Mount Hermon School

Mount Hermon School provided a large chunk of my school education (1969 - 1975) and I learnt a lot more there than just Maths or French. Highlights for me were the close friendships that we made and also the music that was such an integral part of the school. Both of these were highlighted on our visit this time.

Motivation for going to India in the first place for me was that almost 20 students from my year have been in fairly regular email contact over the past eighteen months, and this time last year the idea of having a mini-reunion was mooted. Six months emailed discussion about details such as where and when (October or December) followed, and in the end it was only four of us who met up over the 17 - 21st Dec, coming from USA, UK, Thailand and myself from NZ. All of us took our kids, whose ages ranged from 11 - 17, and once the ice was broken, they seemed to get on reasonably well. For us, it was great to meet up with friends who we hadn't met in person for, in some cases, almost thirty years. This length of time seemed to melt as soon as we got together, into a chance to tell our individual stories, to reminisce about school misadventures, and I haven't laughed as much in a long time, as I did over the weekend. Of course, we met up with LOTS of other Hermonites in Darjeeling itself, Gangtok and in Siliguri/Bagdogra, and it is always fascinating to see how much people have changed, and how much their children resemble them!

Dubs has described the trip to Darj/MH from the plains very graphically and I have to agree with his comments about Darj township, the dogs in the middle of the night and the abundance of new buildings, many of which seem geared towards the tourist industry. Also see his comments on the school itself. Thanks, Dubs. Not that I'm lazy or anything, but this gives you someone else's perspective, and reflects accurately in so many ways our own experience. Unfortunately, being December meant that Mount Hermon was empty of children (on holiday from Nov - Jan) which makes for a slightly flat feeling! On the day that we visted the school, we weren't actually able to go above the ground floor of the main building as it was all locked up.

Going back to the school however is always a chance to be steeped in the memories of the place and our time there - from hockey on Top Flat down to the times we froze in the swimming pool, the field where Ku and I attempted 200m and the school buildings proper - the study hall, the chapel, our dormitories, classrooms in Stewart Building and the tuckshop (home to the unusual delicacy of bun stuffed with singhara!) Raj Kumar Subba (from our time) has been the maintenance person there for the last few years and is making a difference to the condition of buildings etc. Old walls still felt very much friendly walls.

We ended up having two reunion dinners. The first was in the Mayfair Resort, just down from Chowrasta - a delicious dinner and a chance to catch up with all sorts of people, including Sherap and Roslyn Namgyal and three of their kids, Walsa and Matthew (Matthai) plus their spouses and kids (all visiting from Australia), as well as other individual students who live in, or were currently visiting Darj. The next night a very similar group adjourned to the Apsara Hotel, run by Anup Chachan, where we were treated to another wonderful meal (I ate my fair share of sandesh for dessert as did some others whose names I will refrain from mentioning!!). Anup had us in two rooms - the younger generation disappeared quite happily into one, while the Hermonites chatted, told stories from school days and then did some singing in a second room (interested in some of those words to school songs that we couldn't remember?), while their long suffering spouses watched patiently and tried to figure out who exactly was related to who! The appearance of some old Hermonite magazines generated lots of discussion and recollections, particularly while poring over old class/sports photos, and we were each given a copy of the 2004 Hermonite to take home.

As Pratap Rai (our senior by a few years and long serving ex-secretary of the Hermonite Association) said at one point, he doesn't mind calling himself a 'sentimental fool'. Any other sentimental fools out there may be interested in the Hermonite website and especially in thinking about coming to the reunion in Canberra Easter 2005. Would love to see you there if you too studied at Mount Hermon School!