School

When I go for morning walk, usually it is between quarter to six and eight of clock, there are few sticklers like me, CSIF jawans who have to assemble for morning exercises and some students, and working people going to Mumbai in the buses. On the whole that is all that is there.

But situation is changing very rapidly and scene is also getting for a change. Far away in the East, darkness is is giving way to the day and there is darkness is fading fast. It is becoming reddish in the East. The street sodium lights seem to be redundant.  The birds are stirring up in the branches of trees. Crows are the most prominent due to the vacuous voices.

You can see the lights in many houses. On the working days, these indicate that parents are prodding their children to wake up and prepare for the school. Children these days have too much to stuff into their minds. Too many inputs are available for the brain to process. I always think that we were lucky because in our boyhood very few gadgets like television, telephone, computers, mobile and internet were available. So our minds were under less stress and many things were to be thought and thought process was directed towards creativity. In contrast, these days, at least in cities, the children does not have time for going out for walks, playing under the sun, and other outdoor activities. Their diversion from study is to watch television, play games but on the computers and chat with friends.

Slowly, the children with uniforms and bags on the backs begin to converge on the school first in a trickle which within few minutes turns into a steady stream. Children come in buses from outside. Other are accompanied by their fathers riding on cars, scooter and motorcycles. There is great rush of vehicles and complete chaos in front of school.

Do the little children know what for they come to school? I see many of them seem to be bored and follow a mechanical routine. These days they don’t have any succour on Sundays either. They are saddled with more and more homework, tutions as they climb the ladder of classes in the hope of more and more marks and be able to clear the competition exams with flying colors.

Within half an hour, all the children have entered the school. The sound system is activated on the podium. Some of the children are on the podium as they have been chosen to perform prayers, do the announcements, lead the chorus for psalms, and singling the national anthem. The students are falling in the lines with each line beginning from smallest to highest. The teachers are checking and as soon as everything is fallen into place, the proceedings begin. After this the students walk into their classes for attending the lectures.