I always fail to understand why schools reopen during monsoon. It always gives a tough time not only to the kids but also to the parents. They have to ensure everything is in place before the child steps out of the house for the first day of his or her new academic year at school. And also, pray that it does not rain. But as the luck would have it, of all the days it often rains on the school re-opening day. As if it is mandatory for the Rain God to accompany the child on the beginning of a new session.
Now let’s try and recollect what all goes into the preparation for the Opening Day of the school. Starting with the neatly washed and ironed uniforms a week in advance the task comes down to hunting shoe laces followed by polishing of the shoes. On the last day of your final examination, you often tend to dirty it so much, that getting the clean white canvas look back becomes a major task. From available whiteners in the market to powder of broken chalks come handy for such tasks. Well, one major job is over and the uniform is ready.
It’s time to visit the nearest stationery shop or make best use of the papers available at home to cover your notebooks. At times, a dilemma to cover it plain or with plastic to avoid getting them soiled in rains. Some prefer to put fancy or favourite character based labels over it. During our times, one of the popular names in slice bread industry used to insert free labels exactly a month prior to school reopening dates in their slice bread packets. Not for the love of bread, but to collect those labels we used to force our parents to change their bread loyalty for a month.
After arranging all the books it was time to pack the school bag. It usually happened exactly on the previous night of school reopening. Often it was a battle with electricity that was in mood to play hide and seek with gusty monsoon winds or heavy downpour as an excuse. We usually carried all the books on the first day for two reasons. Firstly, since we did not have an advance time-table of which class would be there on that particular day. Secondly, to show to the rest of the classmates that you had managed to get most of the prescribed books while they are yet to procure theirs. And then narrate how you managed to get a hold of the last copy despite many hands waiting to grab the same one at the prominent bookstore. Often an imaginary, but a self-satisfying tale.
So finally, the first day at school arrives with so many questions on everybody’s mind. Parents worry about whether they have managed to provide everything to the best of their abilities for their child as he or she resumes new academic year. Children step out thinking who would be their bench partner or which new teacher is going to teach them this year. While the Rain God thinks should I bless them on their way to school or on the way back?