We had to wake up early, share bathrooms and survive surprise checks! But there is nothing about our school years we would want to change. Here are a few things you will totally get if you’re a Welham girl!
1. There were a lot of important men in our lives – momo man, chow man, bun tikki man… The way to a Welhamite’s heart is through her stomach, after all!
2. No problem was too big or small to agonise over while walking circuitously around the tennis/ basketball courts and/ or sitting on the summer house bench/ steps post-dinner.
3. You learnt to become as stealthy as possible to navigate the various rules and restrictions, and are confident that not even the CIA could get you now – given the number of years of surviving “surprise checks” that you have under your belt.
4. The memory of having to wake up at 6 a.m. every morning of your adolescent life for PT on the Big Field haunts you to this day. As well as being asked, “Beta aapka stretchie kahan hai/ aapke socks me stripes kyun hai?”
5. While in school, you would’ve killed for Internet access or a cell phone – but now that you have all of that, you realise how lucky you were to spend your days surrounded by the people you love most in the world.
6. You have developed a vernacular that sounds foreign to those who aren’t familiar with it – for example: Everything ends with an “ee” sound – messie, campusies, schoolie, illie, baski, baddy…
7. Years of sharing communal bathrooms means you can get dressed and be out the door in fifteen minutes flat – anything that doesn’t literally look like you just rolled outta bed is acceptable. No princesses here, thanks.
8. No makeup could replace the holy grail of kajal and lip balm. Being checked for wearing too much kajal the Monday after an outing, and claiming it’s “Too dark to come off, ma’am” – and running with that excuse till Friday – you’ve done that.
9. How cool you were was directly related to how baggy your salwar was!
10. You lived with the constant fear of collecting enough bad marks in a week to get blacklisted – and having your number read out sombrely during Saturday morning assembly.
11. Some of your best memories are of lying in the Himalayan sun for hours on end – eating, talking and laughing. #PrepLeave
12. Lines, lines everywhere – you’re used to lining up for food, water, assembly, money… Everything!
13. The highlight of your year was Founder’s – and the highlight of Founder’s was sweaty dances with awkward boys in the jam session. Also dedicating a song or having a song dedicated to you at the jukebox!
14. Waking up for march past practice at 5 a.m. every September/ October for a couple of weeks… Also the military band being late for the run-through – Every. Single. Year.
15. Going to hospi with a fake illness and being diagnosed with a real one. However, the hospi was far from avoided – tea, hot buttered toast and TV… What more could a girl want?
It sounds like we crib a lot… Because, well, we do. But thank you for the discipline and the values and the giggles and the good times, Welham. And thank you most of all for the friends – they’re irreplaceable!
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