I had an amazing school life. I was good at academics, not like a topper but good in studies and loved my extra curricular activities. I participated in declamation, debates, plays, singing, dancing – you name it!
So I have so many school stories that I can talk about. Do you know the Bollywood actress Divya Dutta is my senior from my school (she has her birth year wrong on wiki)? Or the noted singer/composer Jasleen Royal is also a school alumni.
I changed schools after year 10 coz our school did not teach year 11 and 12. I spent another 2 glorious years and made some lifelong friends. Together we braved crazy teachers, eccentric principle, mandal commission and raging hormones.
My school story is my first day in the new school. There were some delays in my uniform, so I wore a T-shirt and a denim skirt to school. My mom taught at the school and this school was super conservative. Keep boys and girls separate, no fraternity between then etc. The teachers were very old school and all this was really new for me. On top of that I had the added pressure to not do anything to embarrass my mom.
I knew some classmates as some of the girls were from my old school and one boy as he lived close to my house and was good friends with my best friend at the time. I know high school drama! And us 90s kids in india were a very different 16 year olds than the kids today. We were very sheltered with no exposure to internet and the discovery of experiences was through each other and ourselves.
So I am in this brand new class, not knowing my bearings and feeling very confused when the teacher asked us to introduce ourselves. I got up and started by saying my name is and this boy did not let me complete and pipes up my name in a sarcastic way. I glared back at him. I then start talking about where I came from and he again did not let me complete and stated my school in a mocking way. At this point I was angry and just sat down. I had tears in my eyes purely from the anger as I felt embarrassed.
The experience on paper possibly does not sound that bad but for a 16 year old girl, trying to find her bearings in a new school, it was humiliating. The teacher kicked him out of class and I was able to finish my introduction.
We went on to become friends – always taking the piss out of each other’s comments. I am still in touch with him and our mums have connected and become friends. Life has come full circle I suppose.
Even after all these years i remember my school days fondly. I studied before the age of smartphones, so do not have a lot of pictures to share but they are all in my memory, captured beautifully.