First School

F of #AtoZChallenge

My first school was Yashomandir.
At age four. It was a Nursery school in Mulund East.  

The uniform was a red pinafore with a white shirt.
My mum would fold a handkerchief in a triangle and pin it (with a safety pin) on the left-hand side. 
My school name-badge would be pinned on top of it. 

The Principal of our Yashomandir was Teacher-Aaji. 
I never made an effort to know her real name because for me she was Teacher-Aaji.
Whenever I meet her, I still address her Teacher-Aaji. 
She was a tall, pathicha kana taath (spine-straight) woman who had the looks of a commanding yet a kind Principal. 
My class teacher's name was Rita Teacher. 

My memory of walking down the street to Yashomandir is fresh to the extent that I still remember how the sunshine felt, how I hopped and skipped to school holding my Aaji's hand, the warm breeze that flowed, the hide and seek the sun played through the shady trees. 
I even remember the bird who would chirp while I walked. 

(Appu and me)

Yashomandir was on the ground floor. 
It was an old house converted to a Nursery space. 
The parents would first drop the kids at a small entrance. 
The kids would then make a line and like a snake we would disappear through a narrow door into a one-yellow-bulb lit short corridor. 
We would come out into the big verandeh of the school and there was our big classroom! 
The space had two big rooms converted into classrooms and a small room (probably the kitchen converted into a room) for teachers and Teacher-Aaji.  

There were no benches or chairs.
Just a softish-dryish big cloth mat to sit on and a blackboard on the wall. 
We would keep our little bags and water bottles on the sides of the room, towards the wall and sit in the centre of the room. 

No, I don't remember what I studied! 
That wasn't why I went to school :) 
I went to school to make friends, to chatter away, to play and to hop around the school. 

For picnic, Teacher-Aaji took us to the nearby Deshmukh Garden. 
It wasn't a new place for us as all our parents took us there regularly. 
But! Teacher-Aaji had managed to get special access into the Garden's plant nursery (which would otherwise be closed to the public).
Oh it was full of towering plants and shrubs which looked like an enchanted forest! 
I remember we were made to sit outside the plant nursery and served two white idlis with mild-light-green chutney. I am not kidding, when I say I still remember it's taste :) 
It's not every day that you go for your first picnic of your life, that too with your first school! 

I was made 'Lamb' in the enactment of 'Mary's Got a Little Lamb' at our School Gathering (Parents' Day). 
My mum had managed to get a white furry suit for me. 
And she had herself hand-stitched a furry white cap with ears! 
My friend was 'Mary'. She had the task of picking up flowers while I was asked to crawl around her and follow her on stage. 
I must confess I wasn't an obedient lamb or understood lamb-behaviour well. 
I would often forget that a lamb cannot use it's fore legs like hands! 
I would hand-pick the flowers (while I was on my fours) and passed on the flowers to Mary. 
I remember getting scolded many times by Rita Teacher and once by Teacher Aaji too! 
I was told to not do it or else I would no longer be the lamb! 
I am not too sure what I did on stage on the day of performance. 
But I won't be too surprised if I was a lamb who picked up flowers :)  

It fills me up with immense pride to say that to this date, I know about the whereabouts of seven of my Nursery classmates including my Teacher-Aaji's (not because I stalk them, but because I am in touch with them)! 
And two of them- Sameeha and Esha are still my good friends!  
In fact Sameeha in the next four years, would be dropping off her little Riya to Nursery :)  

Funny, how life becomes a full circle :)

 

(I am on the extreme left. Teacher-Aaji towering on the Left and Rita Teacher on right.)