I was 11 years old, painfully shy and slightly scared. Don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t much to be scared of. I could already see that it was a beautiful school. It was crowded with trees and kind of small, or at least, smaller than I thought it would be. It was quiet and the main building looked like it had jumped from the pages of a Jane Austen novel. The air carried the smell of fresh leaves and comforting food. But I had to meet the Principal of this beautiful school and I couldn’t really think about anything else.
Ten minutes later, I was sitting across an old, smiling face that I was already half in love with. She asked me questions and I answered in monosyllables but she didn’t seem to mind. Finally, she told me to gather my stuff and get to my dormitory, but before I could get up, she asked, “Do you read?” I had been brought up on a very balanced diet of any book I could lay my hands on, so I nodded and mumbled a yes.
“Good! What are your favourites?” I told her.
She smiled and then said, very kindly, “You know that life here isn’t going to be like Malory Towers or St. Clares, don’t you?” I could feel the smile slipping off my face, and then, before it could disappear completely, she grinned and added, “But it could be better.”
And it was. I had wanted midnight feasts and funny tricks, and while I didn’t get too many of those, I got a lot more. Mrs. Varma was right. It wasn’t much like the world Enid Blyton had created, but it was wonderful nevertheless. So, while I didn’t manage to find a Mam’zelle to terrorise with sneezing powders, I still thanked Blyton with all my heart. Her world of Darrell and Sally and Pat and Isabel had tempted me till I had tentatively asked my parents if I could be shipped off to a boarding school. Eight years later, when I left the school, now more familiar to me than home, I thanked whoever had introduced me to those books.
Collection of memories
Over the years, I stayed incredibly fond of boarding school books. I discovered many more, each one charming in its own way, opening doors to entirely new worlds with friends and bullies and exams and holidays. I still love them, and while I borrowed most from libraries and friends, I have since then made it a point to track down and buy the ones I can find.
Of course, Blyton’s St. Clares and Malory Towers series are the two most widely recognised and loved school series. But have you heard of Antonia Forest? She wrote the Marlowe series, and while it is about all the eight Marlowe children, six of them are girls, who attend a boarding school called Kingscote. So, four books in the ten book series are set in the school, and they are great! A little more realistic than Blyton’s books, with more complicated but equally fun characters!
While it’s always fun to read about any boarding school, the ones about hostels back home are a little more familiar. Swapna Dutta’s Juneli series, while not very well known, is a great example. A three part series, these simply written books follows Juneli as she goes from being tutored at home to joining a boarding school far away. The books are thin, quick reads full of quirky characters and funny, strange events. Juneli’s growth as a character is especially good, as she becomes more and more confident, and recognises her strengths.
We don’t have many school story series in India, but some of the single volumes are equally good. Arjun Rao’s Third Best , set in a co-educational boarding school and written from young Nirvan’s point of view, is both interesting and starkly honest. It doesn’t paint a rosy picture, but gives you an honest account of what life in school is like.
These books taught me that school can be a little like home. In them, you discover the friendships you can forge and the values your friends can teach you. They tell you how teachers can be like parents, and better still, like friends. They deal with familiar problems, and are full of little lessons you don’t even know you are being taught, and before you know it, they are a part of you. Next time you want to pick up a book, try a school story, and you might discover a new favourite!
Other must reads
> The Chalet School series
> A World of Girls: The Story of a School by L. T. Meade
> What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge
> Jennings series by Anthony Buckeridge
> A Little Princess by Francis H. Burnett
> Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
Word List
Jane Austen: (1775 – 1817) An English author who wrote romantic fiction and is among the most widely read writers in the world. Her books include Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice .
Boarding school: They are residential schools where the children stay and study in the same place.
Dormitory: A large bedroom for a number of people in a school or institution.
