A trip down memory lane!

Today is June 13th, so what’s special about this day??Well, June 13th was the first day of our school every year. The beginning of a new term and lots of studies and fun! Will always cherish the good old school days as well as the days spent in preparation for a new year at school.

I can still recollect, one of the most exciting activities, was to purchase all the books mentioned in the text book list, well in advance. Queuing up at the local book shop or the school store accompanied by my Mom, buying the new set of text books and notebooks and the required laminated covers for them, all this done with great enthusiasm and gusto! English was my favourite subject in school, followed by History and Hindi. So for obvious reasons, the first book I would lay my hands on was English. Ah! The smell of new books!! There was always a mingled curiosity and a childish eagerness to explore the contents and devour all the chapters in them! English text books always had a mix of stories, real life experiences and a few scientific chapters, not to forget the interesting plays and poems. History really fascinated me; no wonder archeology was one of the fields I wanted to take up when in school! World wars, Indian history all the chapters interestingly illustrated with pictures adorning each and every page; made me momentarily rewind my thoughts back to those periods. Standard eighth text book for history was one among my particular favorites. It was all about Indian history; the rule of kings and queens, the battles fought, their lavish lifestyles, intricately carved architectures and monuments, something I have always found deeply intriguing! Wish a time machine transported us back to those times, to explore the beauty, to relive those times and be a part of our great history and culture! Hindi text books were of a different flavour, with its moral stories and beautifully penned poems by celebrated and renowned Hindi writers. One of these distinguished writers,was Premchand. His realistic and humoristic depiction of the trials and tribulations in the life of a common man were par excellence and I doubt there is anyone who can bring out those real life situations the way he did!

Our school had a very weird set of rules, pertaining to the way notebooks and text books had to be covered. I have been racking my brains for quite some time now, finding out the logic behind such restrictions. The initial set of rules mentioned that a book had to be covered with a brown paper and then a plastic cover, laminated covers were a strict no no. Now can someone tell me what sense did that make? One of the worthless and useless set of rules that plague our education system! And the same people were later fine with books being covered with laminated covers! Guess they thought it was time to move on? Lol…………………Ready with scissors, labels and covers in hand I always undertook the activity of covering notebooks and textbooks with great fun! Neatly folding the cover over the books and snipping off the extra and unwanted parts, sticking labels (Disney characters were in demand! And bigger the label, better the visibility :)) all this activity would be completed within a matter of few hours. Sigh.... can I get those fun and frolic days back? The answer is a sad 'NO'.

But thanks to this day!!It has made me nostalgic, brought back sweet old memories, where innocence and eagerness to learn ruled minds, the puerile mind unaware of what life has in store for it! Such is the beauty of our childhood days, which each one of us would love to have back at some point in our lives!