Back To School

"Do you know what the time is? Wake up and get ready fast!", yelled my aunt at my 12 year old niece. It was the beginning of class 8 for her. She slowly tossed on the bed, grumbling about the end of summer vacation, which included early rising. The minute I told her she can wear her new uniform and use fresh books, there was this sudden enthusiasm in her, and she jumped out of her bed. As she sprinted across, I saw the excitement with which she got ready for first day of school, absolutely not complaining about the weight of her bag, her amply oiled and plaited hair clearly not troubling her. She started throwing random instructions to people around, to bring her tie,school-belt, tie up the laces of her shoes, search for her i-Pod and earphones, scream out loud for not remembering to charge it the previous night and not forgetting to take her cell-phone. She instructed my aunt not to give her lunch, she was going to catch up with her friends at the school canteen. After a lot of hurrying, tying and untying ribbons, dumping her bag and throwing unwanted things out, yelling at her little brother for standing in the way and making sure her hair is in place by looking into the mirror several times, she finally bade us bye and left for school.

Looking at her, I was reminded of my school days, how my excitement reached the brink while getting ready for first day of school. It always included neatly pressed uniform, freshly covered notebooks and textbooks, a new bag almost every year, bright white socks and shiny black shoes. Not one thing would go wrong. Lunch was always pre-planned. I used to call up each one of my friends the previous day and we'd decide what each of us would bring for lunch. It was always a together affair. Back then, cell phones were a rarity. Only school principals, bank managers, bigheads of famous institutions and the like owned one. i-Pods,or mp3s actually, were a sign of having rich cousins who live abroad. The idea of going to school after three months was always very delighting. The thrill of a new class, a new time-table, new pens and books had no parallel. Having an Arts class, or the PT hour was on a Monday was envied upon. The moment we learned that our math teacher was Fun Ms. Lekha, our joy knew no bounds. The anticipation of a new hour, a new day and a brand new year would always kick in before the day of reopening and remain for a whole week. The momentum of the initial excitement would be pushed further after the announcement of the first holiday of the year. Slowly it'd be time for the assignments(that had to run into 20 pages,special marks for neat handwriting) followed by the mid-term tests and then the Quarterlies, Half-yearlies and then the pre-boards and finally,the boards. But those came with perks like Dussera vacation, Christmas vacation and Pongal leave. All our assignments had to be hand-written. Computer classes once every week would ensure 100% attendance on that day. Then there were cultural programmes for the school day, sports festival and the Science exhibition, one in each term. The entire school would participate in it. Every other week, there was an announcement about Essay writing competitions held by leading newspapers, painting,singing,dance competitions, you name it.

Suddenly, a loud noise broke my train of thoughts. My little nephew had started to cry and my aunt was busy with her chores. A brilliant idea struck me. I walked up to him and said, "If i tell you how interesting going to school is, will you stop crying?". A small smile appeared on his face, atleast there was no more noise!
It is never too late to reminisce about the old school days.