Jagat Singh Bisht: Brief Story

I am sharing my story in brief and shall be happy if you share yours too!

I went to St. Gabriel’s School, Ranjhi, Jabalpur and did my master’s in chemistry from the University of Jabalpur. 

Joined the state bank of india as a probationary officer and retired as an assistant general manager. 

Settled down in Indore. 

I, along with my wife, practice and teach happiness drawing upon yoga, meditation, laughter yoga, spirituality, and positive psychology – the science of happiness. 

Our son and daughter in law are based in Auckland.

#JagatSinghBisht #yoga #laughteryoga #meditation #spirituality #positivepsychology

The Four Musketeers

While attending a workshop on CitizenSBI programme at Hotel Taj President, Mumbai a couple of days back, I noticed that a seminar of Tata Power Company was going on in the adjacent banquet hall. I felt slightly curious and walked in during the break and, after enquiry, discovered Vijay Chourey, my college mate, there. That took us back to our college days...

We studied at the Govt. Science College, Jabalpur from the year 1971 to 1974 and completed our Bachelor's degree there. Those were days more of fun than serious studies. We - Vijay Bajaj, Arvind Harshey, Vijay Chourey and yours truly - were the four musketeers of our class. After the classes were over we used to stand at the tiraha near the CPWD office and talk and talk. Our discussions were not on any particular topic, nor meaningful by any means, but they kept us together. We used to laugh a lot is what I remember now. Arvind stayed in the colony nearby, Bajaj was from Narmada Road, Vijay stayed at the Satna Building and I came all the way from Ranjhi. Arvind looked like a child and the office clerk refused to hand over the scholarship money to him. Next day, he had to come with his father to collect the scholarship.

I am not able to recollect the names of many of my class mates. Some names which I remember are P P Dubey, G P Dubey, Manjeet Kaur Jabbal and Uma Devi. Just four of them. I also remember a fat boy much older than us (whom we referred as Dadaji) who came from the suburban Panagar. He was a warm guy and I wonder where he is now and what he is doing presently. As far as I remember, we had one dark Vishwakarma in the class whom we referred to as the policewallah.

Our Professors were Handa (the Giant), Mahalaha, D K Mishra, S K Mishra, Nilose, Sahastrabuddhey ( also known as the policewallah), Madam Chauhan and Paliwal Sir. I am forgetting the name of a moustachiod Mathematics professor who pronounced "equation" as "yoocation" with a twist of his moustache - probably he was Mr Premchand. All of them were really good. Once a strike was called by the Student Leaders (which included Sharad Yadav) and the four musketeers opted to attend a Physics lecture of Professor Nilose. The leaders came to the class and warned us of dire consequences after we came out but the professor continued with the class.

One of us four musketeers was having a one-sided love affair with one of the college girls. He sent her a love letter full of poetry. Soon he got the reply from her. The reply was Spirituality of a high order with the concluding words -Eeshwar aapko sadbuddhi de!

The flash back has just started. Let us go back in time and re-create those dreamy days. May I request the two Vijays and any one of our class mates who are reading this to continue the string. I shall also contribute when I recollect more incidents. Bye till then.

My School

My fondest memories are from my school days. I had my primary schooling at St. Joseph's Convent, Ranjhi, Jabalpur. We were innocent kids then. I cried while being taken to school initially. I don' have many memories of my primary school but I vividly remember that one morning during assembly, my classmate Subir was called to the front after prayer. His hair had grown long. Sr Jude made him sit on a chair in front of all, called for scissors and cut his hair. It looked as if a mouse had run over his head!

After our primary schooling, we moved on to St. Gabriel's School, Ranjhi, Jabalpur which was almost adjacent, with only a small church standing between these two schools. The year was 1965. Even before we had gone there, we had all heard about Dinkar Sir. You could have loved him or hated him but no one could ignore him. And, he wouldn't leave you alone either. He was just like an omnipresent policeman. You took one small wrong step and you would find him staring down upon you!

If I were to name one person from the school who has impacted my life, it would be Bro. Frederick, my Chemistry teacher. He had a unique way of teaching Chemistry and spreading the message of Chemistry to one and all. We organized a Science Club, a Magic Club and a Photography Club. We learned science by doing real experiments. I remember assembling a telescope, a small radio transmitter and a substitute for the Kipp's Apparatus. We became soulmates while at school and I kept in touch with him till he passed away recently. I reverred him and he was always proud of me. When he was transferred from Jabalpur to Patna, we had gone to see him off at the railway station and I still remember that when the train started moving I bid him good bye and then started running on the platform after the train and waving madly with tears in my eyes. By his blessings, I was selected as a National Science Talent Scholar and got meritorious position in the Board examination.

The other teachers whom I remember with a lot of respect are Mrs Prem Kheda, Bro John Bosco, Bro Joseph, Bro David, Mrs O D'Souza, Mrs Kulkarni, Mr Khare, Sharma Sir, Shukla Sir, Chaudhary Sir, Mehra Sir, Lazarus Sir and Shrivastav Sir. We had, on one hand, a teacher with a dhoti who taught us Sanskrit whom we called Pandit Sir and, on the other hand, a suited Englishman John Peak who came to our school every year for a few months all the way from England to teach us English Grammar. The standard and commitment to academics was of the highest level.

We also played a lot of games in the evenings - football, cricket, volleyball, badminton, table tennis and what not. I was good at atheletics - enjoyed the 100 metres dash, football and cricket - a medium pacer. May be because of my overall performance in academics and sports, I was elected as the School Leader in the year 1970.

Recently, many of us from the Class of 1971 visited our Alma Mater and had a re-union at the Kanha National Park. The school was gracious to arrange a beautiful cultural programme and friendly cricket match for us. Some of my classmates are Ainsley Niblett, Avinash Gaikwad, , Barkat Singh, Bijoy Mukherji, Cashmere Fernandez, Chandra Babu, Hardit Singh, Kumud Chakrapani, Rebecca Mullick, Richard Hendricks, Rita Basak, Rita Bhambani, Shanta Murthy, Samuel Walker, Shobha Pawar, K S Rajan, Mahendra Parmar, Mukundan Menon, Prabir Mitra, Soumen DasGupta, Subir Bhattacharya, Tapas Mukherji and Vijay Nair.

I re-visited the school in the year 1976 in my new avatar as a Chemistry teacher which I remained till I joined the State Bank of India in October 1979. My colleagues were Mr O P Mehra, Chaudhary Sir, Dinkar Sir, Madam Tobin, Madam Pushpa, Bro Barnabas, Bro Philips and Bro William. I am touch with many of my students of those golden days through social networking sites.

This is just a beginning. I will write more about my days at the school soon. Meanwhile, I introduce you to one my talented students, Shashwati SenGupta, whom I adore and who is in regular touch with many of her schoolmates. She has been after me to start writing this fast and has been pressing me hard. She has also promised to write me a testimonial and be my official biographer! I am requesting her to add some more pages to the sweet memories of our school. I also invite other Gabrielites to freely contribute to this blog. I may be reached at coolbisht@hotmail.com. Bye for the moment!