A Kid’s diary

               

                This post is about a tormented kid and his views about his early schooling. Some might really think this post to be an outrageous slur, but this is the bitter truth. Whenever I had a chance to watch some old Tamil movie belonging to those of the 80’s and the early 90’s, I really wonder how those kids witnessing the murder of his/ her parents (mostly belonging to the protagonists part of the movie) remember the antagonists so well that they avenge their parents death even after so many years ! The point I’m putting forth is definitely not about “avenging”, but the scars such horrible incidents leaves us with. Whenever I get a chance to speak to my seniors or my juniors coming from that school, 9/ 10 times we speak about that ! This post consolidates all such “shared” experiences into one.

                My school was a lot different from the other schools in my town, and that notion was one of the main reasons for me being admitted there. Everything seemed pretty normal at first, and I indeed enjoyed them. Facilities, infrastructure, comfort and even “education” (sad, but yea ) comes with a price now. And I knew that my parents literally struggled to pay it. They did their best to give us this so called “quality education”, but then they did not realize what was in store.

                I was asked to read the names of all the acrobatic feats one by one, as my friends performed them live on the stage. It was some kind of a display, and the organizer did not like the way I pronounced few words. He called me to his room for rehearsing it, but then he vanished into thin air by 4.00 pm to the other unit. The very next day, I went by his room to tell him that he had left pretty early the other day, as cool as ever. But the odds turned against me, I don’t know how they punish a 6th grade student for not being punctual, but I was punched on my face. Note : I’m not using the word punch just for the sake of rhyming, I mean it !  Is this how you treat a new student ? what kinda impression  do you think you give them about your school ?

                 A family’s position in the society depends on how good the head of the family leads and organizes it. This applies for an institution as well. Monetarily , that school started flourishing, from a single large house to a huge unit and then a new ground etc., .It was a great investment for all the school board members, as they created this “demand” –> 25 per classroom concept (and no new sections opened). That was the bait But when all these were happening outside, beneath the surface we were facing a lot of issues with the head !

                Lunch was the most thrilling hour as we’d say, we never knew when he might come and what reason he might say to get hold of us, uh mhhmm  sorry punish us.  Once he made us enact a play since we said we didn’t know that story, with a friend playing the lead role in THE EMPEROR’s NEW CLOTHES. Chair on his head as the king, few as ministers and two others as the tailor etc., slapped, punched, kicked and finally asking him to wear that invisible dress.. (Avar veetla thanni varala na kooda adivaanginathu naanga than) isn’t that the dumbest thing ? Uh Uh no wait...  I was the class monitor that time, and one of my cousins who studied with me in that same class had a dirty white shoe, he said that I ignored his mistake just because I was his cousin. And yea, I was beaten to death for the next 25 minutes. Vijendar Singh would have surely lost to him if he was allowed to put up a fight.

                      I was once made to stand out of the classroom with my chair and missed half my exam because I "supposedly" kicked the chair while i was getting up to keep my lunch bag. The chair , it seems , was a property of the school and hence , in the eyes of mr.xx , i kicked the school and that’s why i was made to stand out with the chair.” (yaaruku pirantha enna da ? Suga presavam thaanae- that logic applied),..  don’t start judging I say, hold on… !

               Once myself and my frd were drinking some water from the can after the games period...(4-4:20 hour - compulsory games)...As I was drinking water, my friend suddenly grabbed the tumbler from behind....the whole glass of water spilt on the floor...mr.xx saw that, caught us by our collar and took us to his room.. he then gave us a full drum of water, two tumblers and asked us to empty the whole drum of water eventually we had to drink d full drum... (periya arunachalam appa, panathoda vaadayae thegaataatha mathiri oru punishment vera)

                 Playing with a football beneath the table tennis board just before our real football game, resulted in a “sitting on the ball and rolling it ~ 1 full round”..  so that everyone on that campus is aware of my new punishment ! Whattae, I’m damn sure he has a book written by now : “experimenting with punishments”. Not over yet, I was slapped in front of every single member of the school, hit with a flag bearing 3 foot pole just because my marching was erroneous. And then, My class made some noise  (well which class doesn’t make noise ? :P ), and so they had to kneel beneath a neem tree for that whole hour (red sand + hot sun = his favorite) . Well, I didn’t complete my homework one other day and so I was asked to do “BUNNY JUMPING” around that campus 3 times ! If you forget to bring your swimming costume, you will be asked to "DUCK WALK” around that pool for the next 40 minutes (dreadful you know, you cant walk properly after that)

                Trolling someone is a deadly sin, well even if he punished someone who was in that scene or who went for that excursion then it’s fine. But punishing someone who has never met his friends for the last 15 days and holding him responsible for everything that happened there, is absolutely ridiculous.  (pakkathu veetla paavadai kaanama pona kooda athuku enna than your honour arrest panraanga). One of my classmates delivered a speech (compulsory one), it was a last minute preparation and so he stammered a lot. Instead of punishing him, one other guy was sent out of the class claiming that he introduced this style of preparation.. (nalla kelapuraainga ya beedhiya).. There are so many such incidents that can even make me give a precautionary note as “not for the weak hearted or pregnant ladies” :D

                 Students are mischievous, and I guess that’s how normal kids behave. They way to bring them en-route is of course not by means of such terrible punishments but by love. We are the clay in the hands of the potters. Molding is such a tedious task, look at Dr. Ambedkar’s life :) that shows how well he was molded by a “teacher”. I know a certain friend who writes down mr.xx’s phone number in all those advertising forms or registration forms even now after so many years. Look at that, I mean look at that type of scar !