Memories of some remarkable years

Sunday 29^th June 2025          Day 23206

High School & College days. 1974-1984 Chembur, Bombay and IIT Madras

• In SIWS Wadala till Class VI. Shifted to Shrinagar CHS in 1974 for Class VII and beyond.
• General Education Academy, Chembur.
• Walking above the tracks on the overbridge at the railway station to school. 20 minutes’ walk.
• Nataraj Theatre. Passed by many times. Not seen a single movie there!
• Vacation trips to Trichur by train. Hold-All, packed food, Chikki at Lonavala, Bathing at Arakkonam, curd-rice and lemon-rice in a banana leaf.
• Singing Surangani when Bina manni came to Grandpas home after her marriage to Ambi mama.
• Made Nankatai at GEA.
• Getting hauled before the principal for some trivial fun during cooking class.
• Chemistry in the Chemistry Lab !!
• Shopping for veggies etc along with dad and mom at Chembur.
• Buying Phillips coffee powder. The aroma of fresh coffee powder.
• Buying rice, wheat and sugar etc at ration shop.
• Carrying wheat to the chakki for grinding into flour.
• Reading Oliver Strange’s SUDDEN and Perry Mason novels
• Circulating library Famous Five, Secret Seven, James Hadley Chase etc
• Playing Cricket in the ground at Shrinagar CHS.
• Losing my special steel scale / ruler at GEA. 
• Getting hassled by Dancing, Vishwas Pathak and Sudhir Puthran. Keeping them at bay. 
• Doing well in the 10^th Standard exam in 1977.
• Getting admission to SIES College Sion. Travel by train to Koliwada Station (GTB Nagar) and then walking to SIES.
• No more school uniforms.
• Hustle and bustle in the local trains. Sometimes changing over at Kurla station. Harbour Line and Main Line changes.
• Laboratory classes at SIES!!! What a “chemistry” there.
• Aggarwal classes at Dadar and prep for IIT JEE
• 1011 A.I.R in 1979. Choice of IIT-B vs IIT-M. Good sense prevailed and selected IIT-M
• Hostel days at Mandakini Year 1. July 1979 onwards. Room 224.
• Learning to cycle with Ramesh
• Learnt to swim and play water polo.
• Weight training at the gym.
• Early morning jogs at the stadium.
• Eggs, Beef, Fish, Chicken in the hostel mess.
• Bald hair-cut, sling bags and bicycles.
• Cigarettes, Beedis, Liquor, weed.
• Jethro Tull over pot-speakers.
• Working out in the room Saras 260.
• Saturday night movies at OAT.
• Books, VCR tapes etc.
• Photography experiments.
• Plain uthappam and red onion chutney. Heavenly indeed.
• Veg biryani with fried pieces of bread squares.
• Milli pouches at Taramani.
• Special treats at Liu’s Waldorf.
• Train travel Madras to Bombay and back.
• 1979 – 1984. The five years that made me a bold man.
• The best five years of my life till then. Friendships forged for a lifetime.
• The Mukand Iron and Steel internship. Their canteen food!
• The BARC internship and their Scanning Electron Microscope!
• GRE, admissions, placement opportunities. The Eicher job.
• Plans for Faridabad and Delhi.  

Hostel life 1979 – 1984. While I learnt how Steel is made, those five years made me.

Deepest gratitude for AIR 1011, IIT-M admission, life at Mandak and Saras.