Where’s My Pencil?

Another day at first grade. We were just done with the second last hour of the day. the teacher for the last hour took some time to make her entry. So we were sorta in da “when the cat is out, the mouse will play” kinda mood. Soon the teacher makes her entry, n we students quickly settle down like dust. Every1 takes out their books n pencils and I too turn to do the same. Suddenly I realise, “My pencil is missing!!” I ask the girl sitting next to me if she’d seen my pencil. My heart’s racing n this gal stares at me intently before makin up her mind to say NO. I ask all my friends sitting behind n in front of me, n i get the same reaction.. A meaningless stare n a final answer NO.

My mind was rushing with thoughts.. “Oh GOD! What’ll I do now? How’ll I copy down the notes dat teacher puts up on the blackboard?” I wonder why I never asked anyone around me for a pencil. Probably coz I’d figured nobody really has an extra pencil by the end of da day .

With thoughts still rushing in my mind, I lift my hand to put the hair fallin on my right cheek behind my ear. I felt something, My Pencil!! I had subconciously fixed da pencil on my ear the moment the previous hour’s teacher left and was lost in playing with my friends. Of all places around me, why did I place it on my ear? Well… There was some carpentry work going on at my place and I’d observed the carpenters using pencils to mark on wood n later placing it on their ears, n I’d enacted them without even realizin it.. No wonder I got the stare!!

The Sweet Smell of My Childhood

Its been a childhood trait in me to associate everythin new by their smell. The fragrant white li’l erasers wit a cartoon on them that I’d buy 4 school from the shop in my busstop, the fruity smell of the green lipstick that wud turn red when applied ( I called it MAGIC LIPSTICK then), The smell of freshly sharpened pencils in my pencil box. The circular sharpener wit a mirror on the other side, that v’d keep flashin on the walls of the class when teacher turned towards the black board, n other things which i’ll update when i remember. After all these years I’ve suddenly got da urge to smell these things again. I’ve got my magic lipstick and circular sharpener wit mirror. Now da hunt is on for the soft white fragrant lil erasers that id rub off & shrink at school, so that i cud buy a fresh 1 from my stop da nex day

Cinderella’s Lost Shoe..

Dont get carried away by the title of this story. There’s no glass shoe nor a prince charming in this story. Umm.. Or maybe there is! But surely no stepmom or wicked stepsisters.

When I was in first grade I had this horrible habit of kicking off my shoes while I was seated at my desk. At the same time I had ANOTHER habit of knocking my feet against the table legs with shoes on (Well, thats another story and a short one too coz it ended quite soon when I felt the slap of my teacher’s wooden ruler against my calf muscles ). Back to my cinderella story. I’d kick of my shoes in class and wear them on whenever I wished. This continued for several days and always had a happy ending. Everyday but this day! As soon as the dismissal bell rang, I reached my little legs from the chair to the floor to feel my shoes. 1 shoe found and enters my foot. Since my foot wasnt able to find my second shoe I look down from my chair to see if its anywhere near. NO! Bewildered I get up from my chair and look under my desk and everybody else’s desk but no sign of my shoe!

Classmates are busy wearing their bags to rush outta class and I ask each person, “Hey, Have you seen my shoe?” I’m given that “WHAT!” kinda look. Some search for it along with me but no sign of my shoe. There’s not much time left and if we all kept searching for the shoe we’d miss our school buses home. So sadly with a shoe & sock on one leg, and only sock & no shoe on the other leg I wear my school bag & get outta class.

My class was on the first floor.

Climbing down the stairs I see ppl staring at my feet..

Walkin outta the building I see ppl stare at my feet..

Climbing the high steps of my school bus I see.. aaah.. This is where Prince charming enters.

Prince was my neighbour and a tall guy, but just a year or two elder.

I wish,” Pls, pls, pls, let him not look at my feet. He’ll tell every1 in his house n my house too. I’ll be laughed at.. NO! PLS..”

Prince: Hey! Where’s your shoe?

Ignoring his question I go to my seat. Tears roll out uncontrollably outta my eyes. I wished my bustop would never come, but it did! Sigh! I wait for everyone to disembark so that chances of people seeing my missing shoe are less. When I finally get down those steps I see Prince charming and his mother (hu usually wud drop n pick him up from the bustop) waiting for me.

Prince: See mom, she lost her shoe. She hasn’t talked to any1 in the bus, just cried until we reached here.

Me to myself:(What! Did he see me cryin in the bus! But I was just letting tears roll out!)

His mom (fairy godmother): Oh, thats ok sweetie.. Just go home.

Again with a shoe just on one foot and almost limping with the other I try to walk home. On reaching the door of my house I realise I need some time alone, to cry . So I walk to the back of our house and find our garage door open. I sit in the garage for sometime, spending quality time alone. I wish atleast some1 notices me, and soon a neighbouring aunt(fairy godmother no.2) goes and tells my mom that her daughter is crying in the garage.

Enter mom, and she’s taken aback by me acting so strange for just losing a shoe.. Ofcourse how wud she know all the trouble I went through to get home from class?

Next day I go to school with my new pair of shiny black shoes on. A boy who just sits behind me in class approaches me with a concerned look and asks,”Did you find your shoe?”

Me: No. It’s lost.

Boy: Come with me. He leads me to the end of the class where there are heavily curtained windows and pulls the curtain of one such window, points below and says, “See! That’s where I hid it!”

****** curtain falls ******

Writing In Squares

Scene: My very first day in first grade. My day was at school was to begin with Math class.

Enter Maths teacher..

I arise along with my classmates to sing (or wish?)..

Gooood Morrrrrniiing Teaaaaacher!!

Teacher: Sit down students. Take out your square lined notebooks and write from 1 to 20.

I open my new book and with my new and sharpened pencil begin to neatly write down the numbers.

Teacher walks through the class, peeping into everybody’s notebooks with a very strict look.
Walks beside my table and stops ( this scary scene of teacher stopping at my desk has repeated so many times in my life!).

Teacher(screaming): Why have you written the numbers ON the lines? I want them to be placed neatly in da MIDDLE of each square!

Me(innocently): But teacher, If I write them in the middle of each square, won’t they fall down!

Teacher glares at me & I quickly write in the middle of each square sensing trouble. I curse her in my mind for not understanding the seriousness of the issue.At lunch break, just as I was returning to my class from the canteen I notice my dreaded Math teacher exiting from the building. And she stumbles! Me chuckles internally but then pities the teacher and forgives her 4 not understanding about numbers falling.

That day at school I learnt that even though numbers may not fall, math teachers can definitely fall! =)

Running Through The Paddy Fields

This is exactly how my grandpa’s field back in India looks.. Though he’s no more and passed on the lands he owned to his children it has always been this way from the time I remember. Lush greenery as far as the eye could see. Sometimes I picturise my grandpa as a king and all this greenery as his beautiful kingdom.My first visit to India was when I was around 3 or 4 years old. The first time I saw and visited my dad’s and mom’s places though they were 14 miles from one another. My dad’s place awed me, with its greenery and animals. All of my dad’s siblings residing in this area seemed to have lots of animals in their house. A kingdom with only my dad’s family residing at distances from each other. My friends in this place were my cousins. On my very first day in this green place my 2 cousins sisters who were just a year or two elder to me took me out to the fields. When I saw the walkway in this field I was horrified. I was almost sure that I could never go wherever they were going without falling down.

It was as bad as shown in this pic above. Cousin sis number 1 runs through the field laughing and enjoying. Cousin sis number 2 follows close behind. They seem 2 have gotten very far when they turn & wave at me to join them. Well, I think.. If they can do it, so can I! I could have tried walkin there at first, but no I ran! I ran and before I knew I’d run, I was already kissing the wet sand of the paddy field.

The place where I’d fallen wasnt as beautiful as the above pic shows. I could sense tiny tadpoles wiggling past me and froggies nearby.. My entire body itched. Mosquitoes stung my tender skin. My beautiful new frock was in a mess just the way u see in those detergent ads. I think I cried then coz I heard some1 pullin me out askin why I had to run there when I hadnt even learnt to walk in the paddy field.I learnt that day that before you wanna run, u gotta know how to walk!