All my thoughts were entangled and intertwined together when Diet principal announced to first year students to give representations for practice in schools ,, the option obviously was kept very simple - firstly near the residence and then next best option was just 5-6 km away from the place of residence , which clearly meant that there had been a 10 km radius,, which had been stopping me from moving out my place ,, even after passing out the school ,,and joining this elementary teaching course ,, about which nothing was exciting and nothing fascinating,, neither the curriculum nor the crowd .
Mid October 2010 , came this teaching practice module carrying 100 marks , to be practiced in some government primary schools nearby . It sounded both ways : good and bad . Good for the cause of not attending an 8 hours college curriculum and to end the day by 1pm and enjoy the other half day really in good moods ! And bad because of fear of not knowing how to teach !
But overall it was quite hilarious feeling to reach the school and be a part for the whole day !
We filled our preferences and being little more lucky than others got this MC primary boys school placed just 500 mtrs away from my school . We were a peer group of 10 girls coming from the nearby vicinity.
On 10th October we went to school for the first time and visited the principal office sharp at 8am . We were told to put aside the stuff and attend the assembly first ; the best part of morning is prayers , which can only be experienced in schools throughout the life of a teacher ,, since teachers start going to school at the age of 4-5 years and leave the school by the age of 60. Initially they school themselves and later their students.
So we attended the assembly by standing separately and avoid any whispering with each other, just to throw some good impression "of would be teachers " on the students as well the teachers and the principal.
The sequence of assembly was : firstly it was vande mataram then a Hindi prayer followed by the National Anthem and then students were made to sit and listen to some news items , thought of the day and go through the supervision of their uniform and nails etc.
So we were passively made to learn the Suit of assembly and then onwards were expected to follow the same .
The students coming over there to speak before the assembly were so excited and confident that I admired their confidence and self doubted myself as if I were be able to speak in place of them . Suddenly removing this negative thought from my mind I reminded myself of the marvellous stage performances I gave in my school time and the play we performed on the theme " revolt of 1857 " just two months back on the occasion of 15th august our Independence Day ; the national festival ,, and regained myself out of that self doubt trap .
As the assembly was adjourned, students started moving back to classes in perfectly lined up queues just like the black Ants squads which move in the line of grains of sugar crystals. It was a proud moment thinking that I have travelled half of it ; from being a student to being a trainee ,, and soon would be becoming a teacher too .
We were called up in office for some formalilties and assigned one one classes each ! I got 3rd A , that was class teachered by Ms Sunita , a white swollen but smiling face with a tall and heavy body stature in her late thirties, appearing like my maternal aunty( buaji ) .
It was a rumour made in our institute that trainee teachers would be bombarded with lot of works and unnecessary responsibilities but I didn't find it so . It was pleasant to go to the class , attending the students roll calls and asking them their names .
First time in life I didn't hear - pooja, Priti , Jyoti etc because it was an all boys schools,, so I heard - Saurabh, Gaurav, Mohit Amit Sumit etc. One thing fascinated me ; which was they used to call out their names along with their father's name - for example, sumit bholaRam . I still remember that small round nitty gritty short heighted fair boy calling his name -Aman Laddudas .. and out of a sudden all students broke into a huge laughter, then the teacher inside me woke up and scolded them for the first time for not making fun of anybody again and told me a short moral story of Sonu based on a his trapping up into troubles due to that naughty nature.
I then introduced myself as ms Kaveri !
First bell rung but no teacher switched so I asked why madam ,, she told me hell system works only in senior schools and there only one teacher taught for the whole day .
Time went on and we reached to the mid day ... the most awaited time of the day for students to have their meals during lunch time ..
I was assigned duty near the mid day meal distribution table where Aunties were distributing the food to students.
Suddenly I noticed two eyes peeing behind the pole and staring at me ,, I noticed them during assembly also but didn't pay much attention , but this time these were really demanding . When I looked more closely he didn't remove his gaze away but looked more deeper with a pronounced ease . This reminded me now off a piece of conversation with him 12 years later in 2022 when I asked him ,, what was that on that day !! He said " my life" .He replied that something had stirred in him and shaken his so far travelled 13 years of life and he for the first time realised something called love or he could just lived it for a while which was called the love at first sight . He defined every small thing of mine in such a beautiful and vivid manner ,, that I was surprised to know that how could he remember that day so finely after 12 years.
He said ," I was playing with my friends and running through out the corridors when I saw you entering the school with your friends, the other trainee teacher. I was curious to know if new teachers have arrived to each us . I stopped at ones to see you , your presence made me feel different. You were wearing a white suit dotted in black with black leggings complimented with a black scarf wearing the casual black Adidas shoes .. your waist long semi dry hair , fairly glowing face with pointed black eyebrows ,, eyeballs framed with a frameless spectacles ,,ears without any earrings unlike other trainees ,, and the astonishing black mole on the left side of chin totally took something away from me . I was a kid of 5th grade but I felt something of an age much superior to that of mine .
I was looking at you all the time .. I wanted to know your name , to talk to you,, to learn from you . I wanted you to be my teacher. My only wish that day was that you should be allowed my class ,, but unfortunately you didn't , and Kirti mam was given instead. I got upset to her in the first period . I went three times out of class with the excuses of water and loo ,, to knw your whereabouts,, finally in lunch break I got to see you again and caught myself up into your eyes gazing at you ...