One would wrinkle the nose in his presence. Not only did he reek of unwashed clothes, he also smelt of stale bidis( home made cigarettes) and cheap country liquor.
All of his boorish personal habits(he once wore the same bandage on his cut foot for ten days-ugh!!) could not dim his brilliance on the parade ground.
He wore many hats.
The son of a Santhal nomad; ran away from home at the age of ten; took shelter in a convent nearby; got converted to christianity(that explains the civilised sounding name);studied till class ten under the strict supervision of "fathers" and "sisters" ;enrolled in the army at the age of seventeen; left the army with a sharpnel wound to his right shin( recieved during the 1971 indo -pak war) and joined our school in 1977.
Hugely talented, he turned all his energies to making a school -band out of scratch.This, in a town where children going to school itself was deemed a kind of luxury only the ultra-rich would indulge in.
His immense persuasive abilities were put to test, as he coaxed and persuaded FatherThomas'(our principal)to cough up money for purchase of brass flutes in large numbers; bass drums; cymbals and other sundry requirements. Then came the onerous task of coaxing mellifluous rhythms out of reluctant, rebellious and plainly mocking teenagers. This is when he hit upon the idea of taking only girls. Not only were the girls more compliant, they were totally sold out to his six foot something of rugged, rougish charm. Some boys would sheepishly follow later; to be given the heavier drums to play .
Days before the Republic Day ; when we were slated to debut at the district parade ground ; were the most hectic. Hours of practice ,while marching in the blazing sun followed. Every step, every nod of the beret-ed head had to be synchronised,to the newly acquired tunes of National Anthem, an english marching tune for march past and a slow marching tune for the slow-march. Hindi filmi tunes would follow much later, so would' our father who art in heaven'.
Girls' fainted at an alarmingly regular rate.Weak ones were provided nimboo paani by the school and we were expected to have a full breakfast before marching.Defaulters would be bundled off to the convent kitchen for snacks, much to their embarrassment and fear,as they had to cross the fearsome alsatian guarding the convent gates.
Then came the highly bright blue band uniforms with red berets. The berets had white plastic bon-bons which seemed exceedingly comical.In short, it was a garish and loudly colourful statement our school made in the centre of the huge maidan(field) on the said republic day.
Stiff with importance, his back ramrod straight, our drum major(benjamin sir himself, dressed in oversized version of our own comical getups) clicked his heels in attention at the command given by the head of District Police Plattoon and thus began our debut march.
A small band of nervous school girls had the temerity to take on the entire parade ground full of BSF, CRPF and other school plattoons . We being the' drum-beaters'(dhol-bajaiyaa as we had been sarcastically dubbed by the townsfolk) had to march ahead of all the others. Avoiding mocking glances from various school boys and pitiful ones from hirsute and scary looking policemen, we played the march -past when a round of the ground was taken, slow march during inspection of the parade by the DM and the National Anthem when the flag was unfurled.
As the last tune played, the drum major's tasselled silver stick twirled high above our heads, swivelling down to a flourish of drum roll.A final drum beat and the absolute silence. An audience of hundreds of spectators, took a moment to digest it all, before breaking into thunderous applause.We were made to stand-at -ease and gave each other sheepish grins. From our vantage point(we were made to stand in the centre) , we were painfully visible to scrutiny. That also gave us the oppurtunity to see unbelievable sights. Our proud parents waving from the stands and pointing us out to neighbours, friends;The Mother Superior('The Titanic') wiping her eyes on her habit; Father Thomas' given a chair(of honour) next to the DM , shaking hands with him , and above all the complimentary grin from Benjamin Sir himself .
The school band became famous. Not only were we the toast of the town, we were invited to out of town schools' annual functions, inaugurations, Tea party on DM's lawns etc.In short, we made waves, and Benjamin sir was swamped with offers from eager parents.
All of his boorish personal habits(he once wore the same bandage on his cut foot for ten days-ugh!!) could not dim his brilliance on the parade ground.
He wore many hats.
The son of a Santhal nomad; ran away from home at the age of ten; took shelter in a convent nearby; got converted to christianity(that explains the civilised sounding name);studied till class ten under the strict supervision of "fathers" and "sisters" ;enrolled in the army at the age of seventeen; left the army with a sharpnel wound to his right shin( recieved during the 1971 indo -pak war) and joined our school in 1977.
Hugely talented, he turned all his energies to making a school -band out of scratch.This, in a town where children going to school itself was deemed a kind of luxury only the ultra-rich would indulge in.
His immense persuasive abilities were put to test, as he coaxed and persuaded FatherThomas'(our principal)to cough up money for purchase of brass flutes in large numbers; bass drums; cymbals and other sundry requirements. Then came the onerous task of coaxing mellifluous rhythms out of reluctant, rebellious and plainly mocking teenagers. This is when he hit upon the idea of taking only girls. Not only were the girls more compliant, they were totally sold out to his six foot something of rugged, rougish charm. Some boys would sheepishly follow later; to be given the heavier drums to play .
Days before the Republic Day ; when we were slated to debut at the district parade ground ; were the most hectic. Hours of practice ,while marching in the blazing sun followed. Every step, every nod of the beret-ed head had to be synchronised,to the newly acquired tunes of National Anthem, an english marching tune for march past and a slow marching tune for the slow-march. Hindi filmi tunes would follow much later, so would' our father who art in heaven'.
Girls' fainted at an alarmingly regular rate.Weak ones were provided nimboo paani by the school and we were expected to have a full breakfast before marching.Defaulters would be bundled off to the convent kitchen for snacks, much to their embarrassment and fear,as they had to cross the fearsome alsatian guarding the convent gates.
Then came the highly bright blue band uniforms with red berets. The berets had white plastic bon-bons which seemed exceedingly comical.In short, it was a garish and loudly colourful statement our school made in the centre of the huge maidan(field) on the said republic day.
Stiff with importance, his back ramrod straight, our drum major(benjamin sir himself, dressed in oversized version of our own comical getups) clicked his heels in attention at the command given by the head of District Police Plattoon and thus began our debut march.
A small band of nervous school girls had the temerity to take on the entire parade ground full of BSF, CRPF and other school plattoons . We being the' drum-beaters'(dhol-bajaiyaa as we had been sarcastically dubbed by the townsfolk) had to march ahead of all the others. Avoiding mocking glances from various school boys and pitiful ones from hirsute and scary looking policemen, we played the march -past when a round of the ground was taken, slow march during inspection of the parade by the DM and the National Anthem when the flag was unfurled.
As the last tune played, the drum major's tasselled silver stick twirled high above our heads, swivelling down to a flourish of drum roll.A final drum beat and the absolute silence. An audience of hundreds of spectators, took a moment to digest it all, before breaking into thunderous applause.We were made to stand-at -ease and gave each other sheepish grins. From our vantage point(we were made to stand in the centre) , we were painfully visible to scrutiny. That also gave us the oppurtunity to see unbelievable sights. Our proud parents waving from the stands and pointing us out to neighbours, friends;The Mother Superior('The Titanic') wiping her eyes on her habit; Father Thomas' given a chair(of honour) next to the DM , shaking hands with him , and above all the complimentary grin from Benjamin Sir himself .
The school band became famous. Not only were we the toast of the town, we were invited to out of town schools' annual functions, inaugurations, Tea party on DM's lawns etc.In short, we made waves, and Benjamin sir was swamped with offers from eager parents.
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