Back to school: Shahid Kapur visits alma mater to promote movie

Kapur’s early schooling was at Gyan Bharti; he attended classes I to V there when he was staying in Delhi with his family. “I remember holding my grandfather’s finger and walking with him to the school gate,requesting the guard at the gate to let me in as I would always be five minutes late.”

“But I would not advocate that as a good habit,” he quickly added.

After attending a cultural dance programme presented by the students and a welcome speech,Kapur visited his old classroom beside the school auditorium,took questions from schoolchildren and shared his memories of the school.

“During my school days there was a lot of construction material lying around and I would play in the mounds of sand and piles of pebbles between classes. We would throw pebbles at each other and I would be left with scars and abrasions,” recalled Kapur. “One day my mother reached the school with cops,since I was not traceable when she came to pick me up after school got over. The fact is,I had gone across to my friend’s place at Anupam,where we were playing,” he laughed.

While Kapur painted a mischievous image of himself as a boy,his former teacher Chandra Mohan,who was his class teacher in the third standard,described him as a shy,reticent boy. “He would never misbehave or mix with his classmates. He would sit quietly in class and do his work,” Mohan,who met him after 25 years,said. “I would never have imagined that he would become an actor. He never showed any keenness towards class plays or acting,” she added.

Kapur’s Sanskrit teacher,Jeet Pahuja,who taught him till Class V,praised Kapur’s attentiveness in class. “He never caused me any trouble,” she said.