A Trip Down Memory Lane : New School

This is the second installment of the Trip Down Memory Lane series, and dates back to April 16 2001. This was the day I transferred from my old school to my new school. The reason for the shift was that we had changed houses just the previous year, and it was a lot of trouble covering the large distance between my school and our house. I kept going through a lot of benefactors for one year, but that is a story for another post, which hopefully will come today itself.

It was the day after Vishu or the next day. My mother accompanied me to the school. She knew the Principal, it seems, but that wasn't going to change anything. The class was just filling up, so I went and thanks to some girls I found out an empty seat and settled down. My mother sat there and chatted with the students there for some time, when the bell rung for assembly. Everyone seemed to know what to do, and where to go. Everyone, that is, except me. I kept trying to follow someone I had seen earlier, sometimes running to keep up with them. As I stood in the scorching hot sun, and looked around the stage, barely taking anything in, the only thing I could think of was that I was abandoned. Imagine a tiny little puppy wrenched from its mommy, and left to fend for itself in a hostile, dog-eat-dog world, that was me, that was all I could think of.

One phrase from one of my father's friends, who happened to be a teacher at the school, comes to my mind now. "This school is not like your old school. There is less control here, you won't feel that strangled and bound up here." That automatically implied less discipline, and more rowdy behaviour, and less intervention from the teachers. That was the opposite of what I was used to. I thrived in ordered situations where authority was always around to enforce order. So this was going to be more tough than I imagined. And I quickly realised that. Where back at my old school, there was rarely a sound during free periods, here the noise was deafening. I could not bear it, and I often used to go out to the corridors, looking outside at the entrance. And if someone asked me what I was doing outside, I would shamelessly reply I was missing my old school. Here there was no control over the class by teachers and the noise level was intense. But looking back, it was one of those decisions that made me who I am now, made me a better human being, and taught me a lot about how life actually is. I never said this to my parents, but that decision taught me a lot, so thank you for that.

It took me a long time to get used to the school, but it was a better teacher than any for me, a teacher of life.

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

Welcome all to the new series that is part of my blog called A Trip Down Memory Lane. We all like to relish our past. When we are alone, we sit and reminisce about those good old times, the times when you had so much fun with so little, and a time when the whole world was wrapped in mystery and wonder. We long for the times when scientific knowledge didn't reduce the amount of wonder that nature bestowed upon us.
Coming to the point in question, what I want to lay out right now is my LKG days...
Do you remember the first time you ventured out of the safety of your homes, and were enrolled in KG? I do, and the way I remember it, it was wet...I was crying most of the time. I remember just flashes of what happened. But here it is anyway...

My parents were liars back then it seems. The number of lies they used to drag me to school seem unbelievable. Here is my favourite -" You don't want to go to school? Fine. Don't. Let's just go and see if the school is still there or not. You don't have to go in, we'll just go, see it and return". That has to be one of the lamest lies I have ever heard, and you have to be pretty gullible to drink it all up. And I drank it all up, not one, not twice, but times and times again.
The first day I got there, I was pushed in and abandoned. I cried. A lot. And when it subsided, I took up the only toy I can remember picking up there-a horse, a pretty small one. I remember playing a little, then it is blank.
Here is another interesting note- One day I went to the toilet in the morning itself. And it so happens that near the toilet is an exit, and guess who I saw there? My father. And somehow, it stuck in my crazy little head, that he was going to be there every day. I don't know how many days it took for me to realise that it was all a big coincidence.
Concluding on a couple of hilarious notes:
Once I saw a couple of kids eating something from their tiffin boxes. Oh boy, it was too much. I went home and threw a tantrum, for I wanted a tiffin box bad. Why did no one understand? I needed it bad!!! And finally I got one. But the next thing was what to carry inside it. My parents decided on chips. I took the thing to my class like a king carrying a scepter, or like MS Dhoni carrying the World Cup. As soon as I was in the class, I tore it open and started munching chips. Take note that I had eaten a half hour ago from home. And in came a teacher. She looked at me and asked me one sentence. One that I still recall, and one that my parents never let me forget.
"Raavile thanne aanodo theeta???"
("Eating in the morning itself???)
One last ironical note-Back then I was scared of rain. Questions that I asked my mother daily were these-"Will it rain?" "Can I keep my towel crumpled up?" Because for me, a towel was meant to be folded perfectly and I was scared my mother would scold me if I didn't. Given that I was pretty scared of her back then. She was damn strict when I was little, but got to say this, if it wasn't for her, and her strictness, I wouldn't be where I am right now. So thank you mother!!!