"More Characters!"

As the bus entered the gates of the school, I heard the first bell of the day ringing, instructing the students to get back to their respective classes before assembly. Vyankatesh and I disembarked from the bus along with the other children and made our way to our class room. As we entered the main building, we passed a short, thin man in a green uniform with oiled hair,a thin moustache and a broad grin, carrying a load of heavy books. “Good morning Gopal Bhaiya!” I greeted him, “What work are you completing early in the morning today?”. In my opinion, Gopal bhaiya was the lucky mascot of our school . I had always believed that he was the busiest person in Pride! He had been there since the day it had been born and everyone, be it teachers, students or the headmistress herself, was hugely dependent on him! He was in charge of photocopying the worksheets for teachers, for giving medicine to the ill students, for arranging Mrs. Bhan’s office and bringing her tea, for ringing the bell after every class, for taking the memos from one class to another, for monitoring the other didis and bhaiyas and a million of such daily chores. He completed all of them to perfection  and always with a warm smile ! He was the most polite and soft-spoken person you could ever meet and was adored by everyone at Pride.

 “Good morning jee!” he replied, “I am on my way to library to put these new books on the shelf after which I shall go and ring the bell for the assembly. You all should go to your classes quickly or you will miss the attendance. Jaaiye, jaldi jaaiye( go quickly!)”

 As we turned towards the corridor, I heard my name being called from behind “Maaaaaaaaaaluuu!!!” I turned to see Sonal and Sakshi trotting towards me. Vyankatesh proceeded towards the classroom as I stopped walking and waited for my friends to join me. “Hii!” I said, “Where’s Pratishtha?”

 “She is just coming,”  Sakshi answered, looking over at her reflection on the glass door of one of the classes and fixing her hair, “She is getting her hair plaited by Sunita didi. She woke up late today as usual!” We reached the classroom and pushed the door, only to find it locked from inside. “ Oh  no!  Not that stupid password thing again! ” Sonal said, rolling her eyes. Inside, Aniket came rushing to the door and with a broad grin said “Password please!” He was a very tall, lanky boy with a deep voice and a very spontaneous sense of humour. He could mimic all the teachers, students and television personalities. He and a couple of other silly boys had invented this ritual of entering the class by saying a  password which, by the way was to be changed every week. Funny as it had seemed in the beginning, it was now getting on our nerves.

 “Raul Gonzalez  Blanko!” we said in unison, in most bored voices.

“Well done girls!” he said.

 “Yeah Yeah, we are absolutely proud of ourselves!” I muttered sarcastically. As we proceeded towards our desk,, we heard a commotion at the back of the class. Before even turning round, I knew it could be none other than Avtar and Amitayu.  Avtar was the boy who fitted the description of Harry Potter to the last hair, with his round spectacles and untidy mass of hair. He was a great football fan and talked only about the teams and jerseys and the star football players. His favourite pastime was teasing the girls and singing funny, outdated songs which made everyone laugh. Amitayu was a different matter altogether. When I had first arrived at the school, it had taken me at least six months to interact with him. He had been one of those kind of boys who do not make friends  with girls and are usually confined with the men-folk. But as time  passed, we had started talking to each other and I had found that despite his tough exterior, on the inside, he was an extremely sweet and caring person. The only scary thing about Amitayu was his temper! If ever he flared up,he was like an angry bull, with red eyes and uncontrollable behaviour. We constantly advised him about anger management but that was one thing which he thought was beyond him. At this particular moment, he was thrashing around the tables and chairs in mock violence and Avtar was covering him with an imaginary camera made up of his rolled up right-hand and  the circled palm of the left-hand being the lens!  “Yes, ladies and gentlemen, please pay attention. This species can be very very destructive and dangerous! It is seldom found in other parts of the world but we have managed to capture one just for you to seeeeeee!”

“Give me a break!” I said, turning back to my desk.

“Have a Kit-Kat!”,Pratishtha’s voice could be heard as she entered the class, her hair plastered in a tight plait.

“Hee Hee! Wow Pratishtha!” Sakshi  giggled, “Don’t you look smashing!”

“Arrey! Sunita didi plaited it too tightly, “she said, pulling at the end of her braid. Sunita didi was a shy, very dear maid who assisted Gopal Bhaiya in his chores. “What do you know, its hurting also! I say that’s one hell of a Discovery channel going on at the back of our class!”

We settled down at our desks and waited for Mrs Ghosh, our class teacher to arrive. “Hey fatso!” I  jumped and squealed at loud exclaimation near my ear. I picked up the class duster and threw it at Avtar.

“What??” I shouted at him.

“...Be good fatso! Otherwise you are not going to get this from me.” I looked at his hand to see what he was holding up. It was a cold-drink cap with the Indian cricketer- Rahul Dravid’s picture inside it. “Eeeeeeeeee!!” I jumped up and shouted “Gimme, gimme gimme gimmeeeeeeeeeee!” Laughing, he flung it at me and took his seat just as Mrs. Ghosh entered the class and closed the door. We had been assigned just one class teacher after the previous year when more than half of our class had moved to various other schools. When our senior batch had reached class tenth i.e the year of the board exams, there had been some delay in the allotment of affiliation to Pride. Some people were anxious by this happening, but Pride was soon granted ICSE Board and our board year went off very smoothly and well .

However, After the ICSE year, many students left for different schools, leaving a total of nine boys and girls in the class 11th. Even-though the strength of our class had diminished rather dramatically , we bonded well and had a lot of fun. The boys- Avtar, Amitayu, Vyankatesh and Aniket had chosen the science stream. Four of the five  girls, Sonal, Sakshi, Pratishtha and I , were in the commerce stream. Our ninth classmate, Khushboo,  was the sole taker of the Arts stream. English language  was compulsory for everyone and was taught by Mrs. Ghosh. At first it seemed weird when just nine of us were left in our class, but we slowly adjusted and then became very comfortable in our smaller  group! We were the only batch having such a low strength. Classes junior to us all had a good average strength of 25-30 students!

"PART-2"

                                           PART- 2

“ Maa!! I am leaving!!” I shouted from the doorway, swinging my bag over my shoulder and stuffing the left-over stack of toast in my mouth, as I ran down the stairs of my multi-storeyed building towards my bus-stop!

 “ Have you taken the house-keyyyyyys??? I have a meeting in school, today,” my mom shouted after me from our balcony. I shouted back in the affirmative and proceeded towards the crossroads at the end of our street where my bus would soon arrive to pick me up! Shama  Aunty was already standing on the stop with both her boys. I had settled down well in Pride after the first few months. To my delight, as I had anticipated, all the popular girls had befriended me and I had soon, very comfortably moulded myself as one of their number. Today, I was a confident, smart and a blooming eleventh grader and the past three years at Pride had been like a dream!

 I had come to love my school more and more with each passing day and felt that I was meant to be at this place more than anywhere else. It was a model school! The kind you read about in books, but in reality such schools don’t exist. The teachers were just like your friends. They conversed with the students ,not as strict and distant members of the faculty, but in the midst of piles of laughter, sitting on the front desk before Assembly, sometimes even asking if anybody had a spare piece of candy which they could enjoy after classes! The workers like the maids and bus conductors had strictly to be addressed as ‘didis’ and ‘bhaiyas’.  I soon learnt to exchange with them the same respectful greetings which we were expected to share with the teachers.

Pride was  a large, warm, happy family where everyone was equal and close to each other and of which I had also become a proud and prominent member! I had three very special best-friends too. Sonal-  a loving, helpful girl with long hair and hazel eyes. We had started calling Sonal “ mumma” because she was always so caring and homely by nature, taking care of us and fussing over us all like a mother. We used to tease her that she would be a perfect wife someday as she was flawless in all the house-hold chores like cooking and tidying up. Another one was Sakshi – a sweet looking, extremely fair girl with a gentle voice who was basically an introvert. Shy around most people,  with  us, her close ones, she would be a mischievous prankster! And lastly was Pratishtha, who had initially seemed extremely bossy and snobbish but once I got to know her well, I realized that she was harmless! In fact she was one of those people who unintentionally make people laugh with their entertaining remarks. Pratishtha was a jovial soul who could be as absent-minded and forgetful at times as she could be brainy and smart. She was not at all ladylike , rather she was rough and tough and tom boyish in her mannerisms! All in all, I made these three great friends and our rapport with the rest of the class was good as well! Thus, our so called ‘gang’ was popular and liked and cool  and we had great fun at school!

“Hi Shama Aunty, Good morning! Hi Arkam! Hiiiii Shhufeeee!” I said, cuddling Shama aunty’s young toddler, as I arrived at the bus-stop and placed my heavy bag on the tiled pavement by the road. I had befriended Shama Aunty in the tenth grade when she had started coming to the bus-stop to drop off her elder son Arkam.

Shama aunty was a beautiful lady who was  just twenty-seven! She was born and brought up in USA ,had married early and shifted to India with her husband. She was always dressed in a black burkha and had the prettiest and most charming face with lovely features. She spoke English with a heavy American accent, but her Hindi was also fluent and delightful to hear! She had two sons- Arkam, the elder one who was a shy, chubby boy with spiky hair. He had joined class 4th in the senior school the previous year and his very cute younger brother Sufiyaan looked just like a fluffy bunny rabbit! I had found a great friend in Shama Aunty as the age difference between us was not very vast and had also visited her place many times in the evenings for long, fun chat sessions. Today she was fidgeting with the zipper of Arkam’s school bag and turned to smile at me as she finally finished her task.

 “Hi  Mallika! I thought you weren’t gonna come today. I was just about to send Arkam to ask.”

 “Naah! Just got a little late,” I said, “ Wouldn’t want to miss school . I had never imagined that someone can actually like their school, but to my surprise I just love mine! By the way, I saw you and Arkam near Anand Bazaar yesterday!”

 “Yeah!” she said, “ I had taken him to see the doctor. He has a touch of cold.  Oh! Here comes your bus now! Maybe you can come over to our place in the evening. I am trying a new chicken recipe today and i know how you love non-veg.  Arkam don’t run beta!”

I promised Shama aunty that I would be there and picking up the school bag, ushered Arkam towards the edge of the road. We both waved bye to Shama Aunty and Sufiyan and hopped onto the huge yellow bus! I was the only Eleventh grader who took the bus on this route so I usually chose to sit alone on a back seat, but today as I advanced towards the back of the bus, I saw Vyankatesh too onboard. He was a dusky, lanky boy from my class and was sitting on an empty seat, with a gigantic blue bag on his lap. He was chewing gum as usual, gazing out of the window. He was known all over the school for his wit and great sense of humor!

 “Hi Vyankatesh!” I exclaimed, plopping onto the empty seat besides him, “How come you are travelling by this bus today? Missed your usual bus?”

 “No no!” he answered, “ We have shifted to a new locality in Anup Nagar. I will be taking this route from now on!?”

“ Great!” I exclaimed, “ So missing Arshad?” I asked, referring to his best friend of many years who had recently moved to Canada.

“Verrrrrry!” The forty-five minute journey to school passed well with Vyankatesh keeping me company. We had interacted in the class numerous times with everyone else but it had always been casual one line exchanges like “Pass the ball!” during the mixed sports sessions, or arguing about the subject in the class group discussion but today, we really talked at length to each other for the first time and we had good fun laughing together at the stories Vyankatesh told me about the science- whiz Arshad’s cockroach collection!

Friendship!!

There were two teachers assigned for taking our sports classes. Mr. Sanjay who took  the boys’ sessions and a young, lanky teacher with curly hair named Ms. Chitralekha, for the girls. I was most relieved that mercifully, the boys (who obviously had to be perfect at every sport) and the girls played separate games in each class.This feeling of relief was short lived and only lasted until I saw the girls in my class actually play! Most of the girls were really proficient at every sport!! During my first game of hockey, I just stood in the middle of the field,  lamely holding  the smallest and slightly damaged hockey stick in my hand. (This broken stick  was the only one left after the girls had attacked the bunch and taken the good ones). I remained in the center of the field keeping well out of the way of the violent, running girls and the middle aged bulky, dark hockey instructor who was  dressed in a dark blue track suit. His name was Mr. Yadav. Except for a few, all the girls were playing fiercely and after the first 3 minutes, the captain of my team, a tall girl with a long plait whose name I knew was Gaganpreet, took my hand and led me to the corner of the field and told me to stay there for the next 45 minutes! It was the same fate with football, basketball and cricket when I encountered them for the first time. There were a few girls who seemed not to have picked up the game and they just stood on their team’s side of the field and hardly ever touched the ball. I was determined not to be included in this category and tried harder and harder with each game and by the time my first month at the school had passed, I had managed to rectify  my lousy reputation and  at least the teams were beginning to pick me for their defence position after the star players had already been picked! The one exception was Basketball, which I never managed to enjoy till the last day of my time at school because of my inconveniently short height! On the whole, I was settling down well and playing basketball once a week was not going to hold me back!

August had arrived by now and it brought my favourite Monsoon season along with it! The microphones with long stands had been introduced in Assembly which made the news, announcements and Mr. Gajendra’s singing, audible through the deafening sound of the rain and thunder. It was very dark inside the school building during that season. but the hard rain lashing on the glass window-panes all around made a noisy, lovely sound. The classrooms got darker and seemed dingier too, forcing us to feel sleepy and daydream during the lessons.

 For the activity class, we were divided into the three groups consisting of randomly selected students. The first group went to Mrs. Vandana , (a stern looking lady)  for Arts, the second one to Mrs. Anuradha Solanki, (who seemed to be really popular with the girls) for dance and the third group to Mr. Gajendra for Music! Each term, the groups rotated and moved to the next activity. This way every child was involved in each activity. I was in the third group for my first term and went to Mr. Gajendra for music. He was a very friendly and pleasant person and referred to me as “Naya Ladki” (The new girl!) as he said he is not good with remembering names. To this day, he continues to address me by this very name. During the first few classes, he had arranged us in the choir and made us sing songs. All the students seemed to know every song well and sang with enthusiasm. Mr. Gajendra had the singers chosen and the latter were given the high pitched portions of the songs to sing. There were three star singers in my group- Natasha who, everybody said resembled me a lot with her short hair and spectacles, Pratisha , the same bossy girl who had questioned me on my first day  and Saloni, an ever smiling, short girl with very wavy hair! Mr. Gajendra had once asked me to sing a line on my own but I was very coy and politely requested to be let off saying I had a bad throat! Today, however, instead of asking us to sing, we were asked to select a musical instrument each, which we would be learning to play,before we moved on to another activity. I immediately ran and picked up a pair of tablas and made my way to the back of the room. Mr. Gajendra seemed to be amused by my choice and pointed it out to me asking why I had not picked up a simpler instrument say, like a flute! Smiling, I just shrugged my shoulders casually and moving away, muttered to myself – “To keep my asthma under control!” In my opinion, it was a pretty lame joke but to my absolute amazement, Pratisha trotted towards me and ruffled my hair saying- “Sooo funny!”. Other students- Natasha, Saloni, her very fair best friend Sakshi, a boy named Arshad, a tall girl named akanksha  were all laughing too! I grinned at all of them and winked but going back to my instrument, I scratched my head and wondered what exactly I had said to amuse them so! That day, in the lunch period, I was invited by Pratisha and her friends to sit besides them.  Elated, I joined them at once , but also tried not to look at the faces of my old friends sitting at the other end of the table. They were the people who had been really nice to me at the time when nobody would even speak to me, and now, they were also the people whom I had just selfishly deserted for the new ones!

"Settling Down!"

 My initial anxiety of joining a new school subsided after the first few days when I could successfully find my way around the campus. I immersed myself in the fascinating  series of Harry Potter books  which I was introduced to here itself. At home, my mom and my sister  had to literally pull me away from these books to make me eat, drink, sleep and do my homework! My dad had passed away a decade ago when I was just nine years old. Since then mom had single-handedly been taking care of us. My sister Radhika is three years older than me and was then in her first year of the college. Both she and my mother were very glad that I was liking my new school and kept asking me how my day was, how much I liked  my teachers and who my new friends were !

 Speaking of whom, that was a matter of opinion actually! My classmates seemed to be a set of smart and confident people! They were at the same time, also supremely unconcerned about the new student who had joined their class! It would have been good if I wouldn’t have been the only new addition to the class that session because I noticed that all the girls were already pre-divided into either groups or pairs amongst themselves and their whole attitude clearly screamed to me that they were not willing to add any new member to their personal territories! Most of them had not even made an effort to talk to me and judging by the way they simply looked past me, I might have been as good as invisible! The boys were more united than the girls but then, they were most oblivious about anything going around them apart from sports. 

It did not take me more than a couple of days to figure out that the female strength of this class was unanimously divided into two major sections- “The popular and the cooler group of girls” and “ The not-so-popular -group of girls”. The former kept to themselves and did not interact with the latter at all! The second group was friendlier to me and I made a few friends with whom I could hang around in the break times but secretly and selfishly, I longed to switch over to the other group. I knew that it would take some time to make my place there. This was my first experience with the classroom politics and I planned to handle it well! If the girls ignored me, I ignored them back! If asked a question  , I answered coolly, as if my time was being wasted! It was childish and silly but slowly and steadily, it was beginning to work. I knew that the girls had begun to notice me and I was certainly not complaining! I mostly kept to myself at the school but in the class, I volunteered confidently to the questions which teachers asked. Being an avid reader, I was good at the languages and soon became one of the better students of these classes. Math was still a problem and I was really struggling with it! I knew that I must be Mrs. Pandey’s worst nightmare ever! I dreaded the Math classes everyday and on the days when we had a double class, I literally had to drag my feet to the school, wishing that Mrs. Pandey would be absent, (which rarely ever happened)!

Science was not one of my best areas either, but it was better than Math as it comprised not of the complicated formulae and tables, but of the theory which I could at least mug-up. The fact that It had not yet been diversified into Physics, Chemistry and Biology but was one combined subject, also helped matters. Our science teacher was a very sweet, playful man called Mr. Manish Sinha. He was a fair, bald and child-like person, with twinkling eyes and laughter just like Santa-claus –Ho Ho Ho! It was very sweet (and a bit strange) how he treated us like young kids. For instance to capture the attention of the noisy class he would say- “Now ,will everybody please look at Mr. Sinha’s beauuuuutiful face!??”  or “Now I am going to tell you a thing which only two people in this whole wide world know...”, he used to say, while making a huge imaginary circle, swinging his hand  to signify the world, “ Do you know who these two people are??...APJ Abdul Kalaaaaaaam.........aaaaaaaand.....Mr. Sinhaaaaaaaaaa”. He once made us draw a colourful picture of dinosaurs each on drawing sheets holding which, as a group we were all made to recite a poem in the assembly, called “Dinosaur, dinosaur, where do you live?” on the tune of “pussycat, pussycat”, the popular nursery rhyme.

The boys, in particular  found it a bit unnerving to be treated like a bunch of six year olds but personally, I found Mr. Sinha very sweet and lovable, just like a teddy-bear!

History was taken by Mrs. Bhan herself who really brought it alive by   often connecting historic events with personal tales related to her family and acquaintances. She told us about the time when she was a child and was asked to present a ‘Thali’ of fruit to a very aged, bald person sitting with her father wearing only a flimsy dhoti and nothing else. She asked her mother- “Mummy, why is this man wearing no clothes?” and her mother had shushed her and said “Lila, Do not talk about him that way! He is Gandhiji, the most respected and loved  freedom  fighter of our country. He is here to discuss some important issues with your father!”. Stories like this made our history classes all the more alive and interesting! Mrs. Bhan was a lively and a patient teacher! She made sure that each child participated in her class and was always eager and excited to listen to the views of everybody present there even if they were a bit off-the-track and irrelevant!! Sometimes, all the students would enthusiastically shout out their answers all at once, making Mrs. Bhan turn still and absolutely stationary, with her index finger on her lips and her eyes closed, until the class quietened down itself!

On the other hand , Dr. Bhan’s reasoning lessons were one hour of uncommanded, pin-drop silence and the students’ undivided attention! He asked us to solve one mathematical or a general puzzle in each of his classes, which was usually very confusing but, the answers seemed pretty obvious and easy, once he had showed us how to work it out! Dr. Bhan, I noticed, had a dry, sarcastic sense of humour! He had a strict way of handling the class but he also cracked unexpected jokes from time to time, which made everybody but himself, laugh loudly! The fact that his face remained serious , not showing as much a flicker of even a tiny smile, while the people around him laughed and laughed, made the situation even more hilarious! I remember once when one of our classmates, Hardik was caught staring absent-mindedly out of the window by Dr. Bhan, he said to him in his Kashmiri accented Hindi –“MOSAM (mausam!)  SUHANAA  HAI , AAP  BAHAAR  HI CHALE JAAIYE!” (i.e Since the weather is so lovely, you should go outside only!). It is one of our most special memories associated with Dr. Bhan! Thus, my academic graph was balanced because of my good language skills on one hand and my very poor performance in Math! Sports ,on the other hand, were a different matter altogether!

"Teachers!"

The rest of the day went off pretty comfortably!! There were seven classes in a day with a short snack break after the second period and the lunch break after the fifth!! The snacks and the lunch were served on the first floor where long tables and benches were arranged in rows for the students . There was a glass of flavoured milk served with the heavy snacks both of which I enjoyed thoroughly! I noticed that after finishing our meal, we had to say, “Excuse me please!” to the people sitting around one before departing. I found this really unusual and rather nice! During both the recesses, in the time after we had finished our meals, I explored the school with Pari who  was only too happy to enlighten me as we roamed around. There were many classes on the first floor too, along with the chemistry and the physics lab. There was also a fine library which I was impatient to explore as soon as possible! Above it, on the terrace there were three rooms – for Music, Art and Dance. The smaller building had the junior classes from 4th to 6th and the senior classes were in the main ‘castle’ building. The junior school (where my mother worked) was located in another area of the town called Dhar-kothi and there, classes from KG upto the Third grade  were held!

We reached the grounds, where students were playing or sitting and chatting. I came to know that the enclosed, dusty fields which I had seen earlier were the hockey fields!! In my previous school, we were never made to play sports and games! As a result I had never even touched a basketball or a football (leave alone a hockey stick!) ever before in my life and here to my absolute horror , I learnt that we had compulsory sports periods twice or thrice a week where we were made to play every sport, even cricket!! There was no option of getting out of it! The thought of myself making an absolute fool of myself in front of everybody, made my stomach recoil!

Many of the teachers did not start any studies on the first day but just got to know the students and played games with the classes in their respective periods. Our English teacher was a prim and a proper Bengali lady with short hair cut and conspicuous, round cheeks.  Everything about Mrs. Ghosh, from her neatly folded handkerchief tucked in the sleeve of her blouse, to the last pleat of her crisp, starched Tangail saree was perfect and in place! I had met her once previously during my entrance exam and she recognized me instantly ! After making the class meditate for a minute (which I later discovered was her ritual!), she made me stand in front of the class and say a few lines to introduce myself! After I had finished, she asked the class if they had any questions for me. A bossy girl sitting in the front row raised her hand and asked me, “Why did u left your old school?”

Mrs. Ghosh  interjected , “Pratisha, it’s- Why did u leeeave your old school, not left!”

I answered her question, but apperently this Pratisha had already lost interest in my previous school and was staring right out of the window, squinting at a faraway passing truck! I resumed my seat and heard Mrs. Ghosh revising the basics of grammar with the class.

The other lessons went smoothly as well and mercifully no other teacher called on me to introduce myself again. Mrs. Pandey came to take the double math class and picked out the students to recite the tables at a fast pace. I had always detested Maths and prayed hard that she would pick me before the table of 12 . But as my luck would have it, she picked me for the table of 13 and I apprehensively started..13...26...39...52...ummm...52...she told me sit down and advised me to learn all the tables till twenty. So, not a very good first impression, I thought to myself!!

 Hindi was taken by a humorous, entertaining,  short male teacher with a dark complexion whom I recognized immediately as Mr. Arun Singh as he had taught me for a year at my previous school in the second standard ! He did not recall me obviously, but after enquiring my name, he asked me if i was ‘Swati ji’s daughter’ and said-“Aapka humare school mei swaagat hai!”, making me feel welcome on my first day!

The last two periods after lunch were library periods .After my library card had been made and a new page had been assigned to me in the  register by Ms. Sanghi, a frail, stern looking librarian in her late fifties, I busied myself exploring the books on the different shelves and immediately got two newly published Nancy Drews issued in my name. Library seemed to be a relaxing time for the class. Students were sitting around on the long desks and holding whispered chat sessions with their friends throughout the double period till the last bell of the day rang. Sitting in the bus with Pari, on my way home, I wished that I would soon settle down and get fully moulded as one of these, laughing and joking children sitting all around me!!

"Assembly"

“  Good morning class!! ” Mrs. Pandey said, “It’s good to see you all back!!We are your class teachers and welcome you to the eighth standard!” There was an uproar of “ Thank -you Ma’ams!!” from the class.  “Shall I take your attendance now!?” One by one, she called out the names of each student to which the latter answered-“Present Mam!”When my name was called out and as I squeaked -“Present!” ,Mrs Johri said, smilingly-“ Well! We have a new student with us this year. Mallika Bhandary.”(A few heads turned in my direction and away again) “Be friendly with her, all of you!”  “And..” ,Mrs Pandey added, her eyes twinkling towards a couple of boys sitting in the front row, “I hope this year I can expect very sensible and mature behaviour from some of you!” The boys in question rolled their eyes and laughed aloud!

As the first bell of the day went off (  it was an electric one and I wondered to myself what was the traditional one there for ), students started getting up and forming a line. It was Assembly time!! I got up and walked to the door. Standing behind a couple of shorter girls,I smiled to myself! I had finally arrived at Pride Education, and fortunately, without a bang too!!

Assembly was held outside in the large porch  under the covered walkway that connected the ‘castle’ to another building. The students stood  class wise, in long, horizontal lines. The junior most class was stood  right at the front just near the stairs leading to the smaller building. A vast landing on top of the stairs was also adorned with plants . A small table on the top of which sat a harmonium, was at its side! The senior-most class was right at the back, almost reaching the steps of the foyer at the other end of the porch! My class was quite far back too as ours was the next in seniority. Pride was not an old school. Our seniors were to be the first batch to pass out from school. Thus, even the strength of the school was smaller than most other schools. I knew that it was a deliberate school policy to keep the strength of each section to a limited number. That explained the close-knit environment of this place!

Gradually, the buzz of the Assembly hall subsided as the headmistress- Mrs. Lila Bhan came out of the main building and proceeded towards the steps below the landing, facing the children. Even now, I just need to close my eyes and I can see Mrs Bhan striding along the side of the assembled students, her hands behind her, her face breaking into a lovely smile from time to time, as she spotted  familiar  faces. As she passed by us, I caught the waft of her perfume for the first time! It is still one of the best fragrances I have ever inhaled! Till date, if my friends and I come across a familiar fragrance, we immediately become nostalgic and yearn to get enclosed, once again, in her warm hug which was once the safest place in the world for us to be in!

As she finally reached the platform and stood smiling, just with her index finger on her lips, not saying a word, I carefully took in Mrs. Bhan’s appearance! She must have been in her late fifties, then, and was quite tall. She was dressed gracefully in a light, sky-blue cotton saree. My mother had told me that she was a Kashmiri and she absolutely looked like one with her very fair, milky complexion! She wore dangling, silver earrings, and several silver bangles clinked as she moved her arms. Her black hair was casually tied up with a matching blue clip and her black eyes twinkled as she shook her head and gestured towards a particularly naughty child to be quiet! This very image always pops into my mind whenever Mrs. Bhan is mentioned or when I think of her. Her entire demeanour and expression showed her loving devotion for children and I instantly  felt an inner tug towards her.

As the last of the voices eventually died down, Mrs. Bhan looked at the young, very dark teacher standing amongst his colleagues  , who taking two steps at the time, jogged and reached the platform to take his position behind the harmonium. “What are we going to sing today, Mr. Gajendra?” Mrs. Bhan asked him, and after hearing his softly whispered reply, said-“Children! We will sing “Hum bane Mahaan!”

Mr. Gajendra struck a low note on the instrument and tilting his head upwards a bit towards the students, began to sing the hymn. The students, taking the cue, joined in unison and the whole place boomed with the synchronized singing of the song!

I obviously did not yet know the words to the hymn, so I stood silently with my head bowed, occasionally joining in the song whenever the chorus lines–“ Hum bane...Hum bane...hum bane Mahaan!!!..”! were repeated . After the song , Mrs. Bhan thanked the young music teacher who bashfully bowed in return before descending the steps.  She faced the students and said- “Goodmorning children! Its wonderful to see all of you back after a long and relaxing summer break!” She spoke in a  pleasant sounding English. “Now, I  understand that u will all take a couple of days to settle down again to the school routine.l look forward to your settling  down soon and working really  hard and participating in the other activities of the school! Okayy???  Now, as it is only the first day of the new session, I don;t think I have any more announcements to make.. so off u go!! Enjoy your first day back !”.

One by one, the teachers started leading the children back to their classes. As we retreated to our class-room, we passed an elderly person standing at the entrance of the foyer, with both his hands on his waist, his mouth pressed into a thin, straight line. He nodded curtly as the students wished him “ Good-morning! ”  He had the kind of salt-and pepper hair I had seen recently in a Hollywood movie with the same moustache to match and the immediate impression I got when I saw him for the first time was that he wasn’t the person whom I would want to get in trouble with! “Who’s he?” I asked my only confidante, Pari.

“That’s Dr. Bhan, he takes  our reasoning lessons. He is Mrs. Bhan’s husband and they both look after this school.” Reflecting my thoughts, she added-  “You wouldn’t want to cross Dr. Bhan ever, haan!! He is really, really strict!”

 I greeted  him along with the other students and hurried towards the classroom to attend my first lesson!

The First day!!

Having asked several people for directions, I slowly made my way to my new classroom. Right outside the main building hung a huge brass bell which I guessed must be used for announcing the end of the lessons. The first thing I noticed, upon entering the main building, was a magnificent staircase! It was very wide with a gleaming, polished and stylish wooden banister on both the sides and grey coloured steps. As it rose, it split into two directions, both leading to the first floor . There was a huge landing in the middle from where the stairs divided. A large aquarium was placed on the landing behind which a large painting hung proudly on the wall. I saw that all the white walls of the building were adorned with beautiful paintings by various artists   and also, the pots of green plants kept at regular distances besides the wall gave the interior a pleasant and a lively look. Two corridors on the either side of the staircase had the entrances of numerous classes open on to them!

The bag on my back swung rhythmically as I hesitantly wended my way towards my classroom amidst the swarming students. I stooped for a fleeting moment at each doorway to read the board above each class to find the one in which I belonged. Then, right at the end of the east corridor I finally found it!!-  CLASS-VIII! This was it! I felt my heart pound as I pushed aside the curtains covering the doorway and entered the class! The classroom was large and the view from the windows delightful! There were wide, dark-blue desks each with four matching blue chairs. The blackboard was not black at all but a pale shade of green. Half of it was plain and the other half had squares like graph paper-  obviously to be used for mathematics. A long, steel chest with shelves, which were completely empty at that moment, covered most of one side of the class! I was fascinated by a little round enclosed area diagonally opposite the door, which I soon discovered  later was the gift of the castled- shape interior to the four classes situated at the each corner of the building! 

The class was filled with chattering and laughing boys and girls who were creating a racket in the temporary absence of a teacher. Some boys were playing with a small ball made of a handkerchief. As I gingerly stepped in to this scene they all noticed me and stared as I passed them. I felt like an alien from mars whom earthlings were looking over to  assess ! I recognized one face .That of a dusky girl from my bus! She came over  to where I was sitting  on an empty, secluded chair. “Hi!!”, she said “ My name is Pari ! I saw you in the bus and wondered if you were in our class. What’s your name?” Some of my tension subsided as I answered her questions. She took the chair besides me and started enquiring about my previous school. The rest of the class had gone back to their previous activities, occasionally turning their heads to steal a glance at me! I was grateful for Pari’s company and soon got into a comfortable banter with her. I also greeted another girl  ,Ankita Banerjee, who had been my classmate in my previous school years ago!! We greeted each other and eventually, I began to relax. My “ fearful” phase was over! I had found my class, made a couple of acquaintances and had overcome all the “that’s - a -new- girl!” looks without any mishaps.

The arrival of two teachers immediately lowered the noise level of the class. There was an instantaneous scraping and screeching of the chairs as all the students took their seats! I sat down with Pari and she showed me how to place my bag in the cubby-hole of the desk. As the class quietened down, I studied the two teachers who had come to the front of the class! One of them was tall and slender and had a smiling face. She seemed to be in her early forties and was dressed in a pink and orange salwaar-kameez! The second teacher  , who had on a bottle green salwar kameez, was a plump, rosy faced lady. She checked the attendance register ,not using her glasses which were comfortably perched on top of her head. Pari whispered in my ear-“The ma’am in pink is Mrs Seema Johri. She takes Geography and the other one is Mrs Sandhya Pandey! She teaches Math! They must be our class-teachers for this session!