­to­graph of our batch in the hall­way, and point myself out to Ree, Venky and Deep­san who are with me on this trip. It’s dif­fi­cult to con­vey one’s sense of excite­ment and deja  vu in moments like these.

While for them it must have been just another school, for me it was where I spent many pre­cious moments of my life, grow­ing up.

Oh, to be young again! Junk

I ven­ture inside and try and take a look at the class­rooms but since school is in ses­sion, I watch from the safety of one of the cor­ri­dors. A few teach­ers walk around pur­pose­fully. No famil­iar faces, but every­thing else is some­what the same! The same white build­ings with the gray rimmed win­dows, the wooden plank floor. The uni­forms look a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. The house colours : red, green, blue and yel­low — reflected in the T-shirts some of the girls are wear­ing : it must be sports day for them, I gather. But I still glimpse some kids in gray red-rimmed pinafores.

Next to the school is the beau­ti­ful Cathe­dral Church where we went on spe­cial occa­sions. Like Christ­mas when we had to sing hymns, most of which I’ve for­got­ten now. I love the stained glass win­dows and that serene feel­ing inside the large church. Quite a few school girls enter, say their prayers in front of the burn­ing can­dles and leave.

Sing

The thought of school days always brings back spe­cial mem­o­ries. And I’m so glad that I had the chance to attend Loreto. It’s in these very class­rooms and in this very school that I found some amaz­ing women who con­tinue to be friends even today, even though they’re all scat­tered in dif­fer­ent parts of the world.

They often say that the school days are the best and I can’t argue about that one!

The Back to School Album

Discussion

84 Responses to “Back to School Again!”

  1. Its been a while since I walked down those halls, but Loreto will always have a spe­cial place in my heart. My daugh­ter Heather attended a year and a half before she returned back to the States. I do return to Shil­long often and meet up with some of my classmates…Rebecca, Adella, Roselind.Social net­work­ing has allowed our batch to con­nect fairly regularly.My hus­band Joseph has vis­ited our school and looked at the wall of pho­tographs of grad­u­at­ing classes.Of inter­est, one of his cousins was a Irish catholic brother with the Sale­sian order in India; he spend time in Shil­long but passed away in Asan­sol sev­eral years ago. What a small world.
    Naples, Florida

    Posted by Badalin Helvink ( nee Laso) | January 2, 2009, 9:09 am

  2. SO EVERYONE : hear me out…
    There has been loads and loads of messages…on this site :) thanks to Anita.

    Please try your very best to make it to the Alumni meet and it is in MAY 2009. Please read the mes­sages care­fully and the web-links for the details are also mentioned.

    HAPPY NEW YEAR…and Stay Blessed. See you in MAY at the school cen­te­nary cel­e­bra­tion :) it would be fun if some could come dressed in their old uni­forms :)…hah­haha. By the way the uni­forms have changed dras­ti­cally over the years…the over­alls have been taken over by white skirts and shirts to match the House you belong to…but thankfully…we still have kids adorned in the MAIN UNIFORM i.e. the grey skirts, white shirts, red tie and Grey Sweaters and Coats…aha…:) black shoes and white socks…Still look­ing the very best in town.

    Happy New year once again.

    Posted by Kenyir Olga | January 5, 2009, 2:02 pm

  3. Hi,
    I am look­ing for my class­mates (ICSE Batch 1981). I am a res­i­dent of New York State at present. I would love to be present for the cen­ten­nial cel­e­bra­tions. This web­site has brought back fond mem­o­ries, I remem­ber sis­ter John-Francis..what a great teacher…I was a boarder dur­ing my last year of school and enjoyed every moment of it.
    Yvonne

    Posted by Yvonne Ward Kharkongor | February 2, 2009, 8:04 am

  4. Hi Arun,

    Was try­ing to reg­is­ter online for the com­ing cen­te­nary cel­e­bra­tions, when I saw your post. Toony’s in Shil­long, Ratna’s in Delhi, Aureen’s in Rochester, Eva’s in Texas, Gautami’s in France, Apuii’s in Delhi, Arshiya’s in Delhi, Kabita’s in Gauhati, Melanie’s in Assam, so is Sarita. It’ll be great hear­ing from you. Do write at veena.ryntathiang@gmail.com

    And thanks Anita. Great work!

    Posted by Veena | February 18, 2009, 11:56 am

  5. Hello Esterla,
    am sure you do remem­ber me : as you have men­tioned my name sev­er­ally while con­vers­ing with Syl­vana my younger sister…shes your batch…incase you for­get. How­ever I take this oppor­tu­nity to Con­grat­u­late you : Bet­ter late than never…on the occa­sion that took more than a life­time to decide…your pro­fes­sion speaks a lot…may your endeav­ours bring joy to the congregation…life to it and to this school we so much love : LC. I met your sis­ter Regina way way back…and she told me you had send us an invi­ta­tion for a social gath­er­ing on your final Vow tak­ing as a Sis­ter in LC…well i cant for­mu­late the words really…but thats what i know…however as we may have gone out­sta­tion : I must confess…that we never recieved the invitation…or we’d have met up…at your place. You have made us proud…notmany take up to this pro­fes­sion for life…many let go half way thru…but we really as a fam­ily appre­ci­ate your guts and will-power. Thanl You for mak­ing this small Khasi Com­mu­nity Proud of your doings. Till then Take care : hope to see you and your sisters…at the Cen­te­nary meet in May 2009.

    Posted by Kenyir Olga | February 24, 2009, 3:17 pm

  6. Hi Girls,
    I am Kakoli Mitra nee Bose of the 1973 batch. Hi Nan­dita . I loved see­ing your post. How are you? Iam intouch with maitrayee and Champa. How and where are sabera, Mehmooda Yas­min Nashrin , Arund­hati … God i could go on. Do drop in a line at kakoli.mitra@gmail.com and kakolimzz@yahoo.co.in

    I just loved the pic­tures. I think the blog is facil­i­tat­ing long lost friends in reestab­lish­ing contct.

    Posted by Kakoli | March 18, 2009, 6:37 pm

  7. hey girls… yes­ter­day met up with L.C girls Sonata, Nisha Springett n Payal Nongbet…n had a blast talk­ing about school days… what fun , mad­ness,.… we just didnt want the night to end…got soz­zled in the end…

    Posted by Deepali Junjappa | March 20, 2009, 12:45 pm

  8. Hi, I am look­ing for a very old friend of mine from Loreto Con­vent Dar­jeel­ing. Her name was Anita Shah, she moved to Jaipur around 1976–77. If any Alumni is aware of her where­abouts please mail me at Surekha_p@hotmail.com

    Posted by Surekha Murthy | April 7, 2009, 9:04 pm

  9. Hi Nan­dita & Kakoli,
    Chanced upon this site look­ing for info on LC cen­te­nary cel­e­bra­tions. Great to see your posts, girls! How are you both doing? It has been decades since we con­nected! Liv­ing in Katy (sub­urb of Hous­ton), Texas. My hus­band is Rumu Ahmed, Edmund’s batch of 1962. We make our annual pil­grim­age to India and get to visit Shil­long since Rumu’s from there. The high­light of our trip is going to Edmunds and LC, spend­ing time leisurely strolling the grounds,the cor­ri­dors and hall­ways, look­ing into the sum­mer house, oh yes the creaky sum­mer house where we used to blast the music and dance our hearts away with passers by from the road below look­ing up at us in amuse­ment and amazement!!!(the hedges are really tall now).…every part of the school brings back won­der­ful memories..seems like just the other day. LC looks the same except the hall, is well main­tained, beau­ti­ful blooms, but I think there have been many changes inter­nally. Lost count of the num­ber of pic­tures I’ve taken…will send them to you…think you all will enjoy them. Have lost touch with most of the girls but Nir­mali always comes to see me when I’m back home. She even vis­ited me in the States.…we had the time of our lives! I also kept in touch with Anita till she left us some years ago…that was absolutely heartbreaking…took me a long time to come to terms with her pass­ing. I still miss her a lot. Oh yes, Arund­hoti came to see me last year when I was there. Arund­hoti, Nir­mali, Sangami­tra, Kuki, Benita all live in Guwa­hati. By the way where are you girls? Kakoli please say a hello for me to Champa and Maitrayee…are they in Cal? Girls do keep in touch..my e-mail is asaconengr@aol.com.
    And now to ARUN…how are you? I believe you are in the Dal­las area…well, I’m not too far from you, you know!! Met Jaya a few years ago…she lives close by too. Sangeeta used to live here…is in Wash­ing­ton state now. Saw her here some years ago at a wed­ding. We make con­tact when­ever we can. Hey do keep in touch and come and visit when you get a chance. We had a great Bihu cel­e­bra­tion in Austin last week…you should come next time…it’ll be great to see you. Well, bye to all…hoping to hear from you all.

    Posted by SSabera Ahmed nee Sultana | April 18, 2009, 12:42 pm

  10. Hey LC Girls,
    I feel nos­tal­gic read­ing famil­iar names and about all the won­der­ful times we all had in school. Those days were by far the best..possibly the longest I have been in one edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tion. Know what I stayed next doors to Loreto for 10 year..and still can hear the bell ring for prayers, then lunch, the classes and so on, in my mind. I visit home every year and every time I pass the traf­fic point in Dhankheti..I stare at the walls ..just hop­ing to see a famil­iar face. One of my first jobs was at a project office oppo­site the school building..at “Eldarado”..and no mat­ter how much I try..I proudly tell every­one that I was a stu­dent at Loreto Con­vent, Shil­long.
    Love to all.
    Romasa

    Posted by Romasa | April 18, 2009, 7:29 pm

  11. Hi,Anita and other frenz!I am try­ing to locate u all.I passed out in the batch of 1980.MEET U ALL at the CENTNERY!Do write back. bye.

    Posted by Romio Sharma Hazarika | May 8, 2009, 7:52 pm

  12. Hello every­one par­tic­u­larly my 1973 Batch mates,
    You def­i­nitely appear to have enjoyed the spec­tac­u­lar cen­te­nary reunion. It was heart­en­ing to read the feed­back, tough­ens my resolve to def­i­nitely make a return visit and retrace my steps of the sev­en­ties.
    It would be lovely to hear more from any­one who remem­bers me. My mother, Loretta Fur­tado, taught at Loreto whilst I was study­ing there.
    In nos­tal­gia,
    Christine

    Posted by Christine Pereira (nee Furtado) | May 22, 2009, 8:24 pm

  13. Chris­tine Pareira,
    Yes, I remem­ber the name Miss Fur­tado. But I can­not rec­ol­lect whether she was the music teacher or a teacher in the junior school; I was a very lit­tle girl then. How­ever I do remem­ber some­body drop­ping her ring into the innards of the grand piano in the hall and every­body peer­ing through the strings try­ing to locate the ring. I’m men­tion­ing this inci­dent because I remem­ber there was a Fur­tado some­where in the picture!

    Posted by Zos H. | May 23, 2009, 12:51 pm

  14. Also, does any­body remem­ber or know the where­abouts of Mrs Vir­mani who taught Hindi in the ‘70s? She had two daugh­ters called Uma (Huma??) and Anju. I always flunked Hindi (and badly too) until I was in Mrs Virmani’s class. She was so kind and so encour­ag­ing that I man­aged a con­tin­u­ous string of E’s while she was my teacher! She also taught us a poem Hum he Veer which we per­formed on some func­tion car­ry­ing card­board rifles.

    Posted by Zos H. | May 23, 2009, 1:25 pm

  15. Hi all!
    I was in LC Shil­long from 1978 to 1987. Best years of my life. I am sorry that I could not attend the cen­te­nary cel­e­bra­tions. I am sure all who attended had fun and from what I have heard, it was very grand.

    Posted by Mudita Tripathi | May 23, 2009, 6:24 pm

  16. Zos,
    That may have been my older sis­ter Mar­i­anne who was study­ing at St Mary’s Col­lege at the time and prob­a­bly taught music part time at Loreto. I dont recall this inci­dent but have e-mailed to ask her to con­firm the same.
    It’s amaz­ing how cer­tain things get etched in our mem­o­ries because of the impres­sion they make:)
    Those were happy days and we enjoy rem­i­nisc­ing:))
    Cheers!
    Christine

    Posted by Christine Pereira (nee Furtado) | May 23, 2009, 9:42 pm

  17. hey this is a x stu­dent if LC i ve lost all con­tacts of my frnz as of trans­fer from shil­long if any 1 new seema or nancy from pre­vios tenth plese tell

    Posted by muskaan | May 31, 2009, 4:07 pm

  18. A great big thanks to Anita for help­ing the mem­o­ries flood back …won­der­ful, won­der­ful days spent at LC…the pics are sim­ply price­less
    so many of u I still remem­ber well…
    Deepali..how are u?d’u still play the drums?
    Mudita,Sharmishtha, Anamika…how are you all?

    Posted by annapurna | August 19, 2009, 12:34 am

  19. Hi Anita,

    I vividly remem­ber your name,as my sis was a stu­dent of LC.I am sure you would be know­ing her.…Yeah its Anu­radha Verma.….I was going through the com­ments of dif­fer­ent peo­ple most of the names sound so familar…

    Posted by BRIJESH VERMA | August 26, 2009, 11:14 pm

  20. Noth­ing much hap­pen­ing on this page…I cant help but ask myself if one of the writ­ers here, Muskaan, is really a Loration…let me quote her “hey this is a x stu­dent if LC i ve lost all con­tacts of my frnz as of trans­fer from shil­long if any 1 new seema or nancy from pre­vios tenth plese tell “.…..well “please tell” me what hap­pened to all that wren and mar­tin we worked on…

    Posted by Sylvana | September 4, 2009, 11:50 am

  21. always nos­tal­giac when it comes to loreto shillong.wish were there for ever.will miss it till death.miss all friends and teachers.any clue of mrs bhattacharya{history}mrs lepcha,sir giri,mrs ahmed and all teachers—anamika_g73@yahoo.co.in

    Posted by anamika gupta | September 10, 2009, 4:42 pm

  22. lovely to see such clear pic­tures of the school. mem­o­ries are vivid.
    We are try­ing to make an alum­nae in kolkata of all shil­long loreto girls. 6th octo­ber is the day we get together for a kick off. wish us luck. hope we form a strong bond here.

    Posted by sangita saraogi | September 27, 2009, 7:35 pm

  23. The chanawala with the green box was really amaz­ing.
    scenes of the clam­our to get the first serv­ing on news print cones of that amaz­ing con­coc­tion for 50 paise or a rupee out­side St. Edmund’s gate at 3 o clock flashed past my mind.
    there was another guy who sold Aloo. not the boiled one with the imli chut­ney but the hot curry. the guy would usu­ally get sold out within 30 mins on the Annual sports day.
    thanks for the glimpse but I got an ache in my jaws now.

    Posted by Mrinal | October 5, 2009, 4:45 pm

  24. Any­one who knows friends of Anu­radha Verma from St. Marys col­lege, pls drop me a email, I am get­ting my wife , thats her, to Shil­long for a trip, wanted her to get in touch with her friends.

    Rajiv San­gari.

    Posted by Rajiv Sangari | October 16, 2009, 12:14 am

  25. Great mem­o­ries of Loreto, Shil­long. Saw sev­eral famil­iar names .…Sangeeta Saraogi…Romasa.…send me an email.…joyborah1@gmail.com.

    Posted by Joy Saikia | November 24, 2009, 11:21 pm

  26. HI EVERYBODY!

    I AM FROM THE 1989 BATCH AND LIKE TO CONTACT MY BATCHMATES.IF U REMEMBER ME CONTACT ME AT parasudipto.sen@gmail.com

    PARA.

    Posted by paramita purkayastha(sen) | December 17, 2009, 12:08 pm

  27. hi
    this is natasha kumar from the 1996 batch where the prin­ci­pal was sis­ter anne marie and our class teacher was ms guha roy. miss all the fun we had in school and also miss sir thapa and mr giri for being so sup­port­ive’ thanks lc shil­long for mak­ing me what i am today
    con­tact me in bonjovi_16@rediffmail.com

    Posted by natasha kumar | January 11, 2010, 4:29 pm

  28. Dear Anita,
    These pic­tures are awe­some. It has been a long time since I left LC. These pic­tures brought back child­hood mem­o­ries very dear to my heart. We were indeed for­tu­nate to study in this elite school. Thanks very much for shar­ing these won­der­ful pictures.

    Enakshi.

    Posted by Enakshi Baruah | January 25, 2010, 1:48 am

  29. Hi ! Rekha
    Great to see your name.I have been track­ing down some class mates from 1967 batch too. Used to sit next to you and Watila in class X. Was a day-scholar for three years and fondly
    remem­ber those pre­cious school days and each one of you. I am in Ban­ga­lore and would love to keep in touch.
    Aruna

    Posted by Aruna Kohli (Sachdeva) | March 12, 2010, 3:17 pm

  30. Hi!!
    Great pho­tographs!
    The pic­tures really took me down mem­ory lane.Unfortunately I haven’t been back since 1982 when we left Shil­long.
    Do remem­ber Molly,Chandrima. I came across this as I’m try­ing to find Romio.If any­one has con­tact info on her please let me know.Recently made con­tact with Betty Joseph.
    I’m from the’79 batch my email is yoginijoshi@hotmail.com so con­tact me.

    Posted by Yogini Joshi[Bhide] | March 31, 2010, 4:15 pm

  31. Hi,
    I am not from LC , didn’t do my school­ing in Shil­long. But joined col­lege there. St Mary’s . Would any­one know any peo­ple from the 1976 batch?
    Thanks.

    Posted by VG | July 4, 2010, 12:07 pm

  32. Hi,

    I was from lc and i know what it feels like to miss this great place where we learnt pretty much everything..including what we learnt from our friends and class­mates which have proved to be quite use­ful till date. Look­ing at the pic­tures just brings back all those mem­o­ries and i’m glad to say that i was from loreto and will for­ever be a Loret­ian at heart!!!

    Posted by Juban | August 6, 2010, 10:01 am

  33. Hi,

    I was in Loreto Shil­long for 3 years (1st to 3rd std) and part of the ICSE batch of Dec 1975. I came look­ing for pic­tures of the past and found this blog. Thank you for the won­der­ful pic­tures. I am try­ing to jog my mem­ory. Was there a Sr. Winifred in 1968/69? I recall she taught us to speak proper Eng­lish with a mir­ror in front of our mouths to round our O’s. And Mrs Baud­loy? (sp). My mother Mrs Vergh­ese taught home­science to 10th/11th std girls. and those of you who grad­u­ated in 1967–1969 would have had her as your teacher. Any mem­o­ries? I’m going to dig out my album and find some names.

    Posted by Susana nee Verghese | March 21, 2011, 11:09 am

  34. Hi Susana,

    I remem­ber you. You were in my class with Miss Bor­doloi as our class teacher. Your mother taught domes­tic sci­ence to the ISC classes and yes Mother Winifred taught us elo­cu­tion and it is thanks to her that one’s dic­tion is the way it is. I’m not too sure if you would remem­ber me but nice to see your post. And your name is part of the many I recall of Class 2 B.

    Lal­nuntlu­angi (Apuii)

    Posted by Lalnuntluangi Tochhawng | March 12, 2012, 11:33 am
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