Swara was still lost in the memories of her school days. She began writing again:
‘By the time I was in the third standard, I had accepted the fact that going to school was inevitable. School really was fun at times, I have to admit. Teachers used to give me chocolates ( given to them by birthday kids) and I would never get punished in class because I was this puny doe eyed girl who would charm teachers with her witty repertoire and innocent smile. I’m not going to elaborate on the special love bestowed on me by my teachers.
We had a “sports day’ every year and there were special games for kids. I can’t forget bead picking, a game for primary kids where plastic beads would be hidden at many places and kids would be given one minute to collect maximum beads. Here again my favourite teachers would pick a few and drop those in my bag, to help me win! Frog jumping race was another funny game. Being the hyperactive kid, ready to take off – it was an event where I had no competition. I think mine was the only school which had such unique games for kids.
I also used to win prizes in recitation, elocution, story telling etc. Going to Annual School day was so much fun as we used to look forward to grabbing our prizes, which would mostly be books or small trophies. I had safely kept all my prizes in a box for so many years. Wonder if it’s still there at my parents’!
Talking about school, I remember an incident, the first time I believed in the strength of prayers. I was in the 4th standard. We had an English teacher Geeta, who was lavish in her praises for a talented student and I wanted to impress her. I would learn up lessons daily, answer questions in class, write in my four-line copy writing book in good handwriting, thereby trying to get into her good books.
One day I forgot that she had asked us to learn answers from our note book. There were about 25 questions and I hadn’t even read them! Usually she would pick up any kid at random and ask a question. So I decided to learn Q.18 as it was one of the longest ones and I kept praying to Lord Krishna that she should ask me that question so that I could showcase my learning prowess by answering the toughest question. Imagine the probability that she would ask me Q.18 from a class of 35 students? You wouldn’t believe. She called out my name and she asked me the same question. I was in a state of shock, unable to believe this, I happily answered though. She said ‘good’ and smiled with a twinkle in her eye. I was super happy! That was the day I truly believed in miracles and prayers. Though it may seem silly and petty, it was important for me. I was happy that my prayers worked.
When I was in the 4th standard, I started wearing single line braces for my slightly protruding teeth. It was very common then. I would never let it stay in place, I would keep toying with it inside my mouth with my tongue. I would literally turn it upside down, back and forth and roll it inside my mouth! Once, in Geeta teacher’s class, I was playing with my braces and before I realised, it got stuck, deep in my throat. She saw me gasping and thought I wanted to vomit, so she sent me outside. I couldn’t talk with the braces stuck to my throat! I ran to my sister’s class. Sumi came out and she too didn’t know what happened at first. Later I tried pulling it, only to see blood oozing out. Sumi got frightened and she took me to the vice principal’s office after having realised what happened, as she knew that I had this habit of playing with my braces.
I was soon sitting in an auto with my vice principal, who accompanied me. He took me to a doctor. The doctor after daring maneuvers, managed to cut the wire and remove it. Only, my braces got damaged in the process. The Vice principal then dropped me home. Mom was startled to see me coming home with the VP. He explained everything to her! That night I heard a mouthful from mom, dad & Sumi and it got worse when we went to my dentist the next day, who aptly called me a ‘monkey’! The ‘braces’ was not mendable and he said we had to go for a new one. This time my parents decided to wait till I ‘grew up’! After this incident, I ended up wearing braces only in the tenth standard.
By the way, the next day all kids looked at me as if I were from another planet. Some looked at me like a hero who swallowed steel and came out alive!!
Children look forward to distributing chocolates for birthdays, right? Once it was my birthday and I was excited about wearing colour dress to school. I soon started distributing the sweets but i did not give the chocolates to one boy, Dennis, as he did not share his magic scale and sticker labels with me. I thought that this was the time to punish him. I came home and proudly announced my vengeance story. The next day mom made me apologize to him and I had to give him double the sweets! Later on, we became good friends. But I lost touch with him, once I left that school. We promised to write to each other, which never happened. Hope he reads this someday and remembers me…
More about school in my next episode’
Swara shut her laptop.
