My School Life

On a cold winter night sitting alone in my study sipping a cup of hot coffee, I thought of writing a story. The thought that came to my mind was about my school life. Many times I have thought of writing it down but procrastination has always overpowered my will to write. My friends of that time with whom I still have connections have always motivated me to write as they consider my ability to tell a story in an interesting way.

During our school days many of us were boarders and stayed in hostel. Our lives in the hostel was far from what could be called a soft life and we had to do a lot of hard work to make our life liveable and enjoyable.

But there was lot of adventure and we played pranks on one another and even on the teachers.

One prank we had played on one of our teachers comes to mind. Because it was an unique one and never before had anyone tried to be so daring as the class of five. We had just been promoted to class five I remember. Our new geography class was supposed to be taken by a teacher who had recently joined. He was on heavier side on the scales and had to wear plus sized clothing . One of our class mates was very naughty and was in the habit of pulling up practical jokes sometimes with live animals. This time he had brought with him a jumping tree frog and fastened the frogs legs with adhesive tape in the centre of the teacher's chair. As the colour of frog and seat cover was same so it was camouflaged and the frog couldn't jump as it was tied. The teacher unknowingly and innocently sat down on the chair and was about to utter something when all of a sudden he jumped up with a shriek and barged out of the class with a huff. We could see that the frog had somehow got stuck in the rear part of his trouser due to the heavy weight of the oppressor . All the class students roared out in loud laughter. The teacher felt more humiliated. A peon removed the frog with a scale. Then the head master came and scolded us badly and warned us that he would rusticate us all. For two days our geography class was suspended. Then when the class resumed, the new teacher came only after a peon had brought a new chair from the staff room. He never dared to sit on the chair lying in the classroom. 

This practice continued for the full year and became the talk of both the school and the town.

The other prank we played was on our sports teacher I remember. He was getting old and was due for retirement in a couple of months. Our annual sports was taking place. The white marking for the lanes were being made with chalk powder. Our group had taken permission from the sports teacher to do the lane markings. One naughty boy shared his dirty idea with us. Accordingly, the lanes marked as parralel lines suddenly narrowed down and all met at one central point. This remained unnoticed by the sports teacher. When the race events started the small distance races went off well. But when the first long distance race took place, the runners smoothly ran in their individual lanes in the initial part and after further running they all collided and fell one over the other when they reached the point where the lanes had been narrowed down to a point. There was lot of commotion after that. The sports event was on the brink of being called off but then we volunteered to re mark the lanes with white chalk as they are normally done. Later on the sport's teacher was badly reprimanded in front of the whole school by the principal. He was even threatened to be sacked. Seeing the sports teacher almost cry, we apologised in front of the school. The principal scolded us threateningly and called our guardians to complain. After this we never did any harm to anybody. At his retirement speech, our sports teacher acknowledged our skills and treated us with chocolates. We felt truly ashamed but secretly enjoyed our activity.

Another hilarious event needs mention though it was not our creation. Our Hindi teacher motivated us to go to the river bank for one of his literature classes. The school authorities gave him permission. One of the poem's explanation needed the audience to be near a river to experience the true effect of the poet's feeling. After our teacher had completed his class, he felt very enthused by the swift river, so he decided that everyone should have his tiffin beside the river. A cloth was spread just beside the river and we all sat down with our tiffin and started enjoying our little meal there. Our hindi teacher, a strict vegetarian was taking his simple diet of fruits and boiled vegetables there enjoying every bite. The river was full of fish and due to the current in the flow of water, the fish were jumping animatedly in and out of the water. All of a sudden a disaster struck. One enthusiastic fish jumped too high in excitement, came out of the water and fell on the plate of our Hindi teacher. Vegetarian as he was, he jumped up in abhorrence and threw away his disposable plate to the ground. He then quickly vanished from the scene, never to be seen again. We heard later that he had sent his resignation to the principal and that he had sent it through post. We couldn't decide what to do, to be amused or be remorseful. 

One other memorable experience I gathered personally was a few years later. We had become seniors by now and would be leaving school in a couple of years time. We were doing cadet training under the NCC scheme. In this scheme there was a para jumping course for the very fit cadets. It was jumping from an aeroplane in the sky with a parachute tied to the back. After few minutes of jump, the parachute opened and the jumper slowly came down to earth slowly and steadily. I was one such participant and I made the jump one day. It was very challenging and scary at first. I closed my eyes and jumped with my breath suppressed. Then when the parachute opened, I gradually opened my eyes and lo and behold. What a beautiful sight it was. I never had seen my world so beautiful before. It was a bright sunny wintry morning and the surrounding looked so bright and cheerful. I dangled in the air for a little under half hour and slowly came down to earth and I felt I was in heaven if paradise maybe was something like that. But before reaching the ground my parachute guided me on top of an old banyan tree with many widely spread branches. I got myself perched on the top and my para umbrella cloth spread over the branches like a canopy. The banyan tree was the haven of bats and my fall on it disturbed their sleep and rest. They fluttered their wings and shrieked in confusion and started flying out direction less in bright sunshine in absolute discomfort being nocturnal creatures. However, I was soon rescued from my entanglement by my instructors. But this was one exhilarating experience for me to be remembered life time.

Then one day my school life came to an end and I moved on to the bigger life, rich with experience and knowledge.