Vivid memories of my childhood boarding days

My School

I looked at my mother, and noticed her tears rolling down her lovely cheek. My tiny little hands wiped her tears, kissed her cheek and whispered in her ears “Don’t worry mummy, I am 10 years old girl now and I know how to take care of myself”. With that sweet little comment, I could notice smile at her face. She embraced me tightly, dried her tears and she said “ Just remember mummy loves you a lot and I know one day, you will make me proud.” She left me in my dormitory and with a heavy heart moved towards her car. I ran towards the corridor just to catch a last glimpse of her face before vacation and waved her goodbye. I said softly “Mummy, I will miss you. “ At that moment I was having mixed emotions, sad for being away from my sweet home but excited to experience new hostel life. Many random thoughts popped up about this new life at that instant. Suddenly ring of a bell brought me to reality, breaking me from my thoughts. Miss Jennifer (My new matron) informed me that it’s play time and I should quickly get dressed up to join my new classmates.

I wore my new shoes, new clothes and of course how I could forget my lovely clips to put on my hair. Before leaving I assured to look good, after all I was about to meet my new friends for the first time. I ran towards the playground, to join the group. To my disappointment, none of them noticed me not even my lovely clips. All of them were playing in their own formed group and were not even bothered to look at their surroundings. Out of my shyness I didn’t even approach any group. For one complete hour, I did nothing except to miss my old school friends and my home.  After dinner we all went to our dormitories. I thought this would be a good chance to do friendship with them. All the girls were busy chitchatting with their bed side partners, sharing funny stories, joking with each other. Again,I was ignored completely.

Suddenly something struck my mind and I started fumbling through my nicely arranged clothes to find it. I searched for it for half an hour but couldn’t found it. I lost my control and started crying. Seeing me weeping, one girl came to me and asked “Are you a new girl?” Wiping my tears I nodded my head.  She smiled and introduced herself as Nidhi and then asked,” What are you searching inside your cupboard, any precious possession?” I said “My Family Photographs”.  She looked at my clip and said “Hey, beautiful clip, can I borrow it for one day?”  I nodded with a wry smile. I thought it would be a good trade off between friendship and clip. Quite happy with her clip deal, Nidhi introduced me to her all group members. I learnt that day sharing is the best way to win hearts of others. Half heartedly I even distributed my chocolates among all girls in dormitory. This worked and they started chitchatting with me and even shared few funny and scary ghost stories about this hostel. Suddenly light was put off and it was time to sleep. At the end of my first day, I was happy to be part of my new classmates and I completely forgot about the photographs too.

Next day at 4:30 am Miss Jennifer gave wake up call. Reluctantly I got up, with half eyes open and waiting for my mother’s instruction to take bath. Miss Jennifer’s shrill voice woke me from my dreams and then I realized I have only 45 minutes left to get dressed up. With brush in my hand, I ran towards the washroom to get freshen up. Seeing the long queue, I was aghast. Pressure was building in my stomach but somehow I managed and finally was ready on time. After studying for one hour, it was breakfast time. Whole day went smoothly attending classes, studying and playing. I made few more friends on that day and I was happy.

I was very naughty in my childhood and the one who always got into trouble. Definitely, my mischievousness continued here too. One incident I vividly remember, I planned to scare my bedside partner Shambhavi. I knew she believed in ghosts and had heard many hostel stories too. From beforehand, I took rest of my dormitory mates into confidence and they were happy to be part of this wicked plan. One night, after lights were put off, I covered myself with white sheet, smeared my face with white powder and made few red marks around my lips to look like blood. I wrapped my face with white scarf and planned to put small white flash light under my chin. I waited till Miss Jennifer was back to her room. As per our plan, Shweta asked Shambhavi to accompany her to the loo. When she got up from her bed, I jumped at her. She was scared to death and she screamed at the top of her lungs. Hearing her terrified yell, Miss Jennifer hurriedly came to inquire about the incident. Being the main culprit, I knew I was in great trouble. As a punishment, I had to stand in front of Miss Jennifer’s room for the whole night. It was a different story that I didn’t obey her and brought my sheet and pillow to sleep on floor. Next day, it was not surprising for others to see me standing in front of Principal’s office.

There are many such stories about my boarding  school. I still cherish those funny and mischievous moments.