The Inquisitive Benches

“We’ll remain in touch.” We all said signing our shirts.

And the 14 years old journey ended with high hopes and some regretful thoughts.

I still remember the first day of my school. I was crying, obviously, everyone does. But the incident that made the day incident made it funny for me was that I sat with a boy who had a catchphrase- juta marunga which means I’ll hit you with a shoe. Well, as a child it fascinated me and I repeated it at home due to which I was scolded. He later became my friend.

I have a very common name, so common that there were 3 other fellow classmates who have the same name. One of them was my friend and others, well I was ashamed to share the name with. The reason being whenever a teacher would scold them, I sometimes assumed that she was scolding me.

There are many crazy stories. I had a girl best friend. Every boy needs to have one to survive. One day, I bought a banana and I shared with her. The problem was that we were sitting in school van and I didn’t find a place to throw the peel of the banana. She took the peel from and threw it on the driver’s seat. The driver sat on hit and moved back and forth. He then said, “Today the seat feels very comfortable.” And we laughed. We even penned our names on the seat we used to sit in the van as a memory because the school decided to sell it.

Benches are the spots to study, discuss and have gossips. Well, in my case they also served to add some disgusting memories. Even thinking about the chewing gum stuck on benches gives me goosebumps. I want to know who the person was who stuck them there. But more than studies, the gossips, and the discussions shaped our personality.

I really miss my school days; friends, teachers and those benches.