Here are Rekchan’s memories of primary school in his own words :

“I joined Sikkim Himalayan Academy in the year 2006 at the age of 6 years , my home is at Sombaria, West Sikkim. My parents do farming for living.
The thing that i would like to say about SHA is I feel that it is my first home , we have lived as a family under one roof , the senior and teachers guided and loved me like parents , I’m so attached that I will never forget SHA in my life , I have lots of memories with SHA family , whish it could come back again and I really would like to thank all the sponsor’s for supporting us , without you we wouldn’t have reached so far .”

We remember him as an enthusiastic child who loved games and had many friends.

Rekchan moved to Dr Graham’s Homes for his secondary education in 2013, into class 6 (Class 12 is the last year).

He was always a good student, but also played most sports like football, basketball, table tennis, badminton, athletics,  swimming and volleyball. I had enough talent to represent the school  in volleyball,  athletics and swimming. He was in the school team for the inter school games in Darjeeling.

For years 11 and 12 he was in the arts stream. His favourite subjects were sociology, physical education and political science .

In March 2020 Rekchan sat his Indian School Certificate with good marks, and planned to study physical education at college. Although he was not supported by us through Dr Graham’s Homes, we said that we would fund him through university.

He applied to three colleges in Kolkata, but the time in question was when the coronavirus pandemic was starting to cause serious disruption in India. To his dismay his applications where rejected for what seemed to be administrative reasons, which given the situation could not be resolved. So he decided to apply for college in Sikkim. Unfortunately there was no suitable physical education course available. Rather than wait a year, and given all the uncertainty, he decided to apply to study Political Science at Shri Ramasamy Memorial University. He was indeed accepted but would have found the registration, setting up a bank account and other admin very difficult without the help of two former students, Nedup and Nimphuti.

From then on he has prospered, passing all his exams and of course being very active in college sports! He is due to graduate in July 2023.