PSBB- A WAY OF LIFE

It's been a year since I left the portals of my school PSBB; a name oft heard being discussed by people for various reasons. As the adage goes, time and tide indeed wait for none. I'm amazed to find that a whole year in college is done and dusted and I have but two more years to go before I have to shed my 'carefree and irresponsible ways' and become an 'adult' in the true meaning of the word. College is truckloads of fun. Being typical human beings, we always have grudges about anything and everything. It is only when we are away from it do we realize how much we miss it. Same is the case with me with respect to my Alma mater PSBB. While at school, I always had grudges against small things. Now being in college a whole year has brought me a lot of fun albeit, there are times when I miss PSBB terribly.

The inevitable list:

A FEW THINGS P.S.B.B:
1) Shri gurubhyo namaha, sukhi bhava: the typical P.S.B.B way of students greeting teachers and teachers blessing them in return. It has a very unique ring to it.

2) Morning assemblies with TM which never failed to induce its soporific effect on us.

3) Elections : the clichéd yet delightful period in school where every section of the 12th would be actively involved in ensuring that their candidate would be a shoo-in for the post of school prefect. The school would be transformed into a colorful canvass …. The banners, the posters et al...

4) YGP- YGP

5) Anniversaries – truly unforgettable.

6) Reverberations- the 11th and 12th would enjoy it while the 9th and 10th wished that they were in the 11th or 12th.

7) Maargazhi Mahotsav- the school would come alive in December with religious sayings, shlokas and upanyasas by Velukudi Krishnan and many others. Mellifluous renditions of popular carnatic songs in the kutcheris, dance performances were the order of the day.

8) G.As- was, is and will always be synonymous with FUN. The enthusiasm from the students has always been overwhelming.

9) The canteen

10) Pattani Sundal Bonda Bajji

11) A few teachers and friends who are instrumental in making my memories in P.S.B.B immortal:
Mrs. Girija Krishnamurthy, Mrs.Girija Dilip (L.kg), Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Raman (if at first I loved English, as time lapsed, she made me feel immensely passionate about it), Mrs. Hemalatha Seshadri, Mrs. Rama Arunachalam, Mrs.Mahalakshmi Ramjee and Mrs.Pushpa Vijayaraghavan.
As for my friends, Sruthi more popularly known as SVR, Kirthika, better still as Kirukkuthika, Pavi (though for a very short time), Janani, Radhika (my partner in crime for many years), Jane, Priya, Aishwarya and Dhanya.

Over the years, I have always been unhappy with certain things at school. Like any other school, it has its own flaws. However, at the risk of being called melodramatic, I'm proud to be a PSBBian. PSBB has not been just a school to me; it has been a way of life. The school has indeed given me a lot, something I am more conscious of after passing out of it than while I was with it.

DOWN MEMORY LANE OF A PSBBian

Another year whizzes by. It is without doubt, a year to remember, a year that has left a great and lasting impact on me for more reasons than one. A year with reminiscences that I will cherish for eternity. It is a year that marks the beginning of a great end- my school life.

Even as I am penning this article, my mind takes me down memory lane, way back to my PRE.KG days where I found myself in what I had heard people call ‘shool’ (the way I had pronounced ‘School‘ as a three year old). It was a year of fun and frolic, playing in the mud pit, occasionally learning ABCs, getting out of stuff I didn’t want to do by smiling sweetly at my class teacher… LKG was pretty much the same and the teacher who taught me , Mrs. Girija Dilip is someone I can never forget - she used to be this ever smiling angel(still is) who would make you feel all warm and nice inside… even the worst brats(like Moi for instance ) would want to do anything she wanted them to.

Before I knew it I was in third grade- that was when I discovered my love hate relationship with Mathematics (I scored a 98 in it and lost the coveted centum due to an addition mistake; something my best friend Sruthi and I still laugh over.) At a later stage however, it turned into an all hate relationship. In grade four, I discovered a beautiful subject- Sanskrit. The subject and I go back a long way . It was taught by a teacher for whom I have immense respect. Yes, Mrs. Girija Krishnamurthy made Sanskrit interesting and logical- so interesting that even now, despite being in my first year of college, I am still studying it, not out of compulsion but out of sheer love for the language. Middle school came and I thought it was the coolest, most ‘grown up’ part of life…. How wrong I was… life got worse ‘cos, it was at this juncture that I realized that math and biology were vying with each other for top rank in my hate list of subjects…..

I remember the day I made it to Main School…. I remember entering its portals on the very first day of my Ninth standard and feeling unexplainably excited- here was a place which would ensure that I had my quota of fun. Four years in PSBB Main has indeed made me a better person in various aspects. I fell in love with English- I choose to see it as something more than just a subject . Writing became my passion. English classes were the only classes I looked forward to in my 11th and 12th stds. Taught by my favourite teacher Mrs.Viji Raman, my love for the subject increased manifold. She had a way of teaching the subject in a manner that would ensure learning, without the pupil even realizing it. English classes in my 11th and 12th meant fun combined with learning. She is one of the main reasons why I miss Main school so much(pun intended). Well, this school had its flip sides too, I fell prey to math and accountancy- two subjects which showed absolutely no mercy on me. I have passed my 12th standard, but for the life of me, I still cannot understand and unfold the intricacies of geometry or the demystifying and elusive accountancy with its numerous balance sheets with columns of assets and liabilities that never did tally for me even once; no, not even in my board exam!!!

TRRRRINGGG!!!! The phone rings, and I am startled out of my reverie. I wake up to the reality that school life as I knew it is over. I am now a college going teen. I feel a little empty and lost inside but I go back to reminisce about it and I feel a lot better.

School was and still is something special to me. It made me believe that the world was a comfortable place where everyone and everything would be easy going and fun loving. Well, so much for that. The real world, well, is a lot different… take it with a pinch of salt.