Like for most others, schooldays were perhaps the best days of my life. However, I like to think that my school was better than everyone elses. Yeah! yeah! you can say what you like and argue all you want but ours really was just that tad bit better. Today on Teacher’s Day I’m sharing some priceless lessons that I got at my school.
1. The joy of singing in a choir
The skill and energy that the nuns put into teaching us hymns at school will stay with me forever. In fact when I had the twins I found myself singing ‘Joy to the world‘ while putting them to sleep. And later when my son took up music and came home humming ‘Give me oil in my lamp‘ I felt such a sense of home coming. Others might think of Rajesh Khanna at the mention of the piano but I will always remember Sister Alice Mary.
2. To say it with cards
We made cards for everything. invitation cards, thank you cards, sorry cards, get well soon cards! A habit that has stayed with me and one I’ve tried tirelessly to pass on to the children.
3. That punishment could be given creatively
We got some of the most creative punishments in school. We’ve been paraded before our younger siblings (‘Look how careless your OLDER sister is!’), made to sing Edelweiss, made to hold our tongues, quite literally (just trying doing that for a while), made to stand inside a waste paper basket.
4. That books are to be respected
‘No bookmarks no books’, was the rule in our library and I remain compulsive about bookmarks. The other day I’d gone to get a passage from a book photocopied and as the lady there turned down the corner of the page I winced so audibly she thought I’d hurt myself.
5. That girlfriends are the best friends
Aren’t they? That comfortable feeling of being completely yourself, of being able to talk about ‘anything’ under the sun. Yeah girlfriends are special.
6. That cricket isn’t the only game in town
Along with basketball, throwball and volleyball we played games like French Cricket and Danish Rounders. Heard of them? Anyone? For the record: We played no cricket.
7. That all religions are to be respected
I think it’s a great idea to study in a school of a faith different from yours. It gives not just tolerance but love for that other religion. Growing up in Lucknow in a Hindu household, with Muslim culture all around and a Christian school. It can’t get better.
8. That it was perfectly normal for girls to play boys’ parts in school plays
… and hilariously funny for boys to play girls’ parts in all-boys schools.
9. That kids with raffle sheets deserve kindness
Those weren’t the times of multi-storied societies. Only I know how many times I have roamed around houses brandishing raffle sheets and trying to explain to people (very far removed from raffle sheets) what it was all about!
10. To keep my knees together when I sit
Right from my earliest memory of school, I was never a girl – always a young lady. And there were some things that ladies never did. They never shuffled their feet when they walked, they kept their shoulders back and heads up, they always spoke politely and they kept their knees together when they sat.
So tell me what’s special about your school people.
