If anyone ever asked you, which days of your life you miss the most and wish to live again if given a chance? I’m sure your response would be 'The School Days'.
‘Schooldays’-the golden period for the majority of us. I don't recall much about my childhood, but my parents and relatives told me that I was very mischievous and used to run from place to place like a shuttle, so they nicknamed me 'Satalli'.
The very first school I joined was in my hometown, not much far from my house, but I used to go there by Rickshaw. The name of that school was Sunrise, but for me, it turned out to be Sunset because at that age I was very scared of going to school and repeatedly ran away from there. I used to cry a lot during the rains. I don't recall the reason, though. Maybe it was due to thundering and lightening; a sudden emotion of sorrow used to crawl over my mind and made me cry every time.
After finishing my K.G's, now it was time for me to take a big step ahead. My parents registered my name in a new school called St. Mary's Co-ed School which was located at Harda, approximately 15 km from my hometown. Every morning except on the weekends I had to wake up by 6:00 am and get ready for the school. At that young age, it was the hardest thing for me to do. Several times I missed my school bus, but then I got habitual to waking up early in the morning. My mom has to prepare tiffin for me every morning as there was no mess facility in the school.
My daily routine during those days was to get up early in the morning, have my breakfast, and get prepared for school. I was very conscious about cleanliness and used to dress well since school teachers examined clothes during the assembly and punish if the clothes were shabby. When I joined the school, my early days were dreadful as I had no friends. My elder brother was my only friend who was also in the same school at that time, but he used to get irritated with me as I used to hum around him like a bee. He always advised me to make my own friends since he was uncomfortable having me around in his own friend circle. So I started making my own friends and fortunately didn’t have to work too hard for it. Slowly and gradually I got familiar with the class. At this point in time, I began to feel happy and started to enjoy attending the classes. Every morning before the prayer, there used to be a lot of chaos, but this chaos transformed into a chorus whenever the prayer commenced. After the prayer, we use to head towards our respective classes in lines.
Primarily, I was not good at studies. I was a big duffer at that time and scored lowermost marks in the class and was quite indifferent to it. Until at one of the parent-teachers meeting, a teacher humiliated my parents, which stung me so bad that it changed my entire lifestyle. After that incident, I fired up to work hard on my studies and became systematic in every activity. I began obeying the school rules. Hard work has its outcomes and for me the result was positive. I scored well in the examinations and built a good reputation in the class. The other students in my class nicknamed me ‘gyani baba’ to mock me, but I got used to such non-sense talks and ignored them. I still laugh recalling those folly talks. Every teacher was assigned a nickname by the class and we used to make fun of them (not letting them comprehend) and giggle looking at each other’s face. Every teacher had their own unique methods to teach - some were strict, some were funny, some had complex nature.
The teachers that still comes to my mind and makes me smile are Sunny sir (strict and funny too), Johnsy mam (very delightful and adorable), George sir (notoriously known as Anna, a strict one), Joshi sir (the funny one) and there were countless of them. We used to blather a lot during recess time and planned tactics to make fun of the teachers. After lunch, the remaining two periods were passed either by sleeping or eagerly waiting for the final bell to ring. As soon as the bell ranged, we sprinted out from our classes even before finishing the prayers and that’s how each day of our school ended. After coming back from school, I used to take rest for about one hour and spend the rest of my day attending tuitions, finishing homework, and playing games. But at the back of my mind, there was always a feeling of excitement for the next day at school to come.
It doesn't matter how much we criticized our school days, but in the end, we all miss it. I still wish to live and cherish those days over and over again.
