Ramblings and Reminiscences of Anuj

The first school I attended is organizing a bicentennial (50-year) reunion; they invited me to the ceremony and asked me to share a few memories. Here is what I shared with them. November 10, 2024 Dear students, teachers, staff, and everyone else connected in some way to LMA, It has been a long time since I first arrived at LMA, 50 years to be exact, in 1974, when I was merely 4 years old. I have a few memories that stand out among many: Now and then, during those early days, the staff gave us food; one day, the sugar cane juice was procured from the “ kolhu” contraption outside next to the animal hospital (ironic, isn’t it). The harnessed bullock yoked to a long wooden beam and rotated the central shaft of the " kolhu ” endlessly—hence the proverbial kolhu ka bail or rat race—which crushed sugarcane stalks between its heavy iron rollers. Sweet juice flowed into collection vessels as fresh sugarcane was fed into the crusher. Those days, from our lunch benches in the verandah adja