Schools have changed dramatically since our time - the way they look, the way they work, and of course the way the kids dress, eat, work, and talk.
But one thing remains just the same - they still send parents to the ends of the earth to get weird stuff that isn't available in any normal store. Just a few weeks ago, my son's school teacher wrote in his trusty almanac that he needed a pair of silver pom poms.
"So what are pom-poms anyway?" I overheard one baffled father ask another while dropping my son to school the next day.
"Oh, you know, it's those things that cheer leaders hold in their hands, yaar!" replied the more enlightened of the two.
"Cheer leaders, what are cheer leaders?" the first dad was still bemused.
"Arre yaar, those girls in skimpy outfits that dance at the T20s. Don't tell me you've never seen them!" He added as the first dad still looked baffled.
"Yes, yes, of course I've seen the girls. But, who was looking at their hands?"
Fortunately for him, this dad had come minus his better half, and unfortunately for me, I couldn't stick around to find out how that conversation ended because I had my own pom poms to get.
In my own time, I recall my folks chasing after the proverbial 'kalyanasougandhigam' as my grandmother acerbically put it, those endless out-of-print books, the graph papers that had to be just so, a dinner plate of a certain brand to be taken for a trip, the list goes on. But the most creative demand that I recall was for my sister's biology class - bring a dead mouse to class, the expressionless biology teacher had intoned without a trace of humour.
Though we regularly came face-to-face with these creatures, they must have got wind of the scholastic summons - for on that particular day, there wasn't a single mouse in the house. The maid was dispatched to her own rodent-rich neighbourhood to procure one. She returned with a rat instead of a mouse, the zoological nuances being quite lost on her. After a few panicky phone calls (remember, there were no texts, Google Pluses and what have you) it was finally decided that a rat was as good as a mouse and would do just as well. So off went my sister to school the next day, a song in her heart and a dead rat in her bag. Oh, the things you have to do in the name of education!
Yes, some things never change. And in case you were wondering, I did get those pom poms at long last, after encountering many many such blank stares and no, I did not repeat the T20 story. I finally got them from a shop that, according to another dad, sold everything excepts cars and phones. Which is perfectly fine, as schools almost never ask for cars and phones. Not yet, anyway.
But one thing remains just the same - they still send parents to the ends of the earth to get weird stuff that isn't available in any normal store. Just a few weeks ago, my son's school teacher wrote in his trusty almanac that he needed a pair of silver pom poms.
"So what are pom-poms anyway?" I overheard one baffled father ask another while dropping my son to school the next day.
"Oh, you know, it's those things that cheer leaders hold in their hands, yaar!" replied the more enlightened of the two.
"Cheer leaders, what are cheer leaders?" the first dad was still bemused.
"Arre yaar, those girls in skimpy outfits that dance at the T20s. Don't tell me you've never seen them!" He added as the first dad still looked baffled.
"Yes, yes, of course I've seen the girls. But, who was looking at their hands?"
Fortunately for him, this dad had come minus his better half, and unfortunately for me, I couldn't stick around to find out how that conversation ended because I had my own pom poms to get.
In my own time, I recall my folks chasing after the proverbial 'kalyanasougandhigam' as my grandmother acerbically put it, those endless out-of-print books, the graph papers that had to be just so, a dinner plate of a certain brand to be taken for a trip, the list goes on. But the most creative demand that I recall was for my sister's biology class - bring a dead mouse to class, the expressionless biology teacher had intoned without a trace of humour.
Though we regularly came face-to-face with these creatures, they must have got wind of the scholastic summons - for on that particular day, there wasn't a single mouse in the house. The maid was dispatched to her own rodent-rich neighbourhood to procure one. She returned with a rat instead of a mouse, the zoological nuances being quite lost on her. After a few panicky phone calls (remember, there were no texts, Google Pluses and what have you) it was finally decided that a rat was as good as a mouse and would do just as well. So off went my sister to school the next day, a song in her heart and a dead rat in her bag. Oh, the things you have to do in the name of education!
Yes, some things never change. And in case you were wondering, I did get those pom poms at long last, after encountering many many such blank stares and no, I did not repeat the T20 story. I finally got them from a shop that, according to another dad, sold everything excepts cars and phones. Which is perfectly fine, as schools almost never ask for cars and phones. Not yet, anyway.
AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteLol. Thoroughly enjoyed reading that.
ReplyDeleteammu
:D Had a good laugh and the inevitable trip down memory lane with all the curious things I had to take to school.
ReplyDelete