Wednesday, February 27, 2008

She wonders

Do schools still have Moral Science lessons? Is there still a Music hour? Are children forced to learn Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram and write essays on Cleanliness is next to Godliness? Do canteens still sell vegetable puffs and bread channa so greasy the oil soaks right through the paper plate? Are uniforms still as unattractive as they were all those years ago? Is there still English I and English II? Do class seven students reading the unabridged version of Twelfth Night still giggle when Lady Olivia falls in love with Cesario? Do Book Depot Aunties still insist on being called Ma’am even though they don’t teach? Did teachers still yank at long oiled braids when homework hasn’t been done? Does ‘Fingers on your lips’ still echo through cobwebbed corridors? Do knees still carry the imprint of sand and gravel stone? Do dispensary sanitary napkins still look like balls of cotton wrapped in gauze? Do fingers still carry the stains of Royal Blue ink? Are Schaeffer pens still waved imperiously in the faces of Reynold bearing mortals? Do March Past and Mass Drill still strike terror in the hearts of the fairest of the fair? Do students still cheer as half days are announced when school correspondent’s die? Do notebooks still slide surreptitiously in to bags as the clock hands inch towards the end of a day? Is chapathi kurma still looked at longingly by children who are sent idli molagapodi?
Do all these things seem wonderful only because they are all so long ago in the past?

14 comments:

SUR NOTES said...

well you have pretty much described every memory of mine, except the chapati korma one!

and you did icse? eng 1! and eng 2!
we did merchant of venice not twelth night.

SUR NOTES said...

hey hope you dont mind, have linked this post on my blog.

- said...

Hi there...lovely post, wonderfully constructed...am quite new to blog reading...Keep writing many post...will visit whenever I get time :)

-Peace

Anna said...

Just some of my thoughts...As you like it, twlefth night...Flights of fantasy!!!

shakester said...

ah, nice one, that. makes me want to shamelessly write one of my own- random images not strung together by a particular thread

ammani said...

Superlative stuff this! The last line's a killer.

Anonymous said...

Wow Shoefie, great post, liked it a lot

Deepika Patil said...

Oh! Memories!!!....
We had Julius Caesar...

shub said...

"Do all these things seem wonderful only because they are all so long ago in the past?"
Been meaning to make a post on this. We always tend to romanticise stuff that's either in the past or in the country that used to be home once upon a time...

shub said...

and yes, lovely post :)

La vida Loca said...

so long ago yet not really.
lovely!

Anonymous said...

Do sports day still roast kids to deep brown?
Did we go to the same school?

Oracle said...

On blogs nothing works like a little dash of nostalgia!

Good read though

PriyatRaj said...

Very nice! That "sanitary napkins looking like balls of cotton wrapped in gauze" just blindsided me. Gosh! I had almost forgotten!!