Teacher's Day
Old story, new writing.
“Guys, teacher’s day is coming up and we got to organise the event”, screamed Gautham. Yeah man, was the answer that everyone else echoed. That was 26th August 1995, the school: Manipur Public School, place of conversation: The canteen.
Now, we were in the 12th standard, our last year of school, never thought of leaving this school in the last 12 years but this was our last year. 16 of us had made it to the 12th year in the same school. A bunch of die hard school lovers. We had the best and the worst amongst us. The best in studies was with us as well the worst. We were friends and we were the seniormost in the school. It was OUR school and we could do anything that we wanted. Be it anything, from ragging new comers to bunking class to organising events, the 16 of us handled everything.
So, it was time for us to continue the school tradition of having the seniormost students in the school organise the teacher’s day event. This event is the biggest one. I still remember, once the budget of the event crossed 5 lakh Rupees. There were fights during the event, it used to be a well organised chaos. Everyone loved this chaos. The event will start off with a welcome song, then speech by the principal, then followed by songs, dance and finally the rock concert. It used to be a mammouth 7 hours long event. This was history and we wanted to do something different. Something that will remain as a good memory.
The planning started. All 16 of us gathered. Sandhya and Priya opted out because they did not want to be part of the team. Fine, no issues. The biggest question was, “how do we make it different?”. Everybody had their own thoughts, someone said, lets do it outside the school (which happenned once), someone said, lets make it more extravagant. The list went on and on. The morning meeting turned into afternoon then evening meeting. However, there was no conclusion. That same day, after school, a bunch of us met up in our local “ADDA” for smokes and tea (yeah we used to smoke then, dont be surprised and raise your eyebrow). During the conversation, it was agreed that, instead of making a huge event, lets make it small and more memorable. Lets do everything with a twist. The pandals used to be up a day before the event, we will put it up on the day itself. The food used to be pre-packed, we will pack it on the day itself and the whole school used to participate, but this time its going to be only the 10th, 11th and the 12th standard. So, it was decided, then and there over a couple of teas and smoke. Thats it, informal meetings are more productive with nicotine induced brains. huh, whatever.
5th September 1995 is a day, the underground millitants of manipur has called for a boycoutt. WHAT? WHY? god only knows. “They are insane”, Amarjeet said. Whatever; we will do this event, this is our school and no one dictates us. That was the resolution. However, our principal had a different idea. He proposed to have the event on the 6th instead of the 5th, the only reason being, he did not want any confrontation with the millitants. OK, group discussion, what do we do? “Fine” said everyone in unison.
3AM: 6th September, I was giving finishing touches to the banner. Gautham will be here any minute, we have to reach school before 3:30AM. I could hear Gautham’s bike sound from a distance, I knew he was here, packed up everything and opened the gate. “Whats up? ready?” he asked. “Yup”, lets go. The school is a good 9 kms aways from the city. The sunrise at 3.30AM was amazing. At exactly 3.45AM, everyone was there except for one teacher in whose room we had kept all the necessary equipments for the pandal, and he has the key!!. Excellent, what do we do? Simple! break the lock. Bang bang, went Mir. The lock breaks and Azad sir’s voice comes in “broke already? can’t wait for some more time or what?”. No sir, we have a dealine was Mir’s answer.
So, it was me, Gautham, Mir, Raju, Amarjeet, Haridev, Atomba, Krishnachandra, Romesh, Denise, Koireng, Senate, Mahesh and Sukumar, at the helm of everything. First, the pandal. This was the usual multi colored ones with bamboo poles, was easy, just took about 30 minutes to erect it. Then came out the benches from the classrooms, that took about an hour to set up. Finally, it was the stage decoration, my work :-( . The screen was up, 4 people were sweeping the stage floor, 4 people went back to the city to get the gift for the teachers and the food. It was 7.45 AM when we were done. Relaxing and admiring our work with a smoke, the first bus comes in. Oh oh, Run for cover, no one should see, we were smoking. Did anyone? whatever. Now, what next? Mir runs with a chain in his hand to lock the school main gate. “School gate will open at 8:45AM” that was what he wrote and stuck up on the gate. Nice idea.
In the mean time, 4 people who went to get the food and gift, came back. The rest of us were supposed to go back, refresh and come back.
Girl power: The food was unpacked and nothing was in order. Girls??? please help. Thats when the girls of 12th standard walked in. And they say, the rest is history.
After a slight delay, the function started with a devotional song at 9:15AM. Then a speech by the principal, then a traditional dance from the students of XI STD, then couple of songs, then every teacher was called up for the gift, and the gift was simple. A simple “Teeka” in the forehead, a small coconut piece, thats it. No safari suits, no sarees and all, nothing but the “teeka and coconut”. Finally, the national anthem.
That was it, so much for an event. At the end everybody was happy. HAPPY TEACHER’S DAY
“Guys, teacher’s day is coming up and we got to organise the event”, screamed Gautham. Yeah man, was the answer that everyone else echoed. That was 26th August 1995, the school: Manipur Public School, place of conversation: The canteen.
Now, we were in the 12th standard, our last year of school, never thought of leaving this school in the last 12 years but this was our last year. 16 of us had made it to the 12th year in the same school. A bunch of die hard school lovers. We had the best and the worst amongst us. The best in studies was with us as well the worst. We were friends and we were the seniormost in the school. It was OUR school and we could do anything that we wanted. Be it anything, from ragging new comers to bunking class to organising events, the 16 of us handled everything.
So, it was time for us to continue the school tradition of having the seniormost students in the school organise the teacher’s day event. This event is the biggest one. I still remember, once the budget of the event crossed 5 lakh Rupees. There were fights during the event, it used to be a well organised chaos. Everyone loved this chaos. The event will start off with a welcome song, then speech by the principal, then followed by songs, dance and finally the rock concert. It used to be a mammouth 7 hours long event. This was history and we wanted to do something different. Something that will remain as a good memory.
The planning started. All 16 of us gathered. Sandhya and Priya opted out because they did not want to be part of the team. Fine, no issues. The biggest question was, “how do we make it different?”. Everybody had their own thoughts, someone said, lets do it outside the school (which happenned once), someone said, lets make it more extravagant. The list went on and on. The morning meeting turned into afternoon then evening meeting. However, there was no conclusion. That same day, after school, a bunch of us met up in our local “ADDA” for smokes and tea (yeah we used to smoke then, dont be surprised and raise your eyebrow). During the conversation, it was agreed that, instead of making a huge event, lets make it small and more memorable. Lets do everything with a twist. The pandals used to be up a day before the event, we will put it up on the day itself. The food used to be pre-packed, we will pack it on the day itself and the whole school used to participate, but this time its going to be only the 10th, 11th and the 12th standard. So, it was decided, then and there over a couple of teas and smoke. Thats it, informal meetings are more productive with nicotine induced brains. huh, whatever.
5th September 1995 is a day, the underground millitants of manipur has called for a boycoutt. WHAT? WHY? god only knows. “They are insane”, Amarjeet said. Whatever; we will do this event, this is our school and no one dictates us. That was the resolution. However, our principal had a different idea. He proposed to have the event on the 6th instead of the 5th, the only reason being, he did not want any confrontation with the millitants. OK, group discussion, what do we do? “Fine” said everyone in unison.
3AM: 6th September, I was giving finishing touches to the banner. Gautham will be here any minute, we have to reach school before 3:30AM. I could hear Gautham’s bike sound from a distance, I knew he was here, packed up everything and opened the gate. “Whats up? ready?” he asked. “Yup”, lets go. The school is a good 9 kms aways from the city. The sunrise at 3.30AM was amazing. At exactly 3.45AM, everyone was there except for one teacher in whose room we had kept all the necessary equipments for the pandal, and he has the key!!. Excellent, what do we do? Simple! break the lock. Bang bang, went Mir. The lock breaks and Azad sir’s voice comes in “broke already? can’t wait for some more time or what?”. No sir, we have a dealine was Mir’s answer.
So, it was me, Gautham, Mir, Raju, Amarjeet, Haridev, Atomba, Krishnachandra, Romesh, Denise, Koireng, Senate, Mahesh and Sukumar, at the helm of everything. First, the pandal. This was the usual multi colored ones with bamboo poles, was easy, just took about 30 minutes to erect it. Then came out the benches from the classrooms, that took about an hour to set up. Finally, it was the stage decoration, my work :-( . The screen was up, 4 people were sweeping the stage floor, 4 people went back to the city to get the gift for the teachers and the food. It was 7.45 AM when we were done. Relaxing and admiring our work with a smoke, the first bus comes in. Oh oh, Run for cover, no one should see, we were smoking. Did anyone? whatever. Now, what next? Mir runs with a chain in his hand to lock the school main gate. “School gate will open at 8:45AM” that was what he wrote and stuck up on the gate. Nice idea.
In the mean time, 4 people who went to get the food and gift, came back. The rest of us were supposed to go back, refresh and come back.
Girl power: The food was unpacked and nothing was in order. Girls??? please help. Thats when the girls of 12th standard walked in. And they say, the rest is history.
After a slight delay, the function started with a devotional song at 9:15AM. Then a speech by the principal, then a traditional dance from the students of XI STD, then couple of songs, then every teacher was called up for the gift, and the gift was simple. A simple “Teeka” in the forehead, a small coconut piece, thats it. No safari suits, no sarees and all, nothing but the “teeka and coconut”. Finally, the national anthem.
That was it, so much for an event. At the end everybody was happy. HAPPY TEACHER’S DAY
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