Good Ol' Days

As I de-board the Metro to undertake the journey back home on foot, I pass this school. I see something I know so closely. Tiny tots sliding hither and thither, the slightly older ones chatting about the homework given by teachers, anxiety writ large on their faces, but not larger than the bags they have on their shoulders, which makes their frame look even more petite than it really is . Then there are the senior students, who are well aware of this fact. They must have been scolded by the teachers as to the kind of role model they are becoming for their juniors, how soon they will have to leave the confines of school, but till then they should learn to behave, learn to tuck in their shirts and get those hair pointing in every direction fixed.

      

And yet, some must have giggled, others guffawed; others must have mimicked the teacher after she left, immediately pulling lose their ties in an attempt to look "cool".

A surge of nostalgia overpowers me. I remember I was there, just a few months back.

It feels as if it was just yesterday, and then it feels like it’s been ages.

Yes, now throughout my plodding, I am thinking of school days. The walk to the threshold of the school is marked with eagerness and anticipation, wondering whether everything has remained the same, or has the passage of time left its mark. Will I still be welcomed with open arms? Will I still be able to call this place my own?

It is so ironical that these are the same four walls i couldn’t bear any longer, and wanted to escape from so eagerly. And within a matter of months I have realised what those figurative four walls stood for. They stood for the security of those confines, the love of teachers who cared enough to remember our names, to chide us for our misdemeanour, the guard who would let us in if we got late by 5 minutes (okay, more often than not, he didn’t, but now everything looks twice as precious).

I long for that security like a toddler longing for milk. Every day when I enter college, why don’t I feel the same feeling of belonging there, as i did each day of school?

Its funny how when we are living the moment, we tend to be indifferent to its significance. We fail to realize that one day, you will suddenly get a whiff of what has transpired over the past few months, that your life has taken a turn, that you are no longer known by your school, you are no longer a part of the place you've relished being at for 14 years of your life. One fine day, it just hits you, and you'll be rendered nostalgic by the forces of time. The reminiscence overcame me today, and here I am penning down the recurring moments and instances which have come to define school life, at least for me.

1. Never used ‘Use Me’- Whenever a teacher scolded about class cleanliness, we used to slyly slide the garbage beneath our desks to the back ones. Unfortunately, by the time we reached class12, the teacher knew who the culprit was, not to mention his punishment of cleaning up all the chits and bits from class.

2. Spirituality in our eyes, or not-Whenever we were asked to close our eyes and meditate, we would check whether our partner has opened his/ her eyes or not. We secretly pined for the assembly to be held in class on test days, so as to cram up snippets enough to let us pass. And we prayed for a special assembly downstairs when the first period happened to be of a cranky teacher.

3. Excuse me- And when it came to excuses, we were one hell of a repository of excuses. From bunking school, to not studying when in class, to learning the modern way (read PowerPoint presentations in computer labs) just to get air-conditioned environs!

4. Substitutions- Well, it was as common a topic of discussion as air in atmosphere. It all began with a surmise that a teacher might not turn up. Soon, it would have escalated from a conjecture to a rumour and became a source of unalloyed joy for the entire class. Each teacher entering before the rumoured-to-be-absent teacher was pestered whether the teacher has turned up, or if she is going away for some workshop and the teachers would also keep us hanging by the hook, unwilling to reveal the secret to every students’ happiness.

 It would be the most heart-breaking moment when we learnt that some teacher had decided to hijack our free period by making a "setting" with the substitution in charge, so as to be able to finish the course in time, an exercise which was just meant to maintain a tremendous scope for those abhorrent revision tests. All our hopes of whiling away those 45 minutes playing 'truth or dare' would be deviously crushed on hearing that news. With half a heart, we would slowly draw out our notebooks and books, while mentally praying for some zombie attack or apocalypse to save us from relenting the 'free' period.

5. Monitors/ Man-eaters- Another dimension of substitutions was sending the monitor/prefect to the staff room to take a note of all the "free" periods and the assignments for them. Now, the monitor, if bribed in a proper fashion, could take light years to reach the staff room and come back, in the process, wasting the entire period. But if monitors turned into man-eaters, each kid would have to endure the backlash of doing assignments.

Befriending the monitor could save you mammoth trouble during the school year, so you knew exactly on whose bad side you don’t want to be at.

6. Faking sick- Remember that one time you forgot to carry your homework to school, and you instantly knew that the particularly strict teacher wouldn’t let you get away with the ‘left it at home, after toiling hard the entire previous night’ excuse. And then you knew exactly what to do. Clutching your stomach, you would make a trip to the school medical room. The doctor would gauge your pain and see through your antics, but still hand over a tablet just to get rid of you.

7. Lunch that would never make it till lunch period- Lunch period- those twenty minutes of the day when everything except eating lunch happened. As you made a mad dash to run after your teacher and submit your assignment, by the time you are back, for all you know, your lunch had been gobbled down by your friends and was being converted into bile by their gall bladders. Remind me, why were you friends with them, again?

8. Facebook display pictures- Don’t even get me started on that one. Every possible nook and corner of the school building was utilized in order to get those picture perfect profile pictures. Be it hanging deliriously from the railings or popping our heads out of the windows, nothing was out of consideration. And no, not even the washroom was spared.

Shah Rukh Khan has beautifully surmised his feelings in the following lines: “Apne Chhote Dosto Se Mai Ak Baat Jarur Kahna Chahunga. Bachcho Tumhare Ye Bachpan Ke Din Jindagi Ke Sabse Khubsurat Aur Behtrin Din Hai................Haan Bachcho, Mai Tumhe Yakin Dilata Hu Ki, Yahi Sabse Khubsurat Din Hai, Kyoki Jab Tum... Bade Hoge, Tab Tum Tarsoge In Dino Ke Liye, Lekin Tab Ye Din, Ye Lamhe Waapas Nahi Aayenge. aaj Aapka Dil Sachcha Hai, Pak Hai, Damkta sona Hai, Aaj Is Dil Se jo Rishte Kayam Karoge, Jo Dost Tum Log Banaoge, Aise Dost Aise Rishte Jindagi Mai Phir Kabhi Nahi Milenge”