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Friday 9 December 2011

Memories - The Ugly

Eva wins first prize!
 Trouble began in 1971 when I was twelve years old. My little sister Juliet joined Ramnee. She was an extremely sensitive child and could not adjust to life in the boarding. She cried continuously and would run away from her class just to seek me out, then would cling to me weeping piteously. Nothing I could say or do would matter to her, and I had no idea how to handle the situation. The seniors seemed to find this whole scenario most amusing and would tease my sister incessantly, calling her mean names, which would set her off howling again. It infuriated me to witness this and I began to pick defiant fights with these girls, so earned the reputation of being rude and 'too big for my boots'. The more they teased my little sis, the angrier I became, which became a vicious cycle of taunting, tears and taking up for her. Julie's class teacher, Miss Carvalho, once slapped her as I happened to be passing by. I stormed up and demanded to know what the little girl had done to merit being hit. Miss Carvalho glared at me and said to stop behaving like a 'walking peacock', whatever that meant and I was reported for being cheeky.
The next problem I had was encouraging the young 'maali' boy ! There was a  gardener who would cheekily grin whenever he saw me and I unhesitatingly beamed back. I would nudge friends and tell them to notice how he smiled, and then we would scuttle off in a flurry of giggles. Someone took it upon themselves to complain to the Principal, Sister Bernard, that I was flirting with the scruffy looking chap, and I was hauled over the coals for being a bad influence, with the devil putting evil thoughts into my head. I actually had no idea what the big deal was, but felt miserably guilty for whatever it was I was supposed to have done. 
The rebellious streak grew worse. Someone told me F&*% was a bad word, but in those days no one really knew what it meant. I sat in class one day, scrawling the word all over a blank page of my exercise book. When the nun in charge saw what I was writing, there was another uproar for my ungodly behaviour. Girls were told not to talk to me since I was evil spawn and they would all burn in hell for associating with me.It was much later that I realised the connotations of the F word but then I was just twelve and not as worldly wise as the children of today.
The last straw came when I asked one of the day scholars to bring me some cigarettes. I puffed bravely on one in the bathing room and then sprinkled talcum powder all over to mask the smell. I had no idea the stink would linger so strongly and half an hour later I was summoned again and stared at in wordless horror for the unspeakable atrocity I had committed.
Two days later I was called to the Principal's office and was shocked to find my mother there, all pale faced and shaky. My bags had been packed and I was told I was being expelled! I could not believe what I was hearing and there was no reaction that I could give, so numb was I by the whole turn of events.
A couple of months later we received a letter from the school saying they would be happy to take me back since they felt I had been taught a lesson.The inside story was that there was some internal political trouble between Sister Dominica and Sister Bernard over the Principalship, and I was made the scapegoat because of my family's closeness to the former.
 The very idea of going back made me so hysterical that my parents reluctantly agreed to let me give my board exams privately. My days in Ramnee came to an abrupt and unforeseen end and I have never been back to Nainital in all these years.
The Mikado - Annual Day Play

7 comments:

  1. I had never heard any of these episodes before, but I could relate to them as if they had happened right before me... I can so well relate to the way you defended Jules. Really abrupt end to the whole affair. It must have been tough giving your Boards privately.

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  2. People glorify Ramnee, but there was so much that was traumatic about it. Some sadistic nuns and teachers, abuse of power, crazed nuns and teachers, mean girls, CONTROL, control. It takes a while to recover from it, if you are a free spirit, and I am glad to see you have. Ramnee was a traumatic experience for me too, in many ways, but it also shaped me--in a few ways for good.

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  3. so tough... so hard.... so lonely... so strong ... so brave

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  4. Eva, thats me right beside you!!

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  5. Eva, I discovered my photo in your Confirmation one with Margaret. How it all comes back, our choir singing, with the yummy smells of the nuns' breakfast cooking wafting in through the chapel window, Cecil's ability to hit the high notes even while pedaling furiously on an ancient organ, the creak of the rope when the chapel bell was rung on Sundays and our famous Ramnee hymn reserved for the feast day, September 8 when we could look forward to great food. After you left school the famous Ramnee cutlets were replaced with two strange cutlets, a round one which we called cat and an oblong one called dog. We used to have names for almost all dishes, the grosser the better. Kadhi was called snot curry and how we loved it, a delicious mince in thick gravy was diarrhea and I leave it to your imagination what we called the tomato based curry! I have discovered the bakery which makes the famous Ramnee biscuits, on order. I recall how we used to read books together during the breaks and you had a particular way of sniffing when you had a cold and you'd rub your nose vigorously till it turned red.

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  6. Dear Eva,I was up in Nainital the year the Mikado was staged at Ramnee.As a matter of fact I was the official photographer on the occasion!Mother Bernard invited me to come "up" and do the covering of the event. I even stayed at Ramnee with the nuns!I have a beautiful b&w photo of 'Yum Yum' and the other two girls in the song ' Three Little Girls from School are We!'Were you in the operetta too? Maurice Ryder.

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  7. Dear Eva,I was up in Nainital the year the Mikado was staged at Ramnee.As a matter of fact I was the official photographer on the occasion!Mother Bernard invited me to come "up" and do the covering of the event. I even stayed at Ramnee with the nuns!I have a beautiful b&w photo of 'Yum Yum' and the other two girls in the song ' Three Little Girls from School are We!'Were you in the operetta too? Maurice Ryder.

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