Phew, I had to use Google to get the spelling for "Reminiscencing." It's about recollecting past experiences, a thing which is rarely attempted from my airy memory. But once in a while, certain events and knowledge reminds us of the people who touched our lives in quite an unknown way.
When I talk about SWOT analysis, Emotional intelligence, Public speaking, Dale Carnegie, Dramatics club, Kapil Dev's album named "Boys", my school friends could easily picture the face of a man donning white attire with an elegant look, our then school principal Fr.Kumar Raja. His personality boasts of versatile skills, right from managing a school numbering three thousand to composing devotional songs. By the way, he's a priest.
Few things stand out vividly, where the reformation of Friday's with "n" number of clubs to hone the skills of young students. God only knows what we did in those "Dramatic" club days out under the Banyan tree. I could remember Wini, Deepak, Krishna murthy, Kumar, Deeban christopher. The sole reason for selecting dramatics club was not out of passion for drama or arts(a little bit) but the sake of Oscar sir's company! :) He is our Faith education, English, Biology, Dramatics club tutor.
I still treasure the book "The Art of Public speaking" which he(Fr.) gifted on a school function. Thus began the phase of reading books in my high school days. Those moments ignited the hitherto unknown passions within my heart. I vividly remember a scene when I went to his room for the evaluation of my revision test results -- his remarks that I was in need of "consistency" in performance still echo.
This post would be incomplete without mentioning the "failed masquerade" in the School Annual day Dance performance for "Sa Re Ga Mae" from Boys. Our school had strict rules against performing for cinema songs. I recall the evening before the D-day when rehearsals were happening, Fr. called us and enquired about the song that sounded so "cinematic." Deepak rose to the occasion, used a 1% of his brain segment specifically dedicated for "craft and escapism" to say that the song was from "Kapil dev's Album" ; very recently released.
The rest was NOT history, it had a future too. We performed for the "cinema" song on the School annual day. It's still a mystery as to how Fr. Kumar Raja's came to know about this song from BOYS . An easy theory would be , he saw it on TV himself (which is very unlikely).
We were called to his room , as it was the custom those days, to investigate our uncanny boldness in enacting a "play" before the dance. Out of his compassionate heart, we were spared any severe punishments but fined and asked to donate a few books to library.
This is just an episode from the salad days of life! More for later.
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