Back to School

Should this feeling of renewal be a prerogative of only children?

- Gayathri Ramachandran

April and May are two months of the year when majority of people are on vacation, as most schools and colleges are closed. It is the time for relaxing in exotic locations inside and outside the country or in a quiet retreat at their native place. Parents make all efforts to spend as much as time as possible with their children trying to break away from their busy office or business schedules. These two months pass off in a jiffy and makes one yearn for more of these! Just when all are giving into the slowed down pace of life, June pops up without any wait. The better part of this month is spent on buying uniforms, books, school bags, tiffin boxes, stationery and what not? Excited with the renewed energy from their vacation children start thinking ahead about their new class, friends, teachers and the difficult subjects too. Come June, it's time for them to be back to school!

While purchasing the ‘essential commodities’, as I fondly call them, at a nearby stationery shop, I became unknowingly aware of many people like me in the shop, who were purchasing 'these' for their children to get back to school. Out of curiosity I was looking for a familiar face and I was not let down. I did spot a couple of parents from the school of my children and so also a colleague, a teacher who works with me. After the usual exchange of pleasantries I asked her the most obvious and rhetoric question! “Yes, the school for my children reopens in a couple of days and I am here to purchase the ‘stocks’ for the year! They are ‘Back to School’, in a couple of days”, replied she, spontaneously. I continued my shopping, after we parted company.