Staircases & Seasons 

(for SXC friends ’75–’77)

© 𝕾𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖍 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖗𝖆

At SXC Ranchi, those sun-drenched years,

Summer Blossoms bloomed, so did our hopes & fears,

Us Foolish Boys strutted with badly faked poise,

Spouting grand philosophies with nervous noise.

“Co-ed!” we had heard, with carefully drawn lines,

Together in classroom, apart by design.

Boys took one staircase, girls took another,

Lest mixing the footsteps lead to scandals, Oh brother!

And there stood the Jesuits, glaring and tall,

Guardians stern, hugging corridors & walls,

Eyebrows arched like commandments, not be forsaken,

Ensuring no stairs were improperly taken.

One misstep, a glance, a pause too long,

And we’d know we’d committed a grievous wrong,

Sent back downstairs with our conscience aflame,

A stinging rebuke, head hung in shame.

The Girls Common Room, myth, rumor, and lore,

A land no Foolish Boy had ever seen before,

But, we imagined the space, with confident art,

In fanciful detail in our dreaming heart.

The Canteen, though public, was Boys Only, 'tis clear,

While Blossoms stayed away, though the snacks still drew near.

For Chhotu ran errands, chai & samosas in plates,

A broker of peace offerings in the Divided States.

Back and forth flew, that tireless envoy,

Feeding both hunger and gossip with non-stop joy,

He bridged the great gap no one else could transcend,

A courier, a witness, a silent little friend.

We named them Blossoms, so colorful, so bright,

As if seasons explained our distance and sight,

While we, awkward planets, circled their grace,

Too afraid to approach, too foolish to embrace.

But tell me, friends, five decades down the lane,

Do those staircases still keep "scandals" restrained?

Do Jesuit glares still, quietly decree?

One path is for them, and only the other for thee?

Does another young Chhotu, now a phone in his hand,

Deliver via app to the still No-Man's Land?

Or has Time, with a shrug, redrawn the old world rules,

Allowing free glances on stairway to any young fools?

The Autumn Blooms today, why aren't they here?

With us Foolish Old Boys in this WhatsCrapp sphere?

Why skip our reunion of jokes overripe,

Of nostalgia filtered through pixels and hype?

Do they recall, with an eagle-eyed view,

The lines drawn then, think we never outgrew?

Do they decline to re-enter that frame?

We promise to behave (mostly), please believe our claim. 🙏🏻

Wondering, quite simply, no riddle, no ploys,

Why won't they join us, the Foolish Old Boys?