Memories of Faujdarhat
I read Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed's article on the 50th anniversary of Faujdarhat (then East Pakistan) Cadet College. You mentioned my father, Mr. ON Bishop, one of the first teachers and also a housemaster. We have many happy memories of our family's time there from early 1959 to 1960, when my brothers and I were children. My father (now in his 80s) always say how keen and enthusiastic the boys were - model students in fact!
Extra-curricular activities such as camping and field trips were mentioned in the article. I remember our family going along just for the day to accompany the staff and boys on a couple of these trips. My father is a keen botanist, and used to get the boys to help him look for interesting plant specimens in the hills- once they found a cycad and proudly brought back one of the giant cycad cones. He was also an amateur filmmaker at the time, and still has some old cine films of the Cadet College. A lot of dignitaries visited the College in its early days, and I remember the boys would often line the driveways and form a guard of honour for their arrival and departure. Sometimes we younger staff children would try and emulate them, and also jump up and down waving home-made flags! We made many good friends amongst the staff at the time, and Mrs Islam in particular used to give lovely picnic parties for the staff children.
It is good to return to Bangladesh and hear that Faujdarhat Cadet College is so highly regarded after all this time, and that it has produced so many distinguished alumni.
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