I was a brilliant student in the eyes of my parents and my principal ( do not remember her name though) who suggested my parents to admit me in the best school of the city (rather town :D) - 'Sacred Heart Convent School
My school was situated 15 kms away from the cantonment ( called Lalgarh Cant. हिंदी में लालगढछावनी) where i used to stay as my father was a defense employee and he provided his services to an Army Unit ( 24 FAD) as an Accountant/Cashier and OS (office superintendent) in his last days.We used to have those special school buses - ARMY trucks that were modified to serve as bus. I still wonder why normal buses could not be deployed, may be to save cost (as army had plenty of trucks) , may be show the civilians that we army people are different or may be an innovative mind thought of putting his thought into practice.
My school was situated 15 kms away from the cantonment ( called Lalgarh Cant. हिंदी में लालगढछावनी) where i used to stay as my father was a defense employee and he provided his services to an Army Unit ( 24 FAD) as an Accountant/Cashier and OS (office superintendent) in his last days.We used to have those special school buses - ARMY trucks that were modified to serve as bus. I still wonder why normal buses could not be deployed, may be to save cost (as army had plenty of trucks) , may be show the civilians that we army people are different or may be an innovative mind thought of putting his thought into practice.
Whatever it may be, I liked the design very much unlike other buses it had no windows at the sides instead had a big opening in front and the back complete open. We could stand on the bench - placed perpendicular to the direction of movement of the bus, with half of our body peeping out in open and the wind flowing through our hair. Wow!! what a lovely feeling that was. At times when we obeyed the laws of society (benches are meant for sitting and not standing) the design had other advantages. Even at the speed of 40kmph- the maximum it could go, a big amount of air flew through the bus, the early morning cold wind blew off along with it all the left over previous night's sleep and laziness. KUDOS to our school bus - did a splendid job in dropping fresh alert minds to school. There was another advantage we had over civilian friends; this one’s contribution is maximum towards my liking of the design which was most effective in spring season.
We used to eagerly wait for the spring seasons as the winds in this season were little stronger.and speedier. Strong winds with such volume (because of the open design) blew away all regrets we had for we staying in a town that was not so modern. [Modern as in the saying 'In the modern world of motor boats and mini skirts one does not have to wait for the wind to blow'] Thanks once again to the innovative mind for having invented such great design.
7 am to 1pm was the timing of my school and since it was situated 15kms away, with reporting time of 6:45 am, with a bus with a max speed of 40kmh, with more than 10 stops to cater, with average boarding time being 5 minutes – contributed by the pampered kids of the Army Officers who used to do all kinds of nakhrein coming out of there houses and my stop being the #8 I had to board the school bus at 6am in the morning. I have no idea how I managed to do that as to board school bus at 6am one has to wake up no later than 5am. Waking up at 5am have really become a dream today- thanks to 4 years of engineering culture, followed by Software Professional culture of an American based MNC.. I was sitting quietly beside the tail-board - a metal sheet hinged to the body of the truck used to close the open rear end of the bus just enough to say that it is not open, on application of sudden break someone surely would have fall out, fortunately that never happened, doing full justice to my name - Sushant ( सु-शांत .meaning extra quite).
The bus dropped us at school right on time and the day began with P.T. drill , to squeeze out any left over sleep and laziness though ours were already squeezed out by the lovely design of our school bus ,followed by Prayers, Pledge – [India is my country. All Indians are brothers and sisters (+ except one -those days it was except one now it has become except N)], news reading and related stuff by the senior students and finally the national anthem.
With all the struggle I entered the class 1 A and sat on a bench somewhere in the middle of a row. Whole day I kept doing full justice to my name keeping quite and answered only those questions that were to be answered in Yes/No. As the day was passing by the graph of 'excess of pressure' inside body vs 'Time' was growing exponentially with a positive slope. I was so determined to do justice to my name that i preferred to test the strength of my muscles than to ask some one for the location of a place to relieve the pressure. But how strong can be the muscles of a 5 year old boy, they could not withstand the pressure and let the liquid flow.
Hey you know what this liquid had zero % urea, how is that possible? think .....
Because it were my eye muscles that were not strong and let the tears shed, the other muscles were still holding the pressure :D. Seeing my eyes raining, everybody in the class was stunned as nobody knew someone could shed tears instead of peeing. Finally I was taken by a boy to the toilet to relieve the pressure. Huh what a day, I learnt a lesson on that first day of school – speak out when the pressure increases no matter what your name is…..
