Change?
Yesterday, I woke up around 9 in the morning, hearing the sound of the closet door shut. I managed to take a quick-look of Aai and Baba in white, rushing out the door. I get up, look out the window and - Independence Day! And I slowly crawl back in bed, thinking, "something's different today". It was not the after-effects of the trek. It was not the aching feet. It was not the tiredness, no. It just was - different!
And then it hits me. Every year, for the last nine years, I would be in school on this day, participating in the celebrations. Our dear Principal sir would give a speech, we would perform, teachers would appreciate us, blah blah blah. And this year, I was still in bed. It was such a strange feeling! It was realisation, actually. I was no more "vo Sarod wali ladki". I was just some girl in a class of 120. It made me feel small. I was an insect. This was not a familiar thing - being an insect. It was very disheartening.
I didn't know what they meant when our seniors spoke on their farewell, saying "you are protected in school". Now I do. We are indeed protected in school, in ways we can't quite fathom...till we get into this scary place called 'college'.
Yes, okay, there are fewer rules in college, and there's no uniform, yo! But. There comes a point when you start missing sneaking past the staff room in the middle of a period so no teacher would catch hold of you, and making excuses to go meet your friends in the other class during a boring period, and, sometimes, the terror of getting caught while eating our tiffin-boxes between the periods. There's also the PT periods, of course. (Okay, I admit, I hardly ever played anything, but no reason to not-miss the ground, right?)
The more amusing change is in our vocabulary! 'Period' becomes 'lecture', 'washroom' becomes 'GCR' (short for Girls' Common Room) and 'stilt area' becomes 'foyer', and so on...
There is the whole 'no teacher shouting' for leaving your hair open, or wearing long earrings, or wearing nailpaint. And that is pretty damn good. Slowly, you get the hang of it. You just have to be patient, n'est-ce pas?
And then it hits me. Every year, for the last nine years, I would be in school on this day, participating in the celebrations. Our dear Principal sir would give a speech, we would perform, teachers would appreciate us, blah blah blah. And this year, I was still in bed. It was such a strange feeling! It was realisation, actually. I was no more "vo Sarod wali ladki". I was just some girl in a class of 120. It made me feel small. I was an insect. This was not a familiar thing - being an insect. It was very disheartening.
I didn't know what they meant when our seniors spoke on their farewell, saying "you are protected in school". Now I do. We are indeed protected in school, in ways we can't quite fathom...till we get into this scary place called 'college'.
Yes, okay, there are fewer rules in college, and there's no uniform, yo! But. There comes a point when you start missing sneaking past the staff room in the middle of a period so no teacher would catch hold of you, and making excuses to go meet your friends in the other class during a boring period, and, sometimes, the terror of getting caught while eating our tiffin-boxes between the periods. There's also the PT periods, of course. (Okay, I admit, I hardly ever played anything, but no reason to not-miss the ground, right?)
The more amusing change is in our vocabulary! 'Period' becomes 'lecture', 'washroom' becomes 'GCR' (short for Girls' Common Room) and 'stilt area' becomes 'foyer', and so on...
There is the whole 'no teacher shouting' for leaving your hair open, or wearing long earrings, or wearing nailpaint. And that is pretty damn good. Slowly, you get the hang of it. You just have to be patient, n'est-ce pas?
sabr ka fal meetha hota hai bachche!
ReplyDeleteYou made me cry...
ReplyDeleteI wrote something similar that day.
there are more perks of being a college going adult than school going kid. personally, i loved (sob at the use of past tense) my college life most
ReplyDelete