School Days...

What I would give to go back to the good ol' school days...
When the only tension in my life was whether, I would actually get batting today during the lunch break or score that all important goal during the game which will make me the hero of the day...
When I look back at those wonderful, blissful 12 years of my life, I can't help but remember the times I spend with friends , who I thought at that time will be there forever...
It was that time when you could do no wrong, and even if you made a mistake , you could always make a child like face and ask for forgivness citing your immaturity as the reason.
Fast forward to the present and even a small blemish on your part can lead to disasterous consequences for oneself.
Those cricket games inside class rooms with the plastic ball and the long book, those silly old trump card games, or the coin games which became famous in the latter years of school...
Book cricket, truth n dare( though I never really participated in it, god knows why?), hops n bets, jollies n what not...
It seems so silly when you look at it now but during those days these activities were of high priority and actually defined one's reason for existence...
Beating people at carrom or getting to be the last man out in a tt round toss used to make one's day truly worth the trouble.
The after exam rituals of playing cricket with the exam writing pads and rolled up paper, and celebrating end of every exam cycle with that small get together at Guptaji's...
Interaction with the girls, and pulling each others leg by linking one another with someone or the other of the opposite sex...( I have had that experience in school too...)
The most exciting times in school was by no doubt the election period for selecting prefects, house prefects n all and the time period leading to the sports day and the annual day...

Each year's success was defined by the exploits achieved in these main events...
Those long march past sessions in hot seering sun, or those hard toiling hrs during drama workshop or those dancing and singing practise sessions all leading upto the finale and the much awaited performance for our parents & teachers on the annual day...
Or those clashes between the houses in different fields of sport where friends became rivals overnight and foes became team mates as one went all out to win the glory for his/her house...
The basketball, cricket, football matches which drew in the crowds as one played for the glory of one's house and every individual worth his salt worked his ass off in the hope that in the end of it all, the efforts culminate into his/her house winning the trophy for that season/year...

One thing which I remember distinctively about my primary school days were the concept of house charts... where students from each class were divided in to 4 different houses and then there were charts put up in the class with names of the students in their respective houses and with attributes like disciple, neatness, acheivement etc put against each name with in that house and "dots" of different colours such as red, blue, green & black signifying one's performance...
And we used to look forward to the end of every month to see what colour dot was gonna ornate thespace against one's name for that month...

I really don't know why I am putting all this down on my blog, it really doesn't make an interesting reading to anyone except me I guess but still, I had this urge to revisit the past, n though I have not really explored it the way I wanted , I guess I have given myself the start I wanted to dig deep into the memories of my school days...

As Kevin Arnold the character from the hit sitcom "The Wonder Years" (which was incidentally aired during my school days) says in the end of the last season's last episode... " As I look back at those years & wonder... those were truly the wonder years..."(something like that)...

Well the point I make is just as the character in the sitcom identifies his whole life with his learning from school, the same way my years at school have helped me learn and evolve as person that I man...
(God that is some deep shit...I think I need to get myself something n fast...:) )