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Cannonball Run Cannonball Run - 1970 Even in my first year at Mount Hermon I had a reputation in the dorms for swimming after dark – an activity prohibited by the school for obvious reasons. I never usually told anyone I was ‘bunking’ for a swim. I would simply put on my swimming trunks under a pair of old pajamas, throw on a sweater and walk out to the pool, climb the fence and slip into the water. I think it was just known among the boys that I bunked for swims quite often. One night, when we were in Class X, Tashi Wangyal came up to me very secretively and asked me if I wanted to bunk for a swim. I was very defensive. Tashi was one of the big boys in the school. He was an incredibly gifted sportsman and had been on every school team since the time he was in Class 8 or something! Though his bed was next to mine in the dorm I was not really in the same league as him in the hierarchy. Why would he want to include me in his plan? I thought there was something suspicious about the whole deal. There was. He had a plan. About twenty of the ‘big boys’ – the guys who were on all the school teams and so on – were planning to bunk for a swim that night. I was invited to be Tashi’s accomplice. Here’s what we would do. We would go along with the others and make sure that we were the last to get into the water. Then we would put the plan into action. I wasn’t sure about this. I had always been the youngest in class. I was also the smallest, not particularly strong and not the fastest of runners. All these things counted when you played with the big boys. It was ok for him – he could hold his own. He opened the bowling and batting for the school cricket team. He was a fast swimmer. He was one of the leading scorers on the school football team. He was on the athletics team, the hockey team . . . the list goes on. He could have been on all of the school teams if some sports [like basketball, volleyball and cricket] weren’t played simultaneously so you could only be on one of the teams. He reassured me, though, that everything would be ok and I agreed to go along with the plan. Deep down inside I was thrilled at the idea. Mr. P.C. Matthews came in and turned out the lights at 9 pm as usual. All the boys in the scheme had gone to bed with their swimming trunks on. For most boys this was not a problem since they hardly ever went swimming. For me, though, it meant getting into wet swimming trunks since I swam every opportunity I was given by the school [ and some I wasn’t!! ]. Tashi & I slipped out of one of the class 9 dorm windows that faced the pool [downstairs] making sure to be among the stragglers. This was the most critical part of the entire venture and the most potentially tricky. We didn’t want to be seen to be hanging back or, more importantly, remembered to have been the last to the pool. When we got to the fence, the first of the boys was sliding into the water. This was unpleasant because the water was cold and you couldn’t jump in for fear of alerting teachers in the nearby cottages that the pool was being raided. You had to gently lower yourself into the water and suffer the gradual cold as the water rose up your body. It was so quiet up there that even a small sound from the vicinity of the pool would carry to about five or six different staff-member families: the two Fern Hill wardens, the two cottages near the school workshop and the cottage near the steps leading down from the main field where Mrs. Rongong used to stay with Roslyn & Heather [and Mr. Rongong when he was in Darjeeling] and even as far as ‘Trees", possibly, where the Johnstons lived. By the time we scaled the fence half the boys were in the water in the deep end and the rest were lowering themselves in. We took off our towels and pretended to be getting in as well. Then, when everyone else was in the pool going away from us Tashi and I jumped as high as we could, coiled ourselves and unleashed the two loudest cannonballs ever in the history of the Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling. The crash of our diabolical entry into the water was still resounding off the hillsides and the cottages close to the pool and the Fern Hill south walls when we scrambled back over the fence and sprinted across to the dorm, dived through the open Class IX Dorm window and charged up the stairs to our Class X Dorm. In my mind’s eye I still see a pool full of senior boys frozen in the water – eyes cast behind them in abject shock – not knowing what had hit them. That’s the part that made it all worthwhile. I always feel bad about the outcome of the escapade – but the picture of the looks of shock on the faces of those tough, athletic guys was priceless. I still get a laugh out of it. What’s a laugh worth that holds its power to entertain for 32 years? After we got back to the dorm and dried off – not more than 15 seconds later – we looked out and saw teachers descend on the hapless boys from every possible direction. Flashlights homed in from four different directions. Mrs. Rongong was at the top of ‘the landslide’ [as we called it], Mrs. Wainwright and Mr. Jeff Gardner were running in from their cottages near the workshop. Bill Moore was already outside Fern Hill, the beam of his torch cutting off retreat for the first of the boys out of the pool. Many an ominous look was cast as the boys trudged back into the dorm. Many a veiled threat was murmured. Tashi and I had our heads covered like we were fast asleep and had no clue as to what had happened. Funny thing is no one ever had the presence of mind to figure out who the culprits were. I guess because it was dark and everyone was more concerned about getting into the water and all that, no one really paid much attention to who did what. The boys who got nabbed had their next town-leave cancelled. Nothing could make up for that – to be sure – but Tashi and I were very good about offering to bring back Fried Rice and Chow Mein from ‘New Dish’ and ‘Unknown’, Momos from ‘Penang’ and Singharas from ‘Narayan Das’ for the chastened victims. We collected money from them before we left on Saturday just before lunch and by the time dinner was over that evening and everyone started going up to the school hall for the Saturday movie, good feeling had been restored. By : Robin Sengupta Graduated : 1973 Date : 10/4/2002 14:20 |
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