This was the school that I attended from Pre Kindergarten (or Nursery as some ppl know it) to the first standard.
The nursery phase was the one that I remember very vaguely, I was a good student then, used to stand right beside my teacher while all other students used to sit in their benches, my POV, I used to find faults in every single classmate of mine and the faults ranged from downright ugly to noserunner to smellycats.
By the time I finished my nursery, I did manage to make an army of enemies of which some were pissed out at the fact that I called them noserunners and smellycats and they couldn’t do anything about it, others for the fact that I ruled when it came to exams, and the last ones had problems controlling the bladders, those were the one referred to as “hoseleaks” in my vocabulary.
But the teacher was impressed, and I ended up having excellent calves. Thanks to my standing beside the teacher all day long. I used to get the homework done on time cause I feared that my teacher might actually make me sit with the other students as punishment in case I did not, which she never did, those were the times when teachers used less force and more love to teach students.
So vanity did run high in my earlier years at school, but hey... I am accepting the fact and not burying the hatchet.
We used to walk to the nursery, which was actually close to my grammys place, my mother would comedown daily to drop me off and to pick me up from school. And during the walk we kinda bonded.
Starting on my first standard, I had to travel to Wadala, for which we used to catch bus number 9, Which used to go from Antop hill to somewhere close to Nehru Planetaium. We used to board the bus from the first stop, but there was a catch, the bus was the one that was in most demand and also the one that had the least frequency.
For the first few days we stood all the way to my school, later the conductor offered to allow me to enter the bus when it was parked for refueling and secure a seat for myself. I used to enjoy it, entire bus for myself and I can take any seat I wanted to, was never given such a royal treatment by anyone. My mother accompanied me for a few more days, and then I was on my own. My routine used to be somewhat like this:
Stand at the depot opposite to the bus stop where the bus usually stops for refuelling, get into the bus and select the seat that has the largest window, and have a nice trip to school. While returning back there was no way I could get a seat since the buses used to be packed to capacity but that was ok… it helped me level out my expectations.
So it was actually the driver and the conductor of the double decked route 9 bus that I actually made friendship with without the permission of my parents, for the same reason I still have a sympathetic corner towards BEST employees.
So amazed was I with the way the driver maneuvered the red mammoth across winding streets, that deep down I began to harbor the inclination to mahout my own. I was downright expressive about it too, so when asked about our professional streams, my siblings would generally choose between an engineer and a doctor, I preferred to be the Driver, the least popular profession amongst Iyengars, and the most embarrassing moment for my parents. I was never questioned about my “profession” at a social gathering… EVER.
Come First standard and the number of subjects in school increased manifold, at least for a child. My challenges have just begun…and it’s tiring already.
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