It’s been so
many years now, 26 years to be precise, that I have only faint recollection of
the sequence of events.
Since the school
didn’t arrange a picnic for us, we decided that we are grown up enough to plan
a picnic to Bordih dam for ourselves. We were in class X H at that time.
We thought,
maybe we were grownups, but we should take some elders with us as it was not a
school picnic and teachers would not be accompanying us. This would also help
all the students to get permission at the home front. So, we started scouting
for the elders. My paternal uncle and aunt were guests at our place at the
time. I convinced them and we got parents of another student to accompany us.
When we reached the
school on Monday morning, all of the happy go lucky students of our picnic were
in for a shock! We were made to stand in front of the Principal’s office and
asked to bring our parents to school without which we would not be allowed into
the school premises.
When I went home
to tell this to my parents, they were not ready to meet the Principal, Borle
Sir.
I did not go to
school for may be a week and kept crying for as many days. My uncle and aunt
tried to console me saying I need not worry since they had accompanied us. But
for me, it was a matter of worry all the more and I would start sobbing louder.
Also, we as our
friends, started analyzing the situation as to why our parents were called. We
arrived at the conclusion that we went for the picnic on a Saturday, ie, we
bunked our classes that day and the other mistake was to board the bus for the
picnic in front of our school main gate! If it would have been a Sunday,
nothing of this sort would have happened…
Then somehow I
braved to go to school where I was surprised to find that I could attend
classes without being stopped by any teacher. After a few years, I came to know
that my father had talked to the Principal on the phone and kept it a secret so
that I would learn a lesson from this episode.