Gone are the days
Queuing up at the canteen for an oily samosa and dashing past teachers to get to class when the familiar bell went off. Waiting the entire week for the solitary Games period and getting disappointed when the Math teacher borrows it to complete the syllabus. Group politics. Lotus, Red Rose, Blue Bells & Sunflower. Pestering the games sir every year to switch your group to the same one as your best friend's. Request being denied because that would just cause too much raucous.
Feeling important rehearsing for our menial roles in the school anniversary and sports day. Secretly rejoicing because that only meant not sitting through Organic Chemistry and Calculus. Coming up with creative ideas for charts and campaign slogans for the school elections. Patronizing the cultural secretary to select you for external culturals. Facing the day when you are actually on the other side of the game. English labs, Moral Science classes and the sleep inducing Transcendental Meditation, post lunch.
Slogging through extra classes on Saturdays in uniforms minus the canvas shoes and sometimes replacing the salwar with jeans to look cool. Enrolling in tuitions because your friends went too. Doing tuition homeworks under the desk during English class. Distributing chocolates and wearing "color dress" on your birthday. The joy when you get away wearing nail polish or a colorful hair accessory. Bossing around when you were made the class monitor. Guarding the cupboard key with your life. Changing the date and proverb on the blackboard every day.
Chalk fights, stationary stealers, gang wars and section politics. Fights sans conspiracies. Competitions minus the jealousy. Of bountiful embarrassing moments and countless memories. Some friends changed, some stuck on. The golden days may be gone but the memories will live on forever.
Shri Gurubhyo Namaha!