Unlocking 1995: Diary of an MCC School Hosteler ❤️

A Time Capsule from 1995 | On Chess, Cricket and Athletics!

The Simple Charms of School Life in the 1990s

#memoriesfromdiaries

#HSC Days #MCCSchoolDays

13th March 1995

This day, 31 years ago!

Stumbling upon an old diary entry is something akin to finding a sudden, unexpected pathway to a past version of ourselves! 😊

Before the era of smartphones, social media updates, and digital calendars, our days were documented in cursive ink on lined paper. Let’s take a trip back to 1995 and look at a surprisingly relatable slice of a student’s lived experience on yet another school day in my life.

As usual all hostelers had morning P. T that starts around 5 am. Then had bath. Morning it was a holiday for us. Afternoon went to school. Morning I was working out on Mathematics till 11.30. Then a nap. Afternoon had Eng - Free. Zoo - lab – Received the Question Bank. Zoology Master was a friend of my Dad. He gently walked up to me in the Zoology lab and told me that he saw Dad two days back.

After working out on my Maths, I focused on Physics. Today I had finished lesson XIV.

Then Maths - Calculus. Physics tuition. Master explained the 10-mark Questions to study.

Then he gave an interesting allusion, which might sound a bit outdated and also a bit racist by today’s standards. But again, as critic Scupin Richard reminds us, beware the pitfalls of presentism! 😊

So yes! Our Physics Master Nedumaran Sir, said that,

While Chess involves intelligence, Cricket involves intelligence and power. However, running race does not need intelligence. It needs only Skill. That’s hence S. Africans come first in Running.

A quite reminder that, sometimes the most memorable lessons we learn in the classroom are in these wildly creative tangents from the teacher, that gets ensconced in our minds, from teachers - who try their level best to keep us teenagers alert, awake and engaged through these analogies!

Even after three decades, these embodied experiences of the past, come to life in flesh and blood in the pages of this lovely diary entry!

Again, there are no earth-shattering events recorded here - just math problems, a nap, a free English period, and finishing chapter 14 in Physics.

Yet, looking back three decades later, it is exactly these mundane details that hold the most weight.

They remind us of a slower, simpler time of those good ol’ days! 😊