Today is June 1st! This was dad’s refrain when he came back from his walk, this morning. It took sis n me a moment to realise what he was referring to…
June 1st almost always meant start of the new school year. Well, it was like a date set in stone for us, during our school days, decades ago. Not so, in our children’s generation. The date varies and falls anywhere in the last week of May or in the first week of June.
Excited children…in their uniforms, all set with new bags, books,etc … waiting at the gate for their school buses/vans. Parents waiting alongside the children, some checking their phones , others perhaps wishing the van comes quickly so that they can get on with their other routine stuff. Some anxious parents calling out to their reluctant kids to hurry up or to take something that have missed or forgotten.
The scene is one of liveliness and excited anticipation, the kind that can only be seen when there are children around 🙂
Excitement about going to the next grade, about meeting school friends after the long gap of summer vacations! Anticpation about the new section they’ll be in and about the new set of teachers who will be teaching them this year!!
Excitement about all the new books, new stationery and stuff. Anticipation about the new things they’ll learn, new friends they’ll make.
Praying hard that they should be in the same section as their best buddies. That, the class teacher is one of their favourites and not any of the strict ones that the seniors have them warned about 🙂
Sigh!! I was not thinking of these as Ammu has completed her 10th grade. Well, almost. And, kind of resigned to the fact that the big girl that she is now, we may no longer be part of such scenes in the mornings. But dad’s comment brought it all back. The memories of all these years…
It also made me really acknowledge that this year, school re-opening is of a different kind altogether. Yes, Adi’s school has re-opened and he’s been having online classes in the mornings since a couple of days.
To be honest, I have not missed anything very much during this phase of lockdown. But today, I think I’m missing the Back-To-School rituals. I think I’m longing for these morning scenes to be back. In my mind it feels like, that will be the most definitive sign of us having returned to ‘normalcy’.
SoftyPink n GloriousRed 
The pic is a sweet remembrance of our school year rituals. I pray our kids in the US can return to school in August/September.
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Amen. Thank you Chandra 🙂
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What a sweet picture that is. Up until last year it was such a common sight. A few days back Facebook showed a memory where I’d put up a pile of books freshly covered with brown paper. That made me long for the happy school re-opening days.
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True… it makes me sad to think of what the children are missing 😦
Thank you OM. Love hearing your thoughts 🙂
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