My Days In Baroda

I still remember the day, when I got of the train and stepped foot for the first time in Baroda. My mum and my dad already had spent a year there, just before my birth. Shortly after my birth, my dad had got transferred to Delhi. My father’s workplace (IAF base) was in Makarpura (outskirts of Baroda). We rented a single bedroom house in Lakshmipuram. The place was located adj. to a national highway, and just beyond the highway was a biscuit factory (Windsor biscuits).

I got admission in KV, IAF. There were separate schools for the primary and the secondary, and were separated a good 2 or 3 km from each other. I was admitted to the 3 class, and when I saw the school for the first time, I thought I was in some dreamland. The place was awesome, my primary school was …..like ….HEAVEN. It’s the most scenic school, that I have seen in my entire life. Till date nothing has come even close to match the out and out the serenity, the calmness and the heavenliness of my primary school. It had beautiful trees, planned gardens and the location of the school, near a military clinic also helped in further beautifying the place.
I feel very much lucky to have spent my primary schooling days in such a place. I spent three good years of my life in there. I was a huge problem child those days, such a pain in my teacher’s ass. So, I was constantly beaten up, by both, my teachers and especially my parents, for my pranks. My pranks were done on daily basis, and there are too many to be mentioned. Except this one time, where I got into a lot of trouble. When I was in 4th, there was this guy Varun (A Madrasi), he got failed and was sitting with us to do his 4th for the second time. Being one year older to me, he constantly kept pestering me. And finally one day we got into a fight, and I kicked him like shit. He got unconscious and was admitted to the MI room. Once again my parents were called in immediately and the same thing happened, which I think needs no mentioning. Thank God Varun was a Madrasi, like me and this saved me and thank god fairy mother, it really did.

A year after that we got a qwater (IAF residential home). And with that I got a good friend in Abhishake. He was the kid next door, and was a year junior to me. He had an attitude similar to that of an explorer, a Colombus a Vasco DA Gamma in his own right. After school abhi and me would go exploring places. I’ve already told you guys, that IAF camps were situated in a secluded place like a near forest or a desert (away from the city). As long as you are in the camp you were safe and guarded also, but beyond it were terrible places (as our parents told us). This made abhi and me more curious of those places.

After school, abhi, me and my bro (pragi joined us half way through our mission) would explore the perimeters of the camp, making a map, making a tick of any good location. Only after our expeditions, I came to know how barren the land in which we lived in was. In the campus there were lush green gardens, roads completely covered with trees, but outside we had only thorny bushes. We used to hang around a shooting range, which was used by airforce personel ocassionaly. It was a cool place, but kids were forbidden there. So we could only hang out there only if it was deserted.

Another year went along and I was in the secondary school (6th). It was crap when compared with the primary school. But our so called after school visits went along smoothly. By this time, we knew every place in our locality (mostly forbidden places) like the back of our hands. And suddenly, my time in Baroda was over. My father got transferred to Silchar (Assam). As it was a troubled zone (Maoist terror), me, my mum and bro went to our hometown madras (Chennai now). Leaving abhi and every other friend back I went to madras, this time I was a bit sad. But I was, is and will be kind of a guy who accepts situation and kind of falls in love with it. This habit has kept me happy in the worst of situations. And so happily, I boarded the train to madras.

PS : I left Baroda after finishing 6th and I still (I think I’ll, till death) love my primary school, the shooting range, Abhi and our little adventure.