Modern, an idea whose time is here

~ Kunal Sethi

S-7E (+ 25 Yrs and counting)

Its almost twenty years (or more) since I have picked up a pen to write something from the heart (unless you count the love letters I wrote while courting my wife to be!).  Nostalgia however is a funny thing. Most of the times it is selective amnesia, which allows all happy memories an outlet. It makes us feel good about the past or selective parts of what has gone before. It often covers up as much as it professes to admit.

However, most of the times we are so caught up in the day to day problems we all face that we tend to forget all the good times.  Nostalgia is therefore a means to go back in the past and forget the immediate reality. And school days is that part of the childhood which hold some of the happiest memories in my heart.

The easiest way to write this article is to slip into reminiscences of those days. The memories are so many, varied and happy that one does not know where to start and where to end. From the start of the ‘Modern Era’, in Humayun Road to Vasant Vihar from where I did my 10^th and to Barakhamba where school finally ended; the memories are endless.

The memories encompass a lot of teachers (including the ‘Principal’ ones; MN Kapoor, Ved Vyas and Bakshi), Friends: from the first crush in class one, lost in the mists of time to those with whom I continue to share my sorrows, hardships and joys to date (Here is to you Sanjeev Haldia!).

The incidents range from my first day in Barakhamba in S6, where I was relieved of my wallet to throwing chalks in class and hitting the teacher with it creating a first class row in the school discipline in charge’s class room. Learning to play Hockey and graduating to be able to play Hooky from Talli’s class to play Khokho and cheer the girl’s basketball team playing a match in an all girls school. The memories encompass all of my school life starting from knickers and finally passing out in pants.

However after looking back 25 years, while these people and incidents are as alive in my mind as when I left school and have helped define me as a person (Modernite?), they do not by themselves define what it was about Modern School that I have loved and which makes me extremely proud to be a Modernite.

When I look back what I realise is that Modern was an Idea nurtured in the buildings and more importantly in the people (teachers and students alike) associated with this great institution. In an age when discussions on curriculum, rote learning, teaching methodology were not common, everyday news items and internet chat topics here was a school which did what a lot of schools still do not even think of.

In the times where all that mattered was your marks and schools were generally places where corporal punishment to assure studiousness among the pupils was an accepted norm only one institution stood out. Modern School offered all types of sports and extracurricular activities to students along with the daily dose of rote learning. The sports and extra curricular activities were not just window dressing but allowed those who were serious about them to pursue them in school hours.

This in today’s jargon translates to a school (or educational institution) which allows children to find out their strengths and weaknesses and experiment with different vocations before deciding what they want to become or the goals they want to pursue, Modern to my mind is the idea which allows creativity to flourish and gave the kids who were lucky enough to attend it the freedom of choice to decide on their future plans and the ability to pursue them.

My children do not study in Modern School and I let them know, on a daily basis, that I attended the best school (their mother’s and their objections not withstanding). However the true victory of Modern is that I look for the Idea that Modern is to me in all the schools that they have studied in. If the school they study in can nurture that and make them happy adults with brilliant memories of school and thinking individuals capable of making their own choices I would have passed down the best of my schooling to them.

So from the heart, Hail MHS specially “Class of 84” that made this journey so exciting and happy. Join me in a toast to the institution which lives on in our hearts 25 years after we left it. God Speed and to all of you and in a pilot’s lingo all the best wishes:     

May the number of your Landing always equal the number of your Take Offs.