Primary school..

As I go back into the memory lanes of school times, those years seem to have whizzed by. Its like the saying goes....."Time passes quickly when you are happy and having fun." Life was so simple back then. No real worries. Worries were for parents and grownups. Of course, those 'out of the way' classic geeks had there own nightmares of getting 99 out of 100 in the math papers and their dreams of getting 100 on a 100 in the same !!!
Grades 1 to 4 were primary school. The first grade was more a sort of repetition of the kindergarten studies. Nothing had changed much. Our uniforms had changed......Boys in primary school wore a white shirt and grey coloured shorts.....girls wore a grey coloured pinafore and a blouse. Me and ketan still topped our classes. Still, we were'nt the kinda people who would bury their heads in the books. We scored easily. We were good at games like running races, kho kho, 'langdi'. We were allrounders !!! First grade class teacher's name was Mrs Mascarenhas. In primary school we used to have a prayer assembly every day before classes began. We recited prayers and the national anthem. To tell you frankly, it was quite boring to stand in a queue every day.....reciting prayers. We also had a special uniform (white shirt with a big heart on the back of it, and white shorts) for 'Mass PT'...... Every friday, there used to be a double period / class for all the four grades of primary school. All the children were taught basic physical exercises during these classes. New year terms used to start in the monsoons. Children were seen in colourful raincoats splashing in puddles of water, holding their parent's hand and having a time of their lives. Gum boots were very popular with boys back then, although I dont think I ever wore gum boots to school. Every monsoon, I used to ask mom to buy me a pair of gum boots. But my mom always bought me sandles every time, now I dont remember why....never thought of asking her again !!! I used to hate going to school.....especially in monsoons. Just imagine.....You've had a great lunch of hot steaming rice and dal and chappatis....and its cold and raining cats and dogs outside....Would'nt you like to curl up on the bed with a blanket? or would you like to venture outside...in the cold wet climate and go and listen to a teacher's lecture in a classroom which is stinking of people's feet ? Like any normal person, the former option seemed to appeal to me.