DNA

• Fond childhood memories came rushing back as Aamir Khan revisited his former school in Bandra

Mumbai, Dec 12: Sometimes even a journey into the past can turn into a new voyage of discovery. As a child, Aamir Khan must have made his way through the same narrow corridors of St Anne’s High School a thousand times, but as he retraced his steps on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, it was obvious that he was rediscovering every nook and corner that he knew intimately as a child.

Peeping into the chemistry lab, drinking water from the tap, and even managing to squeeze into the small benches in the school he spent eight years in, Aamir Khan’s visit to his alma mater after more than thirty years was something he clearly enjoyed.

“I have such fond memories of this school that even though this was neither my first school nor my last, this is where my heart is. I remember kneeling near the principal’s office when I was punished. I was a quiet child, but have done enough to merit punishments during my school days,” he smiles.

As he enters each classroom, to be greeted by a roar from the students, it is obvious that his mind is in flashback mode. He remembers a sultry afternoon three decades ago when a bored schoolboy had the bright idea of shooting paper planes out of the window during class.

“Around twenty of us made paper planes and shot them out of the window. Our principal, Father Malcolm, saw it and immediately reprimanded us over the speakerphone so that the entire school heard what we had been upto,” says the actor who has taken time off from working on his forthcoming release to visit his old school.

“I used to go to school with my brother Faisal. One Saturday, my father dropped us to school and took off, not realising that it was a holiday on that particular day. I was really scared because the school was empty. I was responsible for Faisal and I had no idea how to get home. We were both in tears till some older boys who lived in the locality spotted us and took us home. To this day I remember my fear on that day.”

School was also about crushes, and first love. “I think I used to fall in love every two or three months when I was in school. My first crush was my cousin’s friend Jaya. I was barely five years old then. After that it was a girl in my class, and then of course Mrs Bose, who was my teacher in Bombay Scottish. I think most boys had a crush on her,” he says, rushing off to have a vada paav in the canteen. “It tastes just as good to this day.”