REVERSE GEAR !!!

Just met up with a bunch of spirited Navrachanaites (the school I taught in Baroda) and it brought back a flood of memories…..hence the flashback.

October 2006…..I discovered the elixir to youth and age reversal………

And that the elixir didn’t really come in a 5 gm puny bottle, which made your wallet sweat…..

At Navrachana school, in October, the buzz could generate enough electricity to power the whole of Baroda, however,the same buzz……the very thought of going on a full five days exercursion,with a bunch of 15 yr olds, …was sending jitters down my spine…..especially after all the toe curling tales of teacher torture, that were being narrated in staff rooms and dining hall lunch time sessions by the more X perienced lot.….somehow these stories remain miraculously covered ,throughout the year and pop up only during the times mentioned above…..I had a sneaking suspicion they were to discourage you more than…..

In typical fauji style we had our endless round of briefings……with principal…with students….with the distraught poor travel agent (I pitied him) with parents, who were more nervous and anxious than their children…..and between those of us ‘marked’ for the trip…(for the zillionth time)

There is always a first time and this hopefully is the last…I consoled myself as I boarded the train….
a second round of riots in Gujarat, erupted from a train yet again… only this time, however, the arsenal was… TOOTHPASTE, for the first time in my life I slept with my shoes on…for the casualties kept coming in through the night…..(and they were those who had taken the risk to sleep…!!!)

and yes it was the first time I had stayed away from home {5 whole days}, the first time I didn’t have to cook or make tea, clean the home, make my bed {God bless the Room Service dept.}

Whether the Gujarat and Andhra governments were into any alliance ,was a fact not known, one thing was sure……. these Gujju ambassadors were here for some serious economic reforms. For Navrachana made their presence felt all over Hyderabad, OH! YES, be it Golconda or Salargunj… Ice world or Charminar market, no food or drinks stall was left untouched by their benevolence which managed to create quite an economic stir in the Hyderabad market, and this time, cash flowed straight from Gujarat into Andhra Pradesh.

The trip was truly educational, as I was updated on all the hip and happenings, in and around class…… new friends were discovered while old ties were strengthened…… MP3’s and Ipods served unerringly {even in the loos}. That our children were hardy and possessed stomach’s of steel, was proved beyond doubt by the fact that many of them could survive on coke, chips and five day old theplas.

That October, I know I had turned fifteen again, for my students, never made me feel like an adult… for all of us…. laughed, sang, cried and danced {man… the DJ party left us all a few kg’s lighter} together….

That October… I knew what it was like to be….. mother to a 100 children.
That October they made me realize,I was still 15…just pretending to be 30…..
Thank you Class IX…. (Batch of 2006-2007)
For making me feel fifteen all over again.