Hahahaha Suna, your analysis cracked me up BIG TIME!! Hahahah You're saying that "it (exclusiveness) got lost because SPS was always trying to be mysterious and aloof"…hahahah OK, for 17 decades we remained "mysterious and aloof" and it was THEN that SPS was refered to as "The Eton of the East" (Why would we even be compared to Eton College if we were JUST ANOTHER LOCAL school??). It was THEN that a Rector at SPS was awarded an OBE for his services to SPS. It was THEN that we produced some of the nation's top leaders in defense and commerce...I can give you a hundered other examples...We were Vegas then: "What happened in SPS, stayed at SPS!!" No outsiders needed to know what went on in there. It was ONLY IN THE LAST 2-3 DECADES when intermingling with the other schools and the Nepalese and Darjeeling community began that the school lost its charm of being "aloof and mysterious" (apologies for the constant repitition) and took a nose dive towards hell. Even a minor fight between 2 boys (which is so common in all the schools I know) would make news in the local papers. SPS boys in town wearing "fancy clothes"?? Next day, my local guardians are ballistic in letting me know. SPS guy in town with a girl?? "Hell what has happened to the Paulites", they'd say. BTW, in Ktm during my vacation, my boys and I went to local schools with whatever we had in hand if any of them had beef there and NO LOCALS or ANY MEDIA gave a damn!! See, what I'm getting at here is that "kids will be kids" and the older Darjeeling locals always expected the Paulites to behave like elderly married gentlemen (or priests) as they had never known anything about Paulites except the folklore!! Also, SPS taught me jack in Nepali. I learnt it at home and the tution classes that I took during vacation. How can you expect that our Nepali be good when we could only speak it for 40 minutes of the day during class?? That too, we just listened to the teacher read! I remember those days of topping my class in all the subjects but failing or "just" passing in Nepali. Hahaha We caught up with our sleep during Nepali class! I felt, as long as I could read, write and comprehend Nepali literature, that’s all I would need. And here I am today, I feel with no Nepali grammar/speaking problems at all. Hahaha The only Mr. Lama from Jalapahar at the Primary section at SPS was our head caterer (and he had been there for 2-3 decades already). He certainly did not head us (It was always the Rector's wife who headed the Primary guys). And St. Andrew's was LONG gone when I attended SPS….In case you're wondering, for me, NYC is a SMALL POND too if I'm talking about the reputation of a school/university here whose fame and recognition transcends its man-made boundaries: e.g: NYU, Columbia, etc. I see no offense in calling any man-made city a small pond and Darj is no exception as SPS was physically in that very pond too!! BTW, pls quit making those smiley faces if you'd taken offense to my posts…It just makes no sense. Kinda confused me here. hahaha Sahayog, hahah that DWade commercial was mad funny...During the late 90s, all schools including SAS wore shorts like dat (hawaldaar kattus were in vogue then)!! Yeah, during our time, we were made a prime example of what not to be by the Rector for our escapades at SAS. In our minds, all 20 of us cursed your principal, Fr. Paul after the sound thrashing we got from our Rector!! hahahahahah