Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Memory Crumbs

A new series. Some remembered. Some imagined. I forget which is which.
-a

The head teacher walked into our class room in the middle of a maths test. She whispered something into the teacher's ears. They both spoke in a hushed voice for a while. Our teacher kept her eyes closed and listened attentively to what was being told. Then she looked up at us and cleared her throat to get our attention. She announced, 'I'm deeply saddened to announce that our former Principal Mrs Sharma is no more. She died this morning. In her honour, the rest of the day has been declared a holiday'. I don't remember what she said next. Her voice was drowned out by the loud and somewhat inappropriate cheering of a group of students who had just been granted an unexpected day's leave.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

ha ha ha.. I remember when a famous writer, married to one of our teachers was very ill, the school wanted all of us to pray for his recovery and we were asked to stand up, maintain silence for two minutes and pray. As soon as the announcement for the prayer was made, a classmate who did not pay attention to the announcement, loudly said "Enna? (avaru) poyachaa?" and the entire class giggled amidst an amused Shh.. Shh.. from the teacher

karrvakarela said...

I think it's universal. When I was in school, one of the members of the ruling family passed away and we got a whole week's holiday. The excitement was incredible.

Pri said...

As kids we were well trained and so there was no yelling till we were out of the school premises. Also if it was someone from the school we did feel bad but any politician passing away was always cheered.
But the best holidays ever (and Bangaloreans will remember this) were what were later called 'Rajkumar Holidays' u know when Veerappan kidnapped him. We had almost 2 weeks off. That combined with all the drama on TV and in the papers made the whole thing very very entertaining.

Shammi said...

heehee... I wouldnt have minded if OUR princi had popped off - particularly during the really post-lunch-period biology class that I had in the 9th std. :)

monu said...

hmmm...
on a sadder note i remember the leave that was declared when one was of my classmates was killed in an accident and our whole class was drowned in sorrow
but those who didnt know her, the very small kids at school went home with a smile...

:(

D LordLabak said...

I was in 2nd standard when we heard our correspondent had passed away and I remember jumping with joy. Kids have always been cruel.

Just For Me said...

Hello Ammani,
I guess u studied in CGHS in mylapore. I studied there too...Keep writing I just love your writings

Nimmy said...

:D hahahaha
i know it shouldn't have. but the truth is it did. i mean, the post made me laugh....
i'd spotted your blog a couple of years ago and loved your writings...but then lost track of it because of various reasons...but, now, i am back. :)
you ought to write a book..!
nimmy