A Lifetime Of Memories

Soooo this morning, I was lost in thoughts on how the first five months of the year hurried in a whip whilst lounging on my balcony swing, having my dose of mid-morning sulaimani chai. I was quite taken aback down the memory lane by those moments that played out as reminders of stories I had almost forgotten. Hence I decided to give it an acknowledgment.  

Memories gushed down like a breath of fresh air pondering how a typical May-end - June used to be, not soo long ago when my sister and I were school kids & how the kids today who are locked in their homes for almost two years now, reluctantly made sit in front of a laptop attending their online classes are missing out in their life!

A major chunk of the school kids inclusive of us would find their way back home only by the last week of May.

The following days till the commencement of the school used to be so boisterous. 

Sister and I always and forever had got brand new school supplies each year (grateful for the parents we're born to). Right from going on a shopping spree and picking up our essentials such as bags that are new in the market, lunch boxes from the Tupperware which always had vibrant colors to choose from, water bottles that had pictures of favorite cartoon characters on them, with all glee and giggles amidst a dilemma if to choose the blue or the red one, to carefully choosing the name labels, to getting the bounded textbooks delivered home, to helping mom and dad by cutting up bits of fancy adhesive tapes that had to be stuck on the corners while they're gingerly wrapping up our notebooks with crisp glossy brown sheets (and smelling them - I love the smell of new books, don't you?).

From getting our new pinafores stitched from the local tailor to packing our stationery pouches with glossy glitter pens and Parker pens with ink cartridges, to planning the lunch menu for the first day of school. The night before the first day of school had always been a melange of emotions - a tiny bit of distress that you got to wait a whole year to get another holiday this long, a whole lot of elation because you're going to meet up with your fellow mates, with a bit of anxiousness (that you shouldn't sleep off snoozing your alarm clock😜) and run late on the reopening day!

The first day of school would be nothing short of a celebration for us.

Mum would wake us up a bit early since it was the first day - she'd make sure we get ready on time, eat a proper breakfast, do a little pooja of sorts at home and visit the Ayyappan temple nearby our bus stop. It used to look so lovely with bunches of pretty kids, here and there with their colorful uniforms, waiting for their school buses. The day at school would start with a prayer meeting where The Principal addresses, welcoming their children back to school for yet another successful academic year. 

As soon as it gets over, we'd rush back to our classrooms, excited to know who our new class teacher was, also to know who all have left the school, and of course to eagerly meet the newcomers.

What would follow are - introduction of ourselves and how we spent the vacation. The lunch scenes used to resemble more like a potluck, each of us, bringing their mum's signature dish (my friends' most favorite dishes of my mum were - pulav with spicy potato roast.) and sharing it with everyone. Of course, the evenings remained the same, of us going back to our homes and sharing every detail of what happened in the class with our mum and dad. And the routine continues...

And when my musings were interrupted by the horn of the truck that passed by the street, I realize that nostalgia makes us feel something that we haven't felt in a long time & we just feel back at home and that it reminds us of people, of childhoods, of random forgotten moments and of things that would stay with us, as a part of us ❤️