Back to school

Its almost time when schools reopened and you got back to the grind for another year. This is also the time when you look forward to the routine, which would become disdainful by the time session got over. I guess, its the change that we constantly crave for. These are my memories of the beginning of a new session.

Each new session for us would mean new beginnings in many ways. Many a times it used to mean new school and therefore, new set of friends (have been to 7 different schools). It meant progress- probably grown taller, more difficult maths, more competition, longer school hours, more homework, lab work, and the list grew longer as one progressed in school.

I would totally look forward to it, as it meant vying for new set of responsibilities. So, the new year presented the opportunity of holding a 'class office'. In order of hierarchy, you could become class monitor, duster and chalk in charge, attendance in-charge, out pass, notebook, line, electricity,uniform monitor. The 'office' holders were important people and were generally seen with respect. I always had some portfolio and sometimes more than one under my belt. So, the beginning of session determined your status through the year.

What excited me most were the new set of books, which we would mostly buy from Arya Book Depot, Karol Bagh (the Delhi wallas would know this Mecca of CBSE books). The smell of the freshly bound books is still fresh in my memory. With this came the task of covering the books. A day would be spent covering all books with brown paper. All care would be taken to buy the most appealing name tag and pasting them right in the centre of countless H.W/C.W notebooks. The biggest challenge for a very long time was to write the name in a neat handwriting. My father or my sister would come to my rescue.

Apart from the books, a great deal of time was spent buying geometry boxes. The tin geometry boxes, mostly orange and yellow(camlin) or blue and red (Natraj), were quite another story. The symphony of opening and closing tin geometry boxes at the beginning of the class, conveyed the mood of the class. So, closing it with a loud clap would mean-confidence- you know the answer or the exercise is a cake walk, the soft opening would mean you are unsure. All heads would turn with the noise of a fallen box in an examination, eliciting different response from the examinees. Some would click tongues disapprovingly for disturbing them and breaking their flow,others would see it as an opportunity to take a break and asses how much the rest have finished. Then the music it made, when you wanted to show off your latest acquisition (Chinese pen), is inexplicable.

My mother was very particular and always bought us new bags, tiffin boxes, bottles (mostly Milton), shoes and uniform (white socks pulled till the knees were the most important). Voila! you are ready for the new year ahead.

Seriously, the preparation for the new session was always more interesting than the session itself.