A very tiny school.    (20)

                                                                                                                 

                 Central  school at that time had classes only from 6 to 10 ,and only next year will it go on to the 11th and confront the public exams for the first time. Total strength of school for the 5 classes is just a 100 or so . Average 20 to a class. 90% of the children are from defence families .A total mix of all states.  English is spoken  by the majority and only a few  speak in Hindi amongst themselves. There are a few Lushai girls from the Mizo hills but not a single Khasi.

            The teachers are mostly Assamese or Bengali,the Hindi and Sanskrit teachers are from UP ,we have one Lushai and one Garo teacher. (She comes from the Garo hills.) The Garo lady who is our English teacher and also my class teacher is a Miss Irene Sangma. Sangma like the later day politicians.  She has done her UG  at WCC Madras. 

                Okay I suppose you get the picture. We are a cosmopolitan school. Suddenly we develop brains .Appa would have it that it was a case of the one eyed being king in the land of the blind. My elder brother with a vast store of information on all subjects ,  my younger brother with his keen interest in electrical experiments become the darling of the teachers and I , okay lets just say I pretend to be the cat's whiskers.

                Days start as early as 4.30 . That is what happens if you have just one time zone in a country spread east to  west. Alright you can sleep early too.Schools adjust timings accordingly.

                Let us come out of the school for a minute. The hill people are  fair. The men are in the universal dress of pants and shirts.The women mostly dress traditionally. The khasi women wear two towel like clothing over a  long blouse. Both towels tied across the chest on the shoulders The women are the industrious ones , we see them at market places manning shops. All are rosy cheeked, more so the children. Infants and toddlers are carried on the back in cloth cradles hanging from the head. This is how everything is carried ,bamboo baskets on the back hanging from the head to carry your produce. We like this a lot and this is how we carry our cloth book bags to school.

                     The Lushai women however dress differently.They wear a long blouse and a dhoti/lungi. Only the dhoti like thing is woven on their own looms at home in various beautiful colours and patterns. This is how our two teachers from here dress. I can tell you they were  very chic.

                As we are on the subject of the Lushais let me add this here. Every year some Lushai girls would join the school. I would wonder at their courage  in facing two alien languages, Hindi and Sanskrit. Their focus would be however on something  else. They would wait for the annual sports and games , participate get their certificates  and then move on. They would all excel in games and athletics. Is something being done to channelise their talent ? I wonder.

                We have been at the school for hardly a week when the heavens open up.