Yesterday, once more

It's not every day that I wake up at 4.45 am. Well, today happened to be one of those rare days (rarer than a blue moon, I can assure you). I was required to speak to a whole lot of schoolchildren and that took me back to the time when I was a school girl myself. When I inevitably used to miss my bus as my hair took forever to plait (my parents never let me get it cut. In fact, women at beauty parlours would refuse to touch it saying it was too thick. Alas, now, it is no thicker than a rat's tail). Most days, my mother would be still combing my hair when the bus would start honking. I clearly remember this winter day when I was late again and I just put on my scarf over my hair which had been plaited the previous day. Despite all this, however, school was fun. Loads of fun. In fact, the last couple of years were the best. We had a favourite tree which we used to swing from every day. It was near the Kho Kho ground and soon it became the Kho Kho tree for us. Before our farewell, I climbed pretty high on it and made a fool of myself by posing on the tree and getting photographed. My other favourite corner was the one with the huge old pipe which we used to enter from one end and come out at the other and shout our lungs out while doing that. Then there was Manghi - our school peon - none of us can forget him. We would request him to ring the bell early and he would pretend to oblige. Every time he came in with a notice, our hearts would swell with the anticipation of another surprise holiday. We used to have a picnic each year when we used to head off to the most wonderful places like Panchghat, Triveni, Sico and Horap Forest. In Class X, we headed out of the state and that was some fun. We went to Orissa for four days during which time I spent a princely sum of Rs 25 to buy a huge hat. That's it. That was the only thing I bought from Orissa and yet I was on top of the world for days after that. Things have changed. On an ordinary weekend in Delhi, I spend anything in excess of Rs 500-Rs 1,000 yet I seldom feel happy. I miss my family, the friends I grew up with and the city I was brought up in. And Manghi.