Twin icons are gone-- Building to come up on green bench spot

the following piece is an article that appeared on the 1st of June in The Telegraph


THE EMERALD BOWER: The spot where the green benches stood near the back gate of St Xavier’s College. Picture by Pabitra Das


St Xavier’s College will never be the same again. The green benches are gone — and so is Arunda.
On the last day of May, the Park Street campus bid adieu to two of its most endearing symbols — one near the back gate and the other behind the canteen counter.
The green benches bordering the playground — where many Xaverians down the decades have learnt more about life than in the classrooms — have been removed, their place to be taken by a three-storeyed building to improve infrastructure.
And Arabinda Acharya Chowdhury, or rather Arunda — who has treated everyone from Sourav Ganguly to Haridas Pal with similar stern affection — leaves the canteen after 49 years, to rest his ailing heart.
First, let’s pause at the green benches. For the past few years, this has been a no-hangout zone for students, but at least they were there. Not any more. “A building to facilitate activities of the school and college will come up here,” confirmed college principal Father P.C. Mathew.
The space will house quarters for non-teaching staff, a parking lot and a tank for rainwater harvesting.

Arunda, the familiar figure behind the St Xavier’s College canteen counter, will not be at his post from June 1. Picture by Pabitra Das

“The green benches had become a part of the college heritage and their absence could create a vacuum in the hearts of ex-students,” admitted the principal.
That it sure will. “It’s like losing a part of my youth. The green benches meant friendship and adda, the ice-cream man and the pheriwallah... I used to sit on one bench and play the beat on another,” recounts percussionist Bickram Ghosh.
The new building will begin where the green benches used to be and end where 70-year-old Arunda’s domain began.
The Uttarpara boy joined Xaviers as a 22-year-old in the summer of ’59.
The canteen was then called Annapurna All India Food Commission.
At his farewell on Thursday in the college auditorium, an uncharacteristically emotional Arunda recounted “the tough 70s”, the “watershed year of 1979 when the college became co-educational”, the move to make the canteen “a no-smoking zone”, the beginning of “blood donation camps”, the “friendships and the memories”.
Suffering from heart problems with a failing pacemaker and advised bed rest by the doctor, he will not take up his trademark place in the canteen from June 1.
“Sourav Ganguly, Bickram Ghosh, Srikanta Acharya and so many celebrities started their lives from this canteen, but all Xaverians are the same for me. Shobai bhalo, khub bhalo,” said Arunda.
In his last interaction with a room full of Xaverians, he concluded: “Live up to the true spirit of Nihil Ultra and never let your college down.”