first day at school

It was first day of school. The new timing will be from 8:15 AM to 3:30 PM. A full day of school for a student going from UKG to standard I. Everything was set and normal as I neared the school. There were butterflies inside mine and I am sure my daughter's stomach too.

There were few brave souls with handycam in hand. They were the brave ones who sailed through the confused parents and student lots to take a video of the dreaded morning. 

Fortunately, we knew the section but not its location. To my surprise my daughter went across to a lady and pulled me along in the process. She softly asked the lady who I believed was a teached in one of her previous sections. The teacher gave directions with a hand spread out to cover half the earth.

After few wrong classrooms we touched the correct section. It faced the prayer hall and had steps taking you down into the open. My daughters stomach gave in and with teary eyes she mentioned that she had to answer the big call from nature. I pressed her to go to her old known toilet but she refused saying teacher would not allow. I feared the dress would color in the meanwhile.

A nice gentleman with housekeeping written all over him went past with a wiff of wind as I screamed "toilet kahan hai". He gave clear direction and I reached the place. 

There was no marking on the outside. I was about to step into the boys one when a good parent hinted me that the one that she used was for girls. 

We managed to finish the first job well and then I heard Parents please and simply walked out, relieved.

Later in the day was the time to pick up and I reached there at about 3:20 PM. There were columns of vehicle of anxious parents who thought the roads were opened for parking today. It was difficult to walk through the maze and I overheard all walking parents cursing the car and their drivers. Luckily my car was parked on sandy ground away from the road and thus the comments got delfected by my seams.

There were two gates. On one particular gate all parents were ready to crush it and thus I decided to kiss the gate with minimum impact and stood in anticipation. By this time the security hinted enough that the kids would come through my gate and in milliseconds I lost my prime spot and stood somewhere in the corner. 

I saw the standard Ist kids coming and fortunately the teacher took them to other gates. There was sudden chatter of which gate their wards would come through. I did not find a prime spot there and was made to stand on heels looking for a view. The poor teacher would say the name of child and it would be lost in din of parents catching up on more important aspects of life than their immediate concern.

My kid arrived and I took her up and enquired about her day. She amazed me with the range of classes that she had on day 1, dance,hindi and instructions to learn more about computers. 

It was not over yet as I enquired about lunch box and she could not locate it. We rushed back to class teacher. 

My daughter was calmed by the confused walking through the maze of vehicle again after a tearful fear that mother would be mad at her and the people who clean the classroom would take away her lunch box. Parents were going in all directions.  Now even the senior classes were out on the road choking up the bandwidth. 

First stop was class teacher who thought for a while and immediately said "Go ahead and find for yourself". Second stop was a smartly dressed gentleman "Sir, Parents are not allowed". I said "Go fetch me the luch box from her class". Again smart move by smartly dressed gentleman "Ok sir Go ahead". I was hoping for a third stop but the lady ignored me and I was once again in standard I.