When a mother broke her promise

Growing up in our house in Northern part of Kolkata city in India, I had a lot of distractions at my home. My parents opened their house for my father's cousins and as well as my cousins. Since all of them used to hail from various remote places, they all stayed at our place for pursuing education and employment. As a result, we ended up having 10-15 people living in our house who are not part of my immediate family.

I was never diligent about studies and my mother quickly realized that she needed to get me into a boarding school someplace away. She started paying frequent visits to Narendrapur, a reputed school located in South of Kolkata. She would often wait for hours to meet the school secretary, who was a monk heading all the institutions at that location. Her objective was to explore if she could get her son admitted to Class VII in the school.

Those were not the days of telephone, mobile and email. Hence, my mother had to toil two hours on the road just to get to the school's location. What I recollect is that the school administration was not that keen on taking students beyond Class VI, as they believe in influencing a student at a younger age. However, my mother was persistent in seeing me out of the crowded house. She also believed that this particular school would be the best place for my studies and personal development. Not one to be discouraged by any roadblocks on her way, she collected admission forms for applying for admission to Class VI. However, she turned in the forms with an application for my admission to Class VII.

That was a lazy winter afternoon in December of 1976, I was playing cricket, savoring every moment of well-deserved winter vacation. One of my cousins ran to the playground to pull me out of the game because my mother finally received a mail from the school asking me to appear for a test within two days for admission to Class VII. My mother immediately jumped in to teach me all the relevant subjects, English, Bengali, and Mathematics, probably without much hope, that I would never know. Determined as she is, she decided to leave no stone unturned from her side. Those were two trying days, I never had to study as hard as my mother made me to prepare for that admission test.

It was very hard for me to leave the cricket (most popular sport in India) field, especially since the elderly guy with whom I was playing had been saying I fielded like Eknath Solkar (a breathtaking fielder from the 1970's) and bowled like Madan Lal (a pretty good all-rounder also from 1970's). He was determined to realize my talent and so ensured that I bowled and fielded all day without asking him for batting. He also advised that if I have to play at that level, I had to make sure that my parents invested in all the cricketing gears for the daily practice. It was not until later that I realized that his eulogies were meant for him to get all the supplies for free as well as to have me toil whole day bowling at him.

The D-day came and I showed up for the test in Narendrapur along with my mother. There were several "Bagha" (brilliant) students all around, ready to pounce on any question paper that the school could throw at them, it was quite frightening. I was a mere midget among them, and felt more like a peevish, sacrificial goat, appearing for the test just because I could not go against my mother’s will at that stage of my life. Somehow I was able to hold together myself to take all the subject tests.

After a grueling day of tests, I was back home to hone my cricketing skills under the tutelage of the elder guy from the locality. Days passed by and there was no information about the tests. I was elated at my potential failure. One fine afternoon, the unthinkable happened. A letter arrived - somehow I managed to graze by the initial hurdle of written tests. I was asked to come on another day for IQ and oral tests.

Again I traveled with my mother to the school on the scheduled day. That day, I pleasantly discovered that a good friend of mine from my then current school was also going through those barrage of tests for admission to the school. I no longer felt left out and was satisfied to know that someone else I know is also going through the pain that I was subjected to. Coincidentally, we were born in the same hospital two days apart and were equally physically fit, I mean horizontally challenged.

I started to realize while taking those IQ tests, what I was getting into. After the tests, I ran to my mother to let her know that I am not interested to pursue the admission process anymore. My mother convinced me to take the following oral examination and prove that I was worthy to be with the best. In return, she promised that I would not have to attend the school even if I managed to get accepted, which anyway, she thought was highly unlikely. I had to just prove that I was good enough to get admission to the school. I don't recollect if I took it up as a challenge or not but I went through the entire exhausting admission process.

Then came the time for the announcement of results. I was praying for my failure to get admission as I wasn't sure if I could trust my mother to follow through on her promise. To utter surprise of my mother and mine, I was accepted by the school. I approached my mother then to ensure that the promise she made is kept. Unfortunately, I was confirmed by my mother that I should and would attend this school as one would be foolish to throw away the opportunity to be a part of this great institution. That day, it was a long ride back home from Narendrapur. I dug my own hole and now there is no way out of it. My mother bowled me out with a googly.

Little did I know then that this institution would be a big part of my life and would lay the foundation of who I am at this very moment. It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to study in this venerable institution and get the guidance of some dedicated teachers and enjoy the camaraderie of great fellow students. I am so glad today that my mother did not keep her promise to me. Why should she as a mother always knows better.