I come in one of the strangest cups of coffee (hot coffee!) who always want to oppose the flow - not intentionally but it just happens...
***
If Bonny ever gets a chance to recollect me now then it will be a short naughty girl always like playing with those two long plaits that snake down her back. The next instance his pleasant thoughts will be spoiled by a ‘rowdra roopi’ who fought with him for tearing down the ‘Tiger and Pooh’ name sticker from her Social Science note book.
A tall figure with a grim face, always grinding her teeth to show her anger, who always took up the Dagini character in Balarama… and that was Uma teacher for me. I still don’t know if she hate kids or if that’s her original character, but she lingered as a nightmare for me throughout my school life! It was a rule in Uma teacher’s class to be in tip-toe perfect. That includes neatly pressed uniform (cream shirt and blue trouser for boys & cream and blue pinafore for girls), polished black shoes, hair pulled back and tied on either side with blue ribbon (for girls!), and nonetheless you should chat only in English (an act to westernize local people! which in one way was good for THEM.. cos people like me would keep their mouth shut with this rule which otherwise is a hard task to achieve!). In other words 3rd grades and 4th graders should be a role model for every other kid in the school. Of all these military rules, the strictest one was the punishment that you will get if you break any of these rules.
As a part of such a punishment I was made to sit in between Rohit (to my left) and Bonny (to my right). Though I studied with Rohit in the same class from my KG that was the first time I am ever talking with this person in the class - the last year in St.Jude’s Elementary School. Being a kind of tomboyish girl in the class, Rohit was one of the perfect friends that I could get at that time! Almost all my best friends were boys – Nishad the plumpy, Adarsh the GI Joe, Kaushik the leanest, Karthik the shortest, Rohit the cutest, Bonny the gentle, Nannu the thinnest… the list of sufferers…
There were two stone lions that flanked the school entrance and a dark complexioned Appu Kuttan watcher can be seen there - stealthily smoking beedi to hide from Elizabeth sister’s eyes. Though I never talk with him I loved him the most in that school! Elizabeth sister is the head of the school. And my day used to start by following her to the school church every morning and repeating the prayers after her as soon as I will be dropped by the 8AM school van.
***
The last day in my school: The 9 year old Rohit asking for my telephone number! J…
No comments:
Post a Comment