Early Schooling

I started at Balwadi when I was 3 at Talegaon. There I learned upto First Standard.
Then keeping our future in mind, my Mom and Dad shifted from village of Talegaon to town Chalisgaon which had better schools. We had big home then. I was there till V std.

In Vth std, I was awarded prestigious "Sandipani Paritoshik" for Best All-round Performance in A B High school. I was in this school only for an year and I bagged it.

JNV Bhusawal

Late Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, had founded a great scheme for students od rural areas, the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV). A dream of Pandit Nehru which his grandson made real.

Its uniqueness lies in giving totally free education to 80 students per districts with 75% of them from rural areas and 33% reservation for girl students. It was supposed to be fully residential school.

That was great experience for me, when I was chosen for JNV Bhusawal.
Some teachers were especially touching. Ms Chakravarty who taught us English was lovely. She used to take care of all of us. Her voice was good. She would make the class really worth attending. She was very strict about grammar. We can forget her for life. But she soon left the school. That was sad part of it.

Mr. R S Shukla was our Science teacher. I was in this school for 3 years and there were ups and downs in relationship with other teachers. But he was always with me. He had confidence in me that I will make my parents, school proud of me. I hope and will do best to live upto his and my parents expectations.

I always liked music, the sense which I inherited from mt parents. So I was always there in school prayers, group singing, solo singing etc. in JNV as well as my early school days.

Since it was residential school, we were in hostels divided into four houses - called Tapti, Ajanta, Ellora and Shivajee. I was in Tapti House. We had healthy competition amongst all hostels. We had Sports Championship, Dram Trophy, Cultural Championships. It did well in exploring ourselves, our qualities. I used to play kho-kho, football, cricket, hockey for my House. I went to District Level Sports Meet for football.

We (Tapti House) set a new trend in dramas of our school when we presented a drama called Bhrashtachar meaning corruption. It was really hi-tech. We were first to use astonishing sound effects, fundoo background music, contemporary script which was written by students alone. The viewers felt like (sic) movie being played. It had everything in it. Suspense, heroics, action, drama, emotions blended in unlike other dramas which were purely bookish types.

But in this period, I did have strained relationship with some of my seniors who pests, good for nothing.

Among my best friends there were Neeraj Patil who is now pursuing Law in Pune, and Mukesh Lohar.

Migration Scheme for National Integration

Then came time for purpose of Nation Integration. India is country of diverse cultures. The message we wanted to tell the society was Unity in Diversity, not only Unity, Integration in Diversity. Vividhata mein Ekta, Ekatmata.

Let me first introduce you about Navodaya Vidyalaya Organization. This was countrywide programme and was being implemented in every district. India was divided into 7 parts (correct me if I am wrong) for efficient organization and co-ordination for all Navodayas. The Apex body was called Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.

Samiti thought of an idea to bring country together. That was Migration of Student for National Integration. Whole of India was divided into 2 parts, a-hindi and hindi linguistic regions. Students were interchanged between these two regions.

For our Navodaya, which was part of Pune Region(comprising Maharashtra, Gujrath and Goa) 20% students were supposed to migrate after passing 8th Std. to JNV of Kangra Dist. at Paprola in Palampur tehsil.

Thinking of great cause ;-) and want of travelling arround the world, I decided to apply for migration. But resistance came from my parents to not to go there. I somehow managed to convince them that how can it gove me a great chance to meet peoplewho are totally different from ours, speak different language but are part of same great Indian Civilization. And finally lots were drawn as there were more applicant than number of seats. I was very happy when I got selected but some sore feeling came to heart as now I had to go thousand miles away from my home.

JNV Paprola

I was to do IX and X Class there in Himachal Pradesh in the valley of Kangra. And there I spent most happy two years of my life. In vicinity of nature. It was like paradise. Chilling breeze, sun radiating heat, nearby khad, icy mountains, meterguage Railway line, and most importantly, my classmates and teachers.

Imagine your school on mountain, where you have classes under the trees, where you have holiday if it rains.

I have lot to tell about my stay in Kangra. I will be back.