School Diaries #1 Assembly Area

“Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.”  

This is how our everyday began, with the principal and other teachers speaking it while the whole school stood in prayer position for a good 12 years. Could there be any better way? I doubt!

Assembly area has so many memories attached to it that even if I want to count them, I will probably never be able to do that. Our school assembly started at 8-15 a.m. and the first bell rang at 8-10 a.m. But we always reached school around 7-50 a.m., rush to our classrooms to book our seats and come to assembly area, where we used to wait for our other friends and talk and sometimes copy home-works sitting on the choir stand. I remember once when we were walking and taking down the assembly area towards the main gate, a boys’ group was playing football with a tennis ball (yes that was a very common sight at Y.P.S.) and it hit one of my friends- Shivani. Tigi, if you are reading this, thank you for making this memory ever-lasting. So yes it hit her and the way she jumped, turned around and hit that one guy who came to take the ball was super-duper hilarious. (I’m laughing so bad right now.)

Then during fruit breaks and lunch breaks we used to play corner to corner, stapu, chain chain, crocodile crocodile, oonch nich ka paapda and so many more games as kids. And just talk and gossip as we grew older and sometimes also date ;) hahaha… we used to stand around the Y.P.S. dais and talk about our crush and stare at them.  

From principal’s speech, to his lectures, to Sethi ma’am’s explanation on why we celebrate the festival that was around the corner, to gathering there for treks, to gather there for Aitchison house’s (my house) house assembly, to play, to get punished for not wearing belt in tunic loops or extra short socks or painted nails, or long nails (girls, any bells ringing) or not polished shoes, no school belt on trousers guys not wearing turban (taking rounds around the cemented area), and last but not the least- our farewell dinner, this place has just so many wonderful memories attached to it. And how I wish I could attend the morning assembly someday again in my life. Amen.