Tag: Childhood

This is about my elder son DJ, just when he started going to Nursery School.

He had joined The Sacred Heart School, Sidhbari in Kangra, India in the month of November, a very cold month in the foothills of the great Dhauladhar Range of the Himalayas.

On that particularly cold day, DJ came back from school on the school bus saying that the school was closed. The insistence by the bus conductor that the school is not closed had been of no avail. He had managed to convince the bus conductor that his school was closed and therefore, he needed to be home. Now, that seemed quite difficult to believe. The school authorities would have definitely been prompt in informing the parents about the school being closed, all of a sudden for whatever reason. Soon the school bus also left and The Bitter Half (well, that’s what I call my better half!) decided to cross-check with the other parents and was told that the school was open. Baack then, there was no way to check out with the school other than by going to the school itself. Mobile phones were non-existent and we did not have a landline telephone – it was yet to be installed in the house.

The Bitter Half, well she has a keen perception of the way kids think, decided that the reason for the elder one coming back was not that the school was closed for the day but because of some other reason. She immediately dumped the school bag along with the DJ in the car and off she went to the school, perplexed and amused she could not decide. This seemed interesting.

At the entrance to the school, it was amply clear that the school was not closed. There were children in the classrooms whom one could hear sing their nursery rhymes, from as far away as the school gate, unless of course, this school was a haunted one! There were other signs as well, like the school peon, who was polite in telling that during school hours you could only go up to the office premises and not beyond, lest you disturb the students who were attending their classes. When The Bitter Half reached the school office she felt fortunate that the Principal was there. She the entire story to the Principal who seemed amused. She also told how DJ had managed to come back home saying that the school was closed. The Principal called for DJ and asked him why had he gone back from the school when the school was open. The answer was prompt – ‘Sister, the school is closed”. The principal told DJ that the school was not closed and all the students were there. All the trying to tell was of no help in convincing DJ that the school wasn’t closed. Finally, she asked DJ to go to his classroom.

DJ would surely have met some of his classmates and any child could infer from the activity that the school was not having a holiday that cold winter day. The Principal and The Bitter Half were still wondering what was in the boy’s mind when DJ returned to the office and announced that the school was indeed closed!

The Principal decided that it would be better to accompany the student who was so sure about the school being closed when it was actually open. She asked DJ to lead the way to the classroom. On reaching the classroom, DJ went up to the door, which was shut to keep the bitter cold out. With all the exasperation he could muster for not believing him that the school was closed, he very confidently pointed to the class door and said, ” I told you, school is closed!” The Principal pushed open the door and I ‘am sure DJ would have given that typical quizzical look he often did at that age when he experienced a sudden perception change. At that point, I was not there but I am sure that he was probably more in wonder and far less ashamed that his conviction proved to be incorrect. He just shrugged his shoulders, said by to The Bitter Half and walked to his seat to attend school. The Bitter Half and the Principal stood smiling, in a failed attempt to not show their amusement to the teacher who would only know why one of her favourite students was absent from the class because “The School was not open”!

A small boy has his perception of things – his school is his classroom and everything happening within that room – how he spends his time with his classmates or his teacher is his school. Beyond that classroom whatever that is associated with the ‘school’ is beyond his idea of what a school is ‘school’. Having a talk about his ‘school’ always meant having a talk about his classmates and his teacher and whatever happened within the confines of the classroom for the rest of the school was a playground.

It is so easy for parents to assume that small kids will perceive things the way grown-ups will perceive them, especially having never taken the effort to make them understand simple things as they develop their perceptions. I ‘am now grateful for a whole lot of things that DJ has learnt on his own many things without having been told. I have often talked about this incident and what it taught us as raised two good boys to be good successful citizens. It was a great lesson – simple thoughts do convey a lot.

Thank God for such good times that make us smile even today.