Yesterday I watched “GIPPY” movie and it transported me back in time to my old school days. The scenes and songs from the movie were sweet reminiscent of my happiest times at Bishop Westcott Girl’s school. There are so many funny and mischievous moments of those days that bring back smiles and joyous tears to my eyes and this one post is not enough to put down all my thoughts. I will narrate though, few of the funny incidents here. My boarding school is known for its strict discipline where punishment is the normal consequence of naughtiness and I had fallen preyed to it many times.
One incident I vividly remember was when I got punished for not finishing my snack in dining hall. It was the rule to finish off all our food in mess and not bring it to the dormitory. After our tea break, we had to stand in queue to freshen up and get dressed up for games. On that particular day, we were given cream roll for snacks and you know it takes time to munch one big roll. I just grabbed it and ran to be first in queue. Unfortunately, I was caught by my matron Miss Jennifer and yes the punishment was unusual this time. I was asked to bring needle and thread and she then made the garland out of cream roll. It was tied around my neck and I was asked to play the games with the cream roll necklace being around my neck for the whole time! Juniors, seniors, teachers and of course my classmates had good time watching me with my new accessory. Play time was for an hour and by the time it ended my cream roll length also reduced to one fourth. My friends came and had good bite of cream roll in between the games. By the time punishment was over, all that was left out of that poor necklace was an inch pendant.
Accessories reminded me of another incident where I was punished for keeping eatables in my closet. It was again the rule to keep all our home snacks in tuck tin and in separate tuck room. Usually during school time we used to have 15 minutes break to have snacks from tuck room. We were not allowed to keep it with us in dormitory. One week before the winter break my mom visited me and brought lot of eatables along with her. As only one week was left for vacation, I kept the snacks with me. Same day at night, while chit chatting, I opened the biscuit packet to share it with my friend. I was not aware that Miss Jennifer (yes She again!!) was on her round and the moment I opened the packet, Miss Jennifer entered. She took the packet from me and asked me to see her in the morning. Remembering my punishment of cream roll, I knew what was going to come. Next day she tied the biscuit wrapper and it gave the appearance of a bow in my neck. Just imagine the combination of biscuit wrapper bow with my school uniform and tie. I had to wear that for the breakfast and luckily before leaving for my morning assembly I was asked to part away with it.
Another funny incident I remember from those days was, when we were caught in the middle of night talking. Frustrated with the loud noise and laughter, Miss Das came with her stick to teach us the lesson of being awake late at night. She came inside and instantly she started banging at my friend Nidhi’s bed. We could hear her scream with pain with each hit. After venting out her frustration, Miss Das gave us last warning and left for her room. We all had a good laugh when she told us that not even a single stick hit her. Her blanket was the sufferer. She screamed just to portray she is the victim. I will never forget those bitter sweet moments and how I wish I could relive those days once again.
