1996 was an important year for me. That was the year when I passed SSC and joined Notre Dame College. I was perceived as the meritorious and talented guy among my friends. I did have an edge in English, but I was not that good in other subjects. In fact, I always hated memorizing, and most of our curriculum is memorization based. When I was younger, I had guilty feelings for not studying well and memorizing a lot of things. I'd always keep on reading the things, but I never wanted to memorize them. I can boast now that I read through all the stories and chapters of most of my school books, which included stories that were not in the syllabus, chapters that were not assigned, and theories that were skipped because they were too complicated.
My result was not satisfactory. Most of my friends did better than me, and one close cousin of mine also got 33 marks more than me. All these incidents made my parents really mad at me, and I would be bashed every now and then.
Sigh, I spent my entire childhood under constant bashing from my parents. This all started from class 8.
I liked Notredame College for many reasons. Before joining the college, I went there only once. The auditorium in Martin Hall would get rented out as a mini-community center on weekends, and I was lucky enough to get invited on one such marriage. I had an impression that a special permission is required for renting that place, and I never tried clarifying this.
My dad was an ex-Notredamian. He told me stories about how the fathers used to teach them English, math, Physics, etc. subjects. Hehe, in this context, I remember a definition which I heard a long, long time ago. Who is a father? A father is a person who has no children, but considers everyone as his children. This might sound corny if you read it or hear it in an amusing manner, but if you look in to the depth, it’s actually a nice concept. As everyone is your children, you can’t harm anyone, and you’ll share the same level of affection for all.
I loved the orientation session. We were the freshers, and the second year big bros gave us a wonderful reception. The stage was set near the basketball ground. It was a typical wedding ceremony type setting, with the entire place surrounded by big pieces of clothes and decorated by lots of wooden chairs. I had Murshid and Pintu with me, the two guys from school who also joined NDC with me. I never quite looked back at that day as a very memorable event of my life, but now I think it was actually an interesting day.
Some of our "to be" teachers came up to the stage, and shared their wisdom with us. I vaguely remember a few words from the principal Father J.S.Peixotto's speech. He talked in English, and he was wearing a fotua. He seemed like a serious person to me. He talked about the heritage of the college, about the high standards of the education system that was being followed, and also some small rules and stuff. After a few more speeches, the 2nd year guys did a mini cultural show, with a few songs and recitations. After that, all the teachers and staffs were introduced to us. One by one, all of them arrived on the stage, and waved hands at us. That was the time when I realized that there were lots of Christian teachers and staffs in the college.
The Physical Instructor (Mr. Nurul Huda, if my memory doesn't betray me) got the highest hand claps and applause from the students.
After this, all of us were asked to form a huge human train. Yes, the batch of 1200 plus students formed the train, in a very disciplined and civilized manner. Then we went on a college tour. If you have gone to NDC, you'd know that our college is quite a huge place. From the entrance, a walkway leads to the main building. At the left (just beside the gate), there is a parking lot, which is used for parking cycles and motorcycles. However, I haven't seen a single bike parked there, in my 2 years of college life. This parking lot (!) is placed over the green pastures of a huge playground, which serves as a source of envy for any Dhaka based university other than DU. We walked over the field, and reached the far end of the field, where there is a school for orphans, and also a vocational training institute for the same. I surprised to see a big piano in a room over there. Apparently that school gives out piano lessons as well. I didn't think that I won't be visiting this place once again until almost 600 more days. Hehe, this is a bookmark, okay? I'll talk about this incident some other time (why and when I had to visit this place). Clever writers do this all the time...they keep these little bookmarks and small references all over their writings, where they get back at a later, convenient time. As I'm not a clever person, I am blatantly mentioning this here. Or maybe because I don't have a great memory? Damned MS Word...I know the last sentence is a fragment. Fragments are meant to be used. I love fragments, they make writing more interesting and personal.
Okay, let me get back to college. From the piano school, we went to the physics lab. I was quite thrilled after looking at the numerous different scientific devises in the lab, as I always dreamed about doing the science book experiments on my own. The physics lab was situated in the ground floor of the main building. Eventually we visited the bilogy lab and chemistry lab on the first floor, and the classrooms of the second floor. All the labs have probably been moved to the new building by now. When I passed out, the new building (which is called Ganguly Bhobon) was just erected, and only a handful of classrooms were operational. The biology lab was moved there, though.
We descended from the main building, and marched towards the left of the main building. This would be right side of the entrance. The college canteen was on the right side. It looked nice and clean, and there was a table tennis court adjacent to the canteen. At the far left corner, there stood another building called Martin Hall. Later on, I jokingly named this building as Motin Hall, just to give it a Bangali touch.
We descended from the main building, and marched towards the left of the main building. This would be right side of the entrance. The college canteen was on the right side. It looked nice and clean, and there was a table tennis court adjacent to the canteen. At the far left corner, there stood another building called Martin Hall. Later on, I jokingly named this building as Motin Hall, just to give it a Bangali touch.
So what's with Martin hall? Martin hall was, is, and will be a very emotional place for me, throughout my life. It was basically a housing facility for some of the poor, resident, Christian students of NDC. But it also hosted the auditorium, library and computer center. The latter two had been shifted to Ganguly Building during our stay, and probably the auditorium has been shifted as well, by now. Sigh that was nine years ago, and it still feels like yesterday.
I always had an interest in computers, and to be more precise, in gaming. I was a member of the NDC computer club, and my first training at computers began there. I learnt DOS and operated Win 3.11 there. Bookmark 2....will talk more about NDCC later.
Martin hall was the last stop for us. We returned to our classroom after that. A teacher named Gabriel Manik Gomes came in, and told us something very serious, but for some reason, I had to be desperate in order to hide laughter. He said "All religions are basically the same...Muslims say Gibrail, we say Gabriel, they say Isa, we say Jesus, they say Musa, we say Moses. It was a true fact; Jesus was actually the same person as Hajrat Isa (Alaihewassalam). But the depiction of Jesus as God's son is wrong, according to Islam. Anyways, he left soon, and after some time, we were allowed to roam around and have fun on our own.
I liked the college very much. I knew I'd love it. I knew it very moment when I stepped inside. A place so beautiful can't be bad. Alas...I had similar thoughts for IBA as well. Anyways (again), I think I'll talk with Murshid and Pintu and try and get back some more memories of the day. I meet them every Friday, on our weekly adda. But unfortunately we couldn't meet today.
I am sad for this. Can I survive without my friends? God knows.
I am sad for this. Can I survive without my friends? God knows.
