Wo Sunahre Din ~ by Amrit Swain

A cup of coffee in my hand on the balcony, looking intently at the school bus honking loud outside our gates. Out goes my darling, my son, waiting for an instance at the gates, waving me and shouting BYE PAPA before boarding the bus.

It's not a weekday, Saturday being off, I'm drawn to those old memories of my school days, WOW... those were the days, no bus no honking, Cuttack waking up to the school crowd. Speeding on my bicycle to school just to make it before 8:45 AM. The usual assembly, prayers and announcements. Rushing to the classroom and making sure the left over homework is done before the teacher enters for attendance. The whole day just goes by at snails pace with some exciting classes and some pretty boring classes as well.

Those days were only filled with my mischievousness, I was not having any problems in my life, I was a free minded bindaas boy, I had to worry about nothing except a bit about school homework for maths and physics which I felt were scraps and not to forget Mr. Algebr Muqablai, I must have abused him with the choicest of words for what he had invented.

I miss the silly gossips with friends about the girls, movies etc, I miss the fighting with friends for seat, I miss the tiffin which we all used to share with each other and oh yes we used to eat tiffin in the classroom hiding from the teacher that was fabulous. 

When teachers used to ask questions to everyone & how I used to hide my face behind my friend and praying to God "Oh God today not me plz", but God never listened, I used to get caught and the usual scolding (budbak, u'll fail, foolish blah blah blah)

I guess probably everyone had their first crush during school life. I too had. She was a damn beautiful girl and mischievous like me, the issue being, her school was 1 km away from our school. Cupid struck during some tuition classes where students from both the schools were in same batch, being my batch mates i'm sure you all must have guessed it by now, which school I'm referring to. Should end this thought here or my wife would be having me for lunch.

It’s been 25 yrs now but each piece of memory is as vibrant as ever about my school days. Each time I look back, I just remember the FRIENDS who witnessed my days and vice versa, those days will never come back and we have made a lot of friends as well after leaving school but the chord you strike when you meet a school classmate remains unparalleled.

For the love of poems..

21-Mar was World Poetry Day, and I am reminded of the poems we studied in school.

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Night of the Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel
Tiger by William Blake
The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth
She walks in Beauty by Lord Byron

...these are only a few of them.

Thanks to Mr.SP Das, for making us appreciate the beauty in poetry. His classes were magical and he brought out the dreamer in all of us...dreaming with our eyes open, quite literally!!

Nostalgic...

Ides of March...floods me with so many memories...School, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Mr. Patro’s classes in the first period...not in any specific order!

The image of a quiet class comes to my mind, waiting for Sir to enter after the morning assembly. Absolute silence during the entire period, and letting the world of Shakespeare's drama take over... at least for me! How I wish I could see Julius Caesar as a drama, the Romans in all their grandeur with their flowing robes and their arrogant faces! Mark Antony was the hero for me...calm, intelligent, brave. Brutus was stoic.. I remember hearing this word for the first time and how I loved it...I still do.

Cassius the villain and Julius Caesar, of course, who is there throughout, driving all the characters’ even after he is dead. And how can I forget all the beautiful metaphors of Shakespeare.

Ides of March was also the day our ICSE exams began and coincidentally, it was the English papers on that day. Shakespeare was with us on that day too, maybe lurking behind some of the answer sheets!

Those 15 days of the final exams just flew by. Most of us were not mature enough to be aware of how important a milestone it was for us, both in our school life and our academics. We just took on each day as it came, with no baggage from yesterday and no parcel for tomorrow. Exams got over on 1-Apr-1991 and life moved on, albeit with changed priorities and friendships.

I often wonder if we would have behaved any differently during the last few days of school, if we had known that we would not be meeting each other (at least most of us) for more than 2 decades. Would we have interacted more, shown more empathy towards all our classmates, more respect towards our teachers and invested more time in building friendships.

Life has taken numerous twists & turns for all of us, and made us older and wiser through the years. What do we have to say to our children about school life, do we have any experiences/lessons to share which would help them deal with life in a better way! In today's world of virtual friendships, long-distance relationships, can they even relate to our experiences! Thoughts to ponder...