School Diaries #2 Lunch Hall & Railings

“Thank you Lord for all the blessings we are about to receive”

I cannot ever forget this grace we said before starting with lunch in the mess. We used to wait for12:20 pm in junior school, 12:55 pm till class 8 and for 1:35 pm till class 12 for it was LUNCH J Its been 5 years I have passed out from school, but I still remember the menu clear and I don’t think there will be any Yadavindrian around the world who would not remember Monday’s ice cream (in summers) and hot gulab jamub (in winters) and Friday’s Rajma Chawal. Wow! The mess bhaiyas had known our eating habits as well as our mothers did.

Sitting on the railings outside the lunch hall before and after the lunch was a favorite of everyone especially for girls as they used to sit on them with their groups and watch the crushes and boyfriends play football (with tennis ball) or cricket (with books) in the assembly area. It used to be such an amazing time during the day. I myself have done that so many times with my friends. LOL.

Inside of the lunch hall was super cool. High table was a dream for every student, right from the time we came to know the importance of sitting on the high table with the principal sir, vice principal ma’am and house masters, each one of us wanted to be a school appointment and be there some day and sharing some light moments with them. I was lucky enough to be one of those appointments and have my share of dream-come-true moment.

As kids, we used to hate when we were stopped from talking and were punished when we didn’t stop by 12thees. We used to be like why are they doing it? And we even pledged that when we become 12thees, we will never do it. But when we actually got the same duties, we understood the responsibility that was put on our shoulders by our teachers, and we did exactly the same to our juniors what our seniors did to us when we were in younger classes. Hahahaha… And there used to be these boards on which the names of all the appointments were written ever since the school started. I am so glad that today I have a name on that board as the Aitchison House Girls Captain for the year 2006.

And after our lunch we finished it with the grace again.

“Thank you Lord for all the blessings we have just received.”

Love is greater than the pressure to be perfect!

This one is all about The pressure to be perfect and the pressure that our society that we live in puts on young people to be perfect and I am prime example of that. I am a young girl. I know the stresses that come along with having to look a certain way, having to do well in school and college/university, family pressures, internal pressures, things that go on in the inside of you and it leads to a lot of unhappiness and depression a lot of times. I hope by the end of this article you guys are able to realize a couple of things that you might not have realized before now.

There are so many pressures to be perfect; like I said the pressure to look a certain way. We all go to colleges and universities and at some point we all think, “Wow that girl is so pretty I wish I looked like that.” In the magazines, when I see girls with flawless skin and perfectly curled bouncy hair, I always think to myself, “Why can’t I be that perfect?” I feel the pressure to be perfect on the outside. A lot of us feel the pressure to be perfect from our families too to achieve exceptional grades that can get us admission in good colleges and universities and it is very stressful and it’s hard to deal with it. I know I get very aggravated when I do the best I possibly can and my parents still say, “Why didn’t you get more marks?” I feel I’m letting them down, I’m letting myself down. I disappoint them. And it’s hard that they put that kind of pressure on me where it makes me feel that I’m not doing a good job at all.

Pressure comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. And many a times when they don’t succeed in certain area that they want to, they feel defeated and they feel that they are not good enough. One of the worst feelings that I have ever felt is the feeling that I wasn’t good enough. That’s a terrible feeling to feel. And I know that you guys can relate because everyone at some point or another doesn’t feel confident with themselves and feel that they could have done better in that area, don’t feel that they didn’t do fullest to their abilities. It affects everyone. Everyone has these times in their lives where they feel they are not doing well enough to please the people around them and that is hard. But the thing you need to know is that no one can be perfect. And no one fits the mould of perfect. To one person it may be completely different than it is for a different person.

Why not treat the other person with love? I’m sure he/she is not doing things (that you don’t like) out of their own wish. There must be some reason for what they are not doing it. Maybe he/she does not have that much retention power and so is not able to score well. Every person has a retention level, but that does not mean they are not intelligent. Maybe his/her intelligence shows up in some other form. All they are asking for is a chance… So before we ask someone to be perfect, we better look down on our flaws and ask ourselves, “Can we do what we are expecting out of the other person? Do I understand his/her state of mind? Am I right in demanding this?” Whatever answer we may get, what we truly need to realize is that Love, indeed, is greater than the pressure to be perfect! 

Mother's Day Special- Mama's Girl

Why is it clichéd as Daddy’s Girl or Mama’s Boy? Not that I am against it or something, but it just sets me thinking at times. (At times? Am I not always on the “Thinking Mode”? LOL) so yeah, Daddy’s Boy and Mama’s Girl sound equally good, right? Why in our society then, do we hear only what once has been once said? I agree that girls share an amazing bond with their fathers (for most cases) and boys share a great deal of closeness with their mothers. But I believe it is same the case for vice-versa.

I am a Mama’s Girl to the core and the deepest of the core. And I feel so happy when people associate me to her in terms of my resemblance to her. Like seriously! Whenever one of her friends meets me for the first time, they always tell me that they could have recognized me even if my mom did not tell them that I am her daughter. I don’t know, but for some reason, it makes me feel so good. Not just the resemblance, I feel blessed to have acquired almost all of my mother’s features- my smile, my eyes (my two features that I just LOVE). She has taught me to be what I am today and must I say, I am indeed proud of myself. One of the most important things she taught me is never to depend on anybody for anything, be it for some personal works, financially, going somewhere etc. She says that whatever you want to do, do it without waiting for someone else to take you there or someone else to do it. Another important thing she taught me to never keep anyone’s hard earned credit as in like never to plagiarize, be it someone’s money, credit for some work or anything. If you have something, which you know is not yours; you should never take its credit. Rather give it back to the person who actually deserves it. And I feel if one inculcates these teachings in their lives, they can never go wrong with their life, because that ways, they know where they stand in life.

The only thing I did not inherit from my mother is her patience. And how I wish I had the same tolerance level as she has. She has been through the thick and thin of life without a streak of line on her forehead. Such an amazing patience and tolerance level she has (touch wood). I, on the other hand, have no patience at all. And it is something one should really really have. It helps you to get through a lot in life.

The only thing I am happy not to have inherited from my mother is her hair. LOL. She has these coily, curly, wavy hairs which are like ultra-difficult to manage and the worst thing is that you cannot leave them open or even in a ponytail. Other than this, I am so grateful to God for making me totally like mummy.

I share almost everything with my mother. Obviously there are some things you just cannot share. You get where I am going, right? ;) Shopping, cooking, house cleaning, beauty sessions, gossip, secrets, bitching and I could go on and on with the list of things we do together. (Story of every girl!) I guess mothers and daughters share an amazing bond that cannot be shared by anyone else on this earth and it is such a beautiful relationship. I remember a poem we did in class 10, The Queen’s Rival by Sarojini Naidu. She has so beautifully explained the mother-daughter bond.

On this special day, all I want to say is that I Love You momma, and you are my idol. I just hope that I am able to make you proud one day and I wish to be a daughter, sister, wife and a mother as good, wonderful and amazing as you. 

The Queen's Rival

http://www.poetry-archive.com/n/the_queens_rival.html

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.