1955 - 1965

This was one of our first posts on the blog.
We have a few days ago started a new label
"Know your Fellow Goethalites".
Well, Goethalites would not be what they are
without our teachers.
I would now like to start a label
"Know your Ex-teachers of Goethals"
We can't expect the teachers, many of whom are not around,
to write about themselves.
We would like YOU to write about your teachers.
If any of you would like to send any write up, please send it.
If you have pictures, it would be all the better.

Radheshyam

24.09.2007

I remember
Lower & Upper KG,1955-56
· The tears of sorrow as we parted from our parents as Sealdah Station and the anger boiling inside against my parents.
· The crossover by steamer over the Ganges at Manihari and Sakragali Ghats.
· The cold water when we drank for the first time when we reached school.
· My first teacher, Miss Ackoy, in lower KG and Upper KG. How delicate she looked and what a sweet voice.
· How every week she used to write our letters to our parents in pencil and we used to just overwrite them.
· How we used to be penalized 4 annas (Naya Paisa had not started then) every time we were caught talking in any other language but English by our principal, Bro Fitzpatrick.
· Standing outside the tuck shop. Bro. Lynch saying K and we saying G, when our turn came for getting Saturday ice creams, brought from Darjeeling.
· The pillow fights in the school dormitory

Standard 1, 2 3 (These became class 3.4 & 5)(1957,58,59)

· Mrs. P Roy, Height 4’10”, with a stick 5’ long.
· Ready to cane us, but seldom did.
· S. Das Gupta, who was her favourite student because he was good at Arithmetic.
· Her tuitions and special tuitions, where she never taught anything, just gossiped. The special tuition boys would be treated to her tea.
· I was scared of Math’s.
The picnic to Sukna Tea Estate where one of our colleagues's ( S.Haque) father was the Manager and gorging jackfruits. I have eaten jackfruits after that but they have never tasted as good as on that day. I wonder why?
Still remember the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of '57 and the Tom & ery Cartoon films which we saw at least 10 times during the Puja Holidays

Class 6 & 7 (1960-61)
· Mr. McKenzie our ambi- dexterous Goanese teacher. He could write with both hands.
· When he wrote with the white chalk he used right and when he underlined with color chalk he wrote with left.
· In Math’s, he taught us definitions. LCM, HCF etc. We knew the definitions by heart. But we did not know how to solve and find HCF and LCM.
· He improved our spelling. Regularly taking spelling and dictation tests.
· He told us how winds were formed.
· He used to give us his used blades, which we used to sharpen pencils.

Class 8 (1962)
· Mr. M. Lobo, God bless him in Australia. He removed the darkness in our lives. At last we came to find out that Math’s was not such a big boogie. He explained how to solve problems.
· How to convert, where we were to multiply and where divide.
· How to find the cost of 18 pieces when we knew the price of 8 pieces.
· If 3 men take 8 days to dig 7 wells how many men will be required to dig 15 wells in 2 days. He taught us.
· All this used to be mystery in the last 7 years.
· He got us into the habit of reading papers. We used to read The Statesman
· His Alsatian. How he used to throw the ball and make it fetch it.


Class 9 (1963)

· Bro Foran taught us Geography, which we still remember today.
· I still remember his health science teachings. When we came to the chapter on reproduction he used to skip it stating “This, you probably know more than me”
Once he took us for picnic to Kettle Valley. We gave him Gram(Chana chur).All the way back to school he muttered hi gram.

Class 10 & 11 (1964-65)

· Different teachers taught different subjects.
· Bro. Hughes, Up Light, down heavy. He was very particular about hand writing
· Bro. Morrow our Principal and my most favourite teacher He taught us literature and Math’s. He made us solve old question papers in Math’s, English Literature and English Language the whole of Class 11. Result! When we appeared in the final exams we found that we had solved all the problems earlier. He was strict and fair, even going to the extent of admitting a mistake if he made one.
· The rolling of marbles on the wooden dormitory floor and Bro Hughes waking all of us and making us stand.
· Getting toast instead of bread and potato chips for breakfast as a perk for being a prefect. What a privilege!!

Physics
· Mr. Roy. Very Clear and concise. I still remember my physics because of him.
Chemistry.
· Mr. Chakrabarty, lovingly called goofy.
· Also very clear in his explanations.
Hindi
· Mr. P Yonzan. This was our weak link. Not because of any fault of his but because we always gave it last priority. On not finding the chalk he used to exclaim “ conspicuous by its absence”

Bengali
· Mr. P Sanyal. Again a weak link for the same reason. He always kept smiling.

Other Memories
· Bro. Cahill, running after boys to give two khuts on the head.
· Killer Kyle, ready to use his fists to discipline a truant.
· Bro. Row and the Maze drill. Studying in the evening under his watchful eyes.
· Bro Corbett. Explaining there were three ways to solving a problem. The right way, the wrong way and my way. You are to do it my way.
· Bro. Rigney and the opera and we singing Rigney.. rigney..rigney as we went higher up or lower down the scale.
Bro. Ponise. We standing in front of our classes, clean handkerchiefs in our hands, polishing our shoes at the back of our trousers and chorusing in unison "we want a hoilday"(sunshine). He coming out of the main building, looking up at the sky, smiling and saying "OK", and going back inside. We then used to shout ourselves hoarse. It would invariably rain by the afternoon.
Bro. Callaghan, and his vain efforts to convert a few of us to Christianity and earn for himself a place in Heaven.God Bless Him.