The rickshaws, autos, cycles, cars and bikes causing a jam outside the school as the students and teachers reach, the sounds of ‘Hi’s filling the air as greetings are exchanged with every other person in the class, the showing off of the new pencil box, pen, scale, pencil, school bag, etc. proudly, the hurried copying of the homework from that friend who never fails to come with all the homework completed, the whole class waiting for the teacher to enter as soon as the bell goes off and the few who are so busy in their own world that they don’t even know that the teacher has come.

The voices going ‘Present/ Yes/ Absent/ Yet to Come Ma’am’ everywhere, the morning school prayer, the teachers who never forget about the homework that they had given and those students who don’t have a history of having completed their homework ever, the entire class celebrating the feeling of being let loose when it comes to be known that a teacher is on leave, the class leader minding the class asking everybody to keep quiet and writing down the names of the students who continue to talk unmindful of what the leader is saying, the substitute teacher who comes and spoils all the happiness, the class turning so noisy at the turn of the teacher towards the black board, the teacher whose one glare is enough to silence the whole class, those students who cannot be controlled even by the glaring teacher, those chatterboxes who can do anything and everything except keep quiet during the class hours, the sleep that never fails to make a visit as soon as the teacher starts the class, the bell that always puts an end to this lecturing-glaring-shouting-chatting-sleeping game.

The noise that fills the whole place as soon as the bell indicating the start of the lunch hour goes off, the various stories that are exchanged over food from the lunch boxes during lunch, the ubiquitous sad faces when the lunch period comes to an end, the silence in the class that prevails for most part of the time during the class post-lunch, thanks to you-know-what making even keeping your eyes open a big accomplishment in itself 😉 , the teacher who is an expert when it comes to identifying who is really awake and makes the sleepy heads answer questions about which they have no clue, the start of the countdown to the final bell of the day, the books, notebooks and pens shoved inside the bag in a hurry, all the classrooms getting emptied within a few seconds after the bell goes off – School was fun! Cherishing all those wonderful memories! 🙂