“Jack
Jack”
“Where are you?”, my mom was searching for me. She went to
the other room, my box room (my special experiment room was the box of our
bedroom) and on the terrace.
And we were busy in planning for the coming holi festival. We
were so busy that mom’s voice was not audible though she was speaking loud
enough to listen from the street.
“Here you are, sitting at gate! Now, you forget about your
shopping. A while ago you were so excited that I had to stop my work in
halfway. Come on, get ready.”
“Mummy, here is some more stuffs in the list”, I said her
with fear. And for surprise she didn’t say anything but smiled. We went market
and enjoyed very much. We did our special holi shopping. Though holi was after
5 days, but needed a lot of time for planning. I had a bigger issue than holi,
I had to prepare for my English school.
Here, I got up at 5 A.M. I checked my bag once again, pencil
sharpness, eraser, sharpener, scale, pen, notebooks, water bottle, and arranged
them in order with an extra space for lunchbox. Then I went to polish my shoes
again, though I did last night but I wanted it to appear as new.
“Mummy, is lunch ready? I don’t want to be late at new
school.”
“Still you have an hour. Go and have bath properly!”
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“Hurry up papa! They won’t allow me if I be too late,” I
spoke loudly from some steps ahead on the footpath. He was trying to walk faster,
but I was at my full speed of run. The closer I reached, more fear started
emerging inside me.
I remembered how my mom used to say, “my son is very brave,
he never cries while going for school.”
And those word were holding me together, no droplet appeared from the
eyes but I was losing my smile, losing my speed. Though I was running, we
reached together at the school gate. I was standing under the mango tree at the
gate. Many boys were late, and were standing in two different queues. One with
the boys and girls with the bicycle and other pedestrians like me. We waited
for the assembly to finish. A boy was saying something in English and was addressing
to whole school, and others were listening carefully. A little later Our
principal spoke something and assembly finished with a Hindi prayer which I
liked. Hindi prayer was, “Hum Honge kamyab, hum honge kamyab ek din……”
At last my dad spoke something with a teacher (PT teacher,
which I came to know later) and I was allowed to enter the school with a
condition that that should be my first and last opportunity to be away from the
punishment. I went to my class; way to the class was assisted by Champa Didi (caretaker
of school); much bigger than the last classroom I saw near the office. With 2
large windows, and classroom full of boys and girls. I reached near the
classroom, and was waiting to collect enough courage to speak in English with
English medium teacher at class hours. And it was really tough to be so strong,
but I managed and I stood in front of the gate. Everyone stared at me as if I
was an alien. Some whispered, “Sir!” My fear reached to its peak. Sir turned
his face towards me, I wanted to run back. But I controlled and opened my mouth
to speak. But he said so politely, “Son, do you need something?”
I expanded my right hand in air until it reached to the
height of shoulder, and asked with a lot of strength, “may I come in sir?” and
the moment after saying was the far more relaxing than all the time until now.
“Yes, come in.”
“Today is my first day.”
“Oh, so you are the maths boy,” he said “boys and girls, he
is your new friend.”
“Can you introduce yourself to the class?” he asked me.
I felt like being roasted in boiling oil of hell. I didn’t
expect this question so early, I was thinking what to say. Suddenly he said,
“Saurav, come here.”
“He is Saurav, our class leader. Saurav, introduce your class
and classroom to him.”
“I am Saurav, ………….” Was the only thing which I understood at
that moment, and other words were like stars in the sky, hearing them was
pleasant but understanding them was impossible. I gave a broad smile and gentle
nod at every full stop I understood from his English speech. And said ok at
last.
Sir didn’t ask me to introduce myself. He suggested a seat
closer to Rahul, on second desk adjacent to girl’s bench on right. Class was so
suffocating, English words, which I loved to hear, started becoming fast
passing balls over the head in the cricket stadium. Next came the Hindi
teacher, though I felt Hindi as hard at this school, but I understood enough to
be satisfied for the day.
At break time, I was at the bench and everyone was standing
around me. Gazing at me in such a manner that made me think that I am wrong
person at wrong place. A gentle voice appeared from my back, “What is your
name?”
“Jack, Jack Singh.”
A boy from behind said surprisingly, “Jackson, is it Michel
Jackson?”
I didn’t understand what he meant but I said, “No, Jack
Singh.”
“Sorry, He is just kidding,” said the gentle voice, “I am
Khusi, I joined last year and I understood, you didn’t understand anything of
Saurav’s speech in the morning.”
She said, “you can make me your first friend, Don’t worry I
am very good at being friend but everyone says that I am too talkative to be
friend. Never mind what they say, I saw you with the teacher after the
assembly. He is our PT teacher, Mr. Ram Sudin. You can call him PTS (physical
trainer Sudin). Our class teacher is the coolest person in the school, and he
is Mr. Sudepto dutta, call him MSD, but don’t think him Mahendr Singh Dhoni. Our Hindi teacher, Acharya Sudhir Shastri, the
best teacher of Hindi and Sanskrit in Harnaut.”
“Thank you khusi! Hearing you is more relaxing after so
unexpected situation at this English medium school.”
“This is break and is for 10 minutes, so go and be fresh. And
be ready to face more teachers.”
I thanked her, and 4 more teachers came and somehow I finished
the class. For all the 4 classes fear and her way of looking to me was common.
She understood my feeling more than anyone until today.
It was the last bell when I picked up my bag and run towards
the gate. And for my surprise I was the only one running out from the class.
For a moment, everything just stopped. I started counting the period passed as
Khusi had said about 7 classes a day. I was feeling shy, more than any other
time until that day. I slowly turned my head and took my way back to my seat
with a cat like steps. It was again she, who said, ‘we pray, before we leave
class.’
This prayer was very big for the first day; I couldn’t resist
to open my eyes and was shocked to see almost all boys were just making fun. But
girls were so disciplined.
Finally, I met my dad under the mango tree. He was so happy
to see me, proudness was clearly flowing out from his eyes, smile and the way
he was walking towards me. Though the day wasn’t best and in my favor but was
good enough to be satisfied after all I had completed 1st day at English
medium school.
I was so happy to return my home. I can’t remember if it was
the happiness of returning home or finishing 1st day class or
starting step for becoming English medium boy. Anyway I was so confident and
happy and the feeling I was having in the classroom was lost very tiny in front
of this happiness.
We walked straight to home.
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