An Unusual Summer Vacation Part-1

Today the chirrup did not wait for the last bell to ring. Unlike other days, when the disciplined silence ruled till the second hour of the noon, corridors were ringing with joyous laughter and chirping. Today was nice and vibrant since the beginning. 

The beginning of the summer vacations marked this palpable difference. The otherwise well-ordered students would walk out in single files, standing in the order of their heights. Trudging towards the boarding school India, they were so aligned that you would wonder if it was an arranged swarm of bees. And yet, the entire charade was unsupervised and as easy going as it could be. You wouldn’t notice a single child go off track. 

But today was different!

At the Noida International School, the afternoon that marked the beginning of the summer vacation was the only occasion when you would find chaos in the school playground. And it was happily accepted. Children running astray waving goodbye, vowing on their friendships and hugging their mates make the scene a hubbub of activity. Soon, the huge iron gates would creak open and kids would run to the open arms of their waiting parents. 

But amid this clamour, Partho lacks the zeal of his mates. He is in no hurry to rush forward. He doesn’t make any attempt to get into the race till the door while everyone is waiting with baited breath for it to open. Neither is he willing to participate in any conversation, for he knows, he will have no summer vacation this year. 

To be continued!... 

The Initial Awkwardness

With privatization of Educational system promoting quality learning, the education sector is surely on a roll. With an upward surge in the economy inviting larger investment in the sector, the number of educational institutes in the country has shot up.

Moreover, immunity to recession to a certain extent, always makes education an investor’s game. Having said so, and understanding the economic value and prospect of the sector the top schools in India are going global. Sieved through decades of cultural resistance, Co- Education is the product of one of these global practices.

  Since I studied in an all- girls school in one of the public schools in Noida , my experience with encountering the “other sex” mostly springs from sharing the same workplace. The initial awkwardness and self- restraint soon transformed into some really healthy personal and professional relationships. It was late but I understood the world is definitely not obsessed with two sexes in a constant combat, but there certainly are some better and critical issues to deal with. I believe it is for this very reason that the top schools in India encourage and stand tall for co- education. Now that I laugh off my past apprehensions, I have learnt my lesson.

I remember having pushed my parents to admit me to a co-ed , since most of the renowned public schools in Noida were a part of the newly dawned on Co-educational system, their only response bordered on to some hypothetical discomfort which will come my way. Conditioned to years of prejudices  and judgements , there is a long way to go for this harmless system to be taken well. Needless to say there are limits to every societal make-up and institution but limits metamorphosizing into prior reservations are a dead end to our unrealized potentials.

Don’t appear this year- part (2)

I was the tiny-miny mice of our group, i was lucky enough to be registered in her good books. She made me the English monitor and i was chiefly responsible for collecting assignment notebooks and projects. I had no choice, but to maintain my assignment notebooks, which none of them would ever make an attempt. Mayank-my best friend out of the eight was though good with his communication skills, would never make an attempt to maintain his CW and HW copies, which unfortunately i had to do. He couldn’t escape speaking in English, we were in one of the best public schools. Be it boarding schools in india or co-education school, communicating in English is a must. At times, would do his homework or classwork, but yes, there were a few days, when i couldn’t make it. On the inspection day, he was caught by Mrs. Goswami and forget the bashing, I could literally recall her exact words that she said to Mayank, Mark my words boy, don’t appear this year, you won’t pass. You should be sent to residential schools in India to learn the basic etiquettes of life and so as your curriculum. 

 And she openly said, i will score A1 followed by him with D2,3 whatsoever. Her words hit him rightly. He did not made any gestures, but kept quiet for a while, which came to us as a shock. The boy who would always pop in here and there was suddenly very quiet. But finally he made it. He proved her wrong. Though he kept pretending as if he is not affected with her words in any way, but he was studying. Finally in boards, i scored 78 and here he is with ‘79’ man. That was the day when i could actually relate to how does it feel your friend fails, but how bad it feels if your best friend score more than you, no matter even if it’s just 1 more mark. Shuks! Shuks! Shuks! All i could say was Okay! I gave you a chance to be happy… but till the day when we meet, he taunts me saying loser…aah! It’s a pain to hear, but we all laugh it aloud…that’s life