Wednesday, March 29, 2006

school

I rarely think of school days. Today my art partner's samosa reminded me of a friend that used to steal them from the canteen! And that seemed to open a little trap door in my head to a time when I wore two plaits and a very unbecoming blue pinafore.

i

The quadrangle is flooded.
Blue pinafores hitched up at the knees
And unpolished, dusty, Bata shoes
Suddenly glisten
polished by dirty puddles of rain water
Braids are straightened – one fat and one thin
Meenakshi never gets them right
The uniform monitor scrutinises us
And we say a silent thanks to the rain
For shining our shoes
If only it had washed away the nail polish
We think, kneeling outside our classroom

ii

Fountain Pepsi arrives at school
We queue and jostle
School bags are upturned for loose change
Bus and lunch money is spent
One Pepsi is purchased
And passed around
We feel like college boys sharing a cigarette
And giggle

iii

Our
class
is
standing
single
file
in
the
prayer
hall
I
Open
One
Eye
And
See
The
Oiled
hair
of
the
Girl
Before
me.
two
head
lice
crawl
out
single
file
and
look
at
me.
i
think

21 comments:

Someone Somewhere Out There said...

Oh my God.. thank you!!
I was reminded of the mad scramble to clean away the nailpolish on a Monday morning.. much before the removers made their way to becoming an everyday presence on my dressing table.

Thank you for this post :)

Anonymous said...

thank god i dint study in a girls skool....lolz...

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

someone somehere - you're welcome :)

1$st - well unless you shaved your chest and grew breasts i don't see how you'd be let inside one :P

Alpha said...

hehe at a 'pain' staring at you.. cute.

Inkblot said...

gosh, that brings back a flood of memories!

I like the one word per line technique.

and when was the last time you braided your hair? :)

Anonymous said...

Hehe, cute !

Raj said...

That last stanza was brilliant!

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

alpha - but gross :)

inkblot - thanks! i braided my hair last night actually! but one braid not two :D

ash, raj - thanks!

Premalatha said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Premalatha said...

doesn't ahead have a "movement" in it?
doesn't "in front of me" sound as if "she is looking at me and I am looking at her"?

I think "before" sounds right

but, what do I know about "English"? :-)

Anonymous said...

The lice certainly brought back memories.

Someone Somewhere Out There said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Someone Somewhere Out There said...

One satisfying part of being a writer is how others feel when they read your stuff. The other, slightly more satisfying emotion is when you provide inspiration to other writers. One word of this post stuck in my head for so long, and came out in a post I wrote.
http://theangelsareoutthere.blogspot.com/2006/03/sometimes.html

I hope you dont mind.. :) Please read and let me know what you think!

Someone Somewhere Out There said...

ok I cant get the link to show up completely :) Please click on
http://theangelsareoutthere.blogspot.com

and read post titled "Sometimes"

thanks :)

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

tcc - hmm good question! i think premalatha has an answer! :)

premalatha - wow! that's a pretty indepth answer! thanks :)

mumbaigirl - ugh! one of the worst things about school

someone, somewhere - that's such a nice thing to say! thanks. I read your piece. It's lovely.

dazedandconfused said...

wow, totally relate to the fountain pepsi piece! Minus the giggles, of course...

Shammi said...

You a Rosary Matric girl, Shoof? :)

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

d&c - :)

shyam - no! keep guessing...

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