And you thought Mission Schools were run only by the Christians...

......Anybody Heard of BIMS, Bhaktivedanta Institutes of Mission School.
Now, one would say, "But I have heard RamKrisna Mission School".
I also thought BIMS was the only Non Christian Mission School, until I started typing this post and my thought started to flow with the keystrokes, and I suddenly remembered the Ram Krisna Mission School. I don't know if it is run like a Christian Missionary. I like to think, it is more of a School than a Missionary.

Now BhaktiVedanta Institutes of Mission School is another story.
It is run by the famous International Society for Krsna CONsciousness.
The ISKCON Made famous by the Fords and Beatles and Hippies.
And of the recent sex scandal. And I don't know why sex need be scandalised as long as it is consentual. ( Link outside the topic of iskcon : I don't understand why the RSS Pracharak Joshi, his hypocrisy not withstanding of taking the vow in the first place, was video taped in the nude and the tape released. I thought it was suppose to be cyber crime to tape others while having sex, and then distribute it. Damn, this was worse than the DPS scandal.)

Now I am very much against celibacy, voluntary or otherwise.
Sex is as natural as breeding oops.. Breathing and it shouldn't be suppressed in the name of God.
I am of the belief that God took the forms of Human to enjoy sex.
And of all the religious groups, ISKCON which is spreading Krsna Consciousness, has a Vow of celibacy as a pre-requisite if one were to join Iskcon(*conditions apply, see below).
We all know of the Gopal and the Gopis.
And the Iskcon temples are adorned with Pictures Shri Krsna surrounded by Shri Krsnas, the most famous of which being the one where Krsna Hid the clothes of bathing gopis and he is watching the naked Gopis. Of course, Shri Krsna is my God, My Hero, the supreme personality of godhead. He is the one I have always looked upto.

Now Supreme personality of the Godhead. I guess you haven't understood it. Neither had I, not even now. It was the Definition of Lord Krsna, and as slightly obedient student I memorized it with hundreds of Slokas all of which I have forgotten. It was a long time ago.

BIMS was run strictly like a mission school. And even though there were 2 or 3 christian in my class, everybody were made to remember slokas and attend prayers etc etc. Nobody complained though. And it was wonderful to attend prayers. And somehow whenever I pray, the picture of a cherubic Shri Krsna and Radha comes to my mind. I have a complaint though. We had to wear Tilak, two parallel lines, drawn with chandan, starting at the forehead to merge at the bridge of the nose and another tip like a arrow head starts from there till the nose tip. Now, this is a very beautiful facial painting or decoration, much like the bindi and look very pretty if a girl were to wear it. Since all Krsna devotees wear it, it was ok for them but for the students, and male students to wear it, we were targets of ridicule from fellow guys who were attending other schools. You see it was very girlish to wear it since the tilak or chandan is part of a manipuri Women's make-up.[check here]. And since it was quite difficult to draw and needed my mom's help to draw it everyday, we couldn't go without it at least till we reach the school either.

Even our attempt to flirt with girls from the neighboring Little flower school with a little eve-teasing usually backfires and turns out to be severe adam teasing instead. They would collective shout Roll Number 1 and give out a collective cry of Hare Krisna, Roll Number 2.... Hare Krisna, Roll Number Three.... Kansha. And we could only Boooo.
You see we also had to Answer our daily roll call with HARE KRISNA. Absense was "absent sir", but people assumed that we replied absent as Kansha.

A little about my personal life in the BIMS of Iskcon.
Now it is my alma mater, and I don't have anything bad to say.
Thought I left the school after a few months of class 6, Iskcon taught me many thing.
Sex was definitely one. Yes by the tender of age of 10 I knew that I wasn't discovered by my parents on the steps of the Govindajee Temple.

And I tried hard to take away my father's hands when he covered my eyes during sex scenes in English Movies. Oh, as a 10 Year old, I never missed James Bond Movies and would pester my father to take me. Poor papa.

And so I was in BIMS, which was known as Iskcon.
Though I have only fond memories of the Iskcon like the time when I cut Ravi's thigh with pencil sharpening blade or when my thigh was cut when I rushed for the window seat in the bus and there was a sharp aluminium edge potruding out the door. I still have the scar.
I also remember having my first Crush on our Yoga Teacher.. Forgot her name ummmm.. forgot... Well I told my benchmate that she looked like Tina Munim and that Bugger actually told her in front of the whole class, " Excuse me Miss, Anthony here thinks you look like Tina Munim". I Blushed red like a Tomato. And Indeed she was beautiful as I discovered later also when I saw a picture of hers demonstrating Yoga in a calender. She was Married. Sob Sob. Since then, I have never been to known to hide my feelings LOL.

On a darker side, there was a She-male amongst the devotees. It was the first time I learnt there were some people with sexual preferences other than the ones we knew. Unfortunately this guy-gal never tried anythijg funny with us, but (s)he used to take us to his living quarters everyday at break and tell us dirty stories. Of his having sex with his ex husband. He used to say he had a husband, and we were kids anyway and we wanted to hear the stories, we we went everyday. Sometimes, when I read all the stories of CSA and paedophiles, I shudder. I was just 10 godamnit, and We were lucky we always used to go in a group and it helped that even though I was cute, I was one of the notorious students and our gang was the roughnecks.
(S)he was s atrnge character though. She stayed at the male living quarters but talked like a girl and insisted that he was a she. We used to call her Nupi Saabi( Nupi= Girl. Saabi = to act like something)" the one who acted like a girl."

When I visited Iskcon after almost 14 years (S)he didn't remember me. He was still there, acting the same way, living a life of celibacy. What I remembered about this visit was another thing that touched my heart. I don't look nothing like I used to 13 years back now, and nobody would recognise me after so long. So when the Nupi-saabi didn't remember me, I understood and realised how I must have grown. But there was this old Gatekeeper, who used Keep us from going out of the school campus during school hours. However hard we tried he never would open the gate, and our plea would fall unto deaf ears. You see he was deaf and dumb.
When he saw me that day, he just came towards me and recognised me. He tried with such enthusiasm showing with his hands how I have grown and told me by sign language how he remembered me, and with a garvled voice showed his happiness in seeing me. I gave him some money as a token of love, which he refused initially but I forced. We used to only call him uncle.
I miss you Uncle. And thank you for keeping out of trouble by keeping us inside the confines of the secured campus..I was just 10.

* One may not take the vow of celibacy and Iskcon has separate living quarters for Married Devotees.