We had the luxury of a fairly big playground in our school. And plays were indeed the most anticipated events on any school day. We tried to eke out time to run around and have fun. Recess was one time we would get everyday.
It is class 3 or 4. The class just before recess is going on. It is one of those times when in an attempt to find some way to keep your attention away from the class you drop your pen and want it to roll away a good distance for you to take multiple minutes to get it back. And the recess bell is conspicuously delayed. But finally it rang. And oh what a music it is to our ears. We grab our lunch box and rush out for the ground knowing well that finishing it would just be incidental. The mood outside is indeed festive. Little boys and girls with their multicoloured lunch boxes are seated in circles in the shaded part of the ground or at the circular benches around the trees. It is time to meet friends from the other section and brothers or sisters from a junior class to reassure your presence and protection. Time to chat about the atrocities of the teachers or the glories of your father or grandfather.(I distinctly remember the discussion about the strength of our daddy's or stranger still the size of the shoes that our grandfathers would wear. Some state a ridiculously large size but it is all fair and possible as long as you can better your friend). It is also the time to have a deeper bond with friends by sharing your food or help them in a pending homework.
The mood appears all joyful, but it is so only on the surface. There is group of around 20, class 4 students gathered near the tree towards the Hindi medium building. There is an auction going on for the best runners. In the game one team has to chase the other team's members. The captains of the two teams are the ones who have proved themselves to be the most agile and shrewd runners of the lot. Now they have the privilege of choosing their teams. All the other boys are huddled together in an expectation that their loyalty to their favourite captain will reap its results today. There is a slight argument between the captains about who will be the first one to choose a player in his team. Because the first one gets to choose the star runner, the one distinctly faster than all others. It is an enviable status exactly one kid would enjoy for a period of time. The kids are picked one by one and each one reassures the captain of his best efforts. It is a time for the captains to end old rivalries as well as to confirm new ones. The teams are decided and one of them chases the other.
The play ground has transformed into a battle ground now. Everything is fair in this war. It sometimes happens that you are being chased by a fast but noble kid whom you know would not harm others in an attempt to catch you. The best strategy for such an opponent is to bring him in a position such that your are across a group of students seated for lunch. And then you have to deceive him as to the direction you are going to run to escape him. And if you can get a group of students passing by, you can escape from behind them knowing well that he will not push them to get across to you. But then there are also these ruthless chasers who would not mind jumping over or on other kids to catch you. The runners are hunted down one by one by the chasers the one surviving till the last betters his reputation in the group and threatens the position of the present 'first kid to be selected'. The recess ends and we all get back to classrooms bathed in sweat and basking in the glory of our chase or our escape.
It was precisely for such exciting things that I would die to go to school and miss it so much even today.
It is class 3 or 4. The class just before recess is going on. It is one of those times when in an attempt to find some way to keep your attention away from the class you drop your pen and want it to roll away a good distance for you to take multiple minutes to get it back. And the recess bell is conspicuously delayed. But finally it rang. And oh what a music it is to our ears. We grab our lunch box and rush out for the ground knowing well that finishing it would just be incidental. The mood outside is indeed festive. Little boys and girls with their multicoloured lunch boxes are seated in circles in the shaded part of the ground or at the circular benches around the trees. It is time to meet friends from the other section and brothers or sisters from a junior class to reassure your presence and protection. Time to chat about the atrocities of the teachers or the glories of your father or grandfather.(I distinctly remember the discussion about the strength of our daddy's or stranger still the size of the shoes that our grandfathers would wear. Some state a ridiculously large size but it is all fair and possible as long as you can better your friend). It is also the time to have a deeper bond with friends by sharing your food or help them in a pending homework.
The mood appears all joyful, but it is so only on the surface. There is group of around 20, class 4 students gathered near the tree towards the Hindi medium building. There is an auction going on for the best runners. In the game one team has to chase the other team's members. The captains of the two teams are the ones who have proved themselves to be the most agile and shrewd runners of the lot. Now they have the privilege of choosing their teams. All the other boys are huddled together in an expectation that their loyalty to their favourite captain will reap its results today. There is a slight argument between the captains about who will be the first one to choose a player in his team. Because the first one gets to choose the star runner, the one distinctly faster than all others. It is an enviable status exactly one kid would enjoy for a period of time. The kids are picked one by one and each one reassures the captain of his best efforts. It is a time for the captains to end old rivalries as well as to confirm new ones. The teams are decided and one of them chases the other.
The play ground has transformed into a battle ground now. Everything is fair in this war. It sometimes happens that you are being chased by a fast but noble kid whom you know would not harm others in an attempt to catch you. The best strategy for such an opponent is to bring him in a position such that your are across a group of students seated for lunch. And then you have to deceive him as to the direction you are going to run to escape him. And if you can get a group of students passing by, you can escape from behind them knowing well that he will not push them to get across to you. But then there are also these ruthless chasers who would not mind jumping over or on other kids to catch you. The runners are hunted down one by one by the chasers the one surviving till the last betters his reputation in the group and threatens the position of the present 'first kid to be selected'. The recess ends and we all get back to classrooms bathed in sweat and basking in the glory of our chase or our escape.
It was precisely for such exciting things that I would die to go to school and miss it so much even today.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for refreshing a beautiful memory
ReplyDeleteTejas
It is a pleasure to remember these event bro.
DeleteI got a glimpse of my childhood in your words..
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
Lovely! Word by word it took me back to that golden era. Boys would mostly run around and play while girls stayed where they stayed, watched things around, chatted and giggled, of course, me being one of them. I remember, there was this silly sitting arrangement system where one girl would sit between two boys as boys always outnumbered girls. So, post lunch time used to be a little odd time for me because boys besides me would often be smelly and sweaty and I used to feel sleepy because of mom's ghee parathas and sabzi :D It would take me one complete period to get adjusted then.
ReplyDeleteThank you for adding that perspective Dipti.
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