The Earliest Memory!

I got admission into Loyola, probably in the year 1989. I joined in the lowest possible class that one can join in Loyola. That was in the Upper KinderGarten. I somewhat vaguely remember the interview for admission. The interview was for purposes of final selection after the written test. I suppose I qualified in the written test, because if not I would not have been called for the interview.

My Papa and me were sitting side-by-side facing the interview board, one of the members of which was a kind-looking man with a beard, probably a Jesuit. It was he who asked me all the questions. I remeber that I was given a puzzle to be solved, which I think I solved pretty easily. Then before we got up, the bearded-kind-man pointed to a portrait of Jesus, which didn't quite look like the Jesus everyone knows, and asked me who that was. I looked at the bearded-kind-man-interviewing-me and the bearded face in the portrait and then answered... Jesus, only becuse Jesus was the only person I knew who had a beard.

The kind interviewer smiled and then asked me to help myself to sweets in a bowl on the table. I did so without hesitation,in all the innocence that I represented then, and then gave a shy 'Thank-you' and left the room holding my Papa's finger.

I really didn't know all this was for admission in a school, and that I would be leaving St. Shantal School, where I'd been studying Lower KinderGarten, with my sister Neena, and that she would not be with me as Loyola was a boys-only school. I also did not know how my life would be changed by my experiences at Loyola, and how that great school, would make me the me, that I am today.

Cheer Loyola's Sons!

Cheer Loyola's sons
Cheer till the day is done
Till the game is won
For our school
As her banners soar
Let the echoes roar
Round the Golden shore Of India's rule

(chorus)
{Virtue shielding us
Knowledge for our weapon
Onward On Loyola's sons
Let us march a-singing
Send the echoes ringing
Giving our best till the day is done}


Oh thou God of all
Hear us when we call
Help us one and all
By thy grace
When life's game is done
And victory won
May we wear the crown of joy and grace (chorus)

Loyola son's acclaim
Brave Loyola's fame
Proud to wear the name
O'er the fields
Always brave and true
Pledge each day anew
Aye, to dare and do and ne'er to yield (chorus)

Those were the best days of my life!

And I hope I'll be able relieve at least a few of them here, my exclusive Loyola nostalgia blog.

Cheer Loyola Sons...