Thursday, June 5, 2014

School Days .....!!


It’s back to school time for most households in Bangalore! It’s doubly so in our household as I am back to black and white, with civil courts reopening after a month long vacation. Why…It only feels like yesterday when I was trying to work out an ideal vacation-cum-summer camp schedule for our seven year old to enjoy and be engaged!  Whoosh…..two months have flown past! Now we are back to the days of ….morning rush, lunchbox challenge, homework help, the re-imposition of the “Early to bed Early to rise” rule and not to mention the  parental rule “Early Bird in the evening gets to check on the school diary ! :-) In many ways though, school days mean falling back on regular routine and schedules that had during the holidays got a little irregular if not more hectic, with back to back summer camps, sports/swimming coaching, additional activities to keep the kids busy and in some cases (in ours, actually!) parents enrolling into morning activities that would have been impossible on regular school days!!:-)  Phew!! So settling back to the predictable school-office-home routine with a weekly class or two can’t be that bad at all ….isn’t it??J
 

For our back to school read….we picked “School Days”, a collection of 16 short stories by different authors brought out by Children’s Book Trust publications. Frankly, I hadn’t expected much when I picked this up, but  should have known better, considering I’d bought this off the travelling bookstore supporting  Bookalore at Bookalore 's  annual event early this year. All the stories make a delightful read and may almost get one nostalgic about his or her very own school days. Some of the stories carried familiar names that had me thinking of my schoolmates!:-) Well written and easily relatable stories that brilliantly portray the conflict, mischief, determination and distractions of middle and high school students. There’s “The Boomeranged Prank” by Madhumita Gupta ( a prank played by Arpit, Aniket and Abhinav, a trio gang of backbenchers on the teacher’s pet backfiring - a story of any naughty boys’ gang) or the tension Smitha goes through at having forgotten her homework at home in  The Forgotten Homework” by Manoj T Thomas (totally my story!) or about how Rumah overcomes her embarrassment of having to wear glasses in “School daysVandana Kumari Jena (a story of someone close to me!) or confusion in the computer lab in “CTRL + Z” by R.L.Sailaja (could be Abhay’s story!). This book sure makes an ideal read at the start of the new school year as you read and reflect on those carefree days when life was all about homework, tests, school house rivalry, classroom pranks, and the unforgettable friends you make at school! Have a great school year ahead!  

                                             Abhay's first day first show!

3 comments:

  1. You just made my day dear!! We go through a lot to put our collection together at Funky Rainbow. And you are among our regular customers and it makes all the effort worth it. Just one little correction - we are a travelling bookstore (sounds better than makeshift) and we support Booklore.

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  2. I understand ....as your collection is better than any regular children's bookstore!

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