The first day....

March 22,1997...one day before holi.This was my first day in vidyapith.After two rounds of selection and the registration process had been completed the time to join my new boarding school had arrived.I must confess i was really nervous because i had never been away from my family for a long time.At the same time i was exited because i was going to face something new.We had arrived in deoghar one day before.my parents along with my  maternal grandfather had come for my admission.On the day of admission we arrived roughly at around 8 am.I saw a lot of students in front of the chief warden's office.When we went into the office we met the then chief warden swami suprakashananda(lovingly called shakti maharaj).He introduced me to my guides-Pranav Prakash and Sumonto Singho(my apologies if i am spelling the name wrong).From there they took us to various places to get our stuff.

First we went to the bhandar to get my plate(thali),bowl(bati) and glass.This was followed by the boy's store,tailoring department and some place where we got our bedding.Then we came back to the hostel and started to set the things in place.I had been put in Matri Dham(the dormetories were named as "Dham").The dham was in first floor and was meant for students of class five and six.Some had joined with me in class five and some in class six.There were some class six students in our dham who had joined in class five the previous year.

I came to know that there was a fixed time for all the daily activities as i went through the routine.The biggest thing that concerned me was the rising time of 5 am(I have never been an early riser and even today after 8 years of vidyapith life i still find it difficult to get up in the morning).As i was going through the routine a bell rang.It was 12 noon and this was the "dinning bell".I went to the dinning hall with my guides and had lunch.
Following the lunch i was informed that we are supposed to attend the second half classes.
I still remember my first class.It was in the then class "five b" taken by Dhara da(the teachers used to be referred to as da meaning elder brothe in bengali and monks as maharaj).We had a small introduction.The only thing that i remember from the class was the rather liberal use of the phrase "excuse me" so much so that i kind of developed an aversion to the expression for some years.Then i had to come back to the hostel for some work during the next period(can't remember exactly why).When i came back to the "school building" i saw everybody was gone.I was searching for my class mates when some senior told me that it was the period for cultural program and took me to the room where this class used to be held.The class was being conducted by Kanak da and Saibal da.The "new boys" were asked to perform something which many of us did in the form of jokes,poems,songs etc.True to my nature i refrained from any such activity.

After the class was over we were told that we were supposed to clean our dham ourselves which comprised of sweeping and moping the floor.We were allotted our areas which we were supposed to clean.Each area had two students with one sweeping the floor and the other moping it in the morning with the two reversing their roles in the evening.Some were given the duty to look after the garden allotted to the particular dham.The whole process was supervised by the "neatness  captain".I was given one of the rooms as my area.
After this was the tome for evening snacks called as "tiffin" after which we went to the ground to play.The football season was going on at that time and our games in charge Ali da divided into two groups.One group was supposed to play in the ground called L team and the other in K team.I was in L team.Most of the students had not played football before and the game mostly saw all the students crowding near the ball(which used to be described by us as "crowding").I had played before and scored a goal on my first day with a weak but well directed shot after beating a few "amateur" defenders(for the next few months i will be a prolific goal scorer,though at times exploiting our lack of knowledge of the offside rule).We won on the first day and feeling like a star i returned to the hostel.

The high point was followed by the time for prayer.For the prayer we had to wear dhoti and punjabi.I saw the
respective guides struggling with their candidates(allotted first years).I knew how to wear a dhoti but still decided to take the help of my guide.After getting ready we waited for the prayer hall bell in a queue outside our dham with the music book in our hands and proceeded to the prayer hall in the same after the bell rang.In the prayer hall we were made to sit in rows.The song called "Khandana Bhava Bandhana" started.I decided to join in the chorus but all i could hear was a humming sound going on endlessly.Needless to mention i was lost after some time as to which line was being sung.Spirited as i was i kept on singing the first line repeatedly.
After two more songs("om ring ritam" and "sarvamangala mangalye")the prayer ended.This was followed by a small period in which the lights were put out and we were supposed to meditate.After that we returned to the hostel.

My first period was followed by my first "study"(time for personal study).It was taken by Manoj da.I decided to open the geography book.i must confess while most of the students were sad at being away from the home for first time with some of them indulging in tear shedding activities i found the concept of latitude and longitude rather interesting.I even asking questions to manoj da regarding the concept of equator(considered it a concept back then).After a long time at 8:30 the study ended and it was time for dinner.

We took our utensils and proceeded to the dinning hall and had our dinner.Don't exactly remember the menu but the milk at the end caused a little bit of regurgitation.After the dinner we were supposed to return to our hostel but somehow i managed to loose my way and ended up in vivekananda dham.Some kind seniors recognized the mistake and helped me get back to my hostel.We had our everyday post dinner meeting(called as "meeting").We met our warden Kanchan da.Our "dham sevak" (dorm captain)read some instructions which i never listened to(resulted in lot of us being made to sit on our knees the next day).Then the meeting was over and it was time for bed.We put our mosquito nets and went to sleep.Although there was no fan in the hostel i must confess it was quite comfortable.After the eventful day i fell asleep quite quick thus ending the first day of the eight beautiful years to follow.