Anyone who knows me well knows that I hate to be late. But that day I couldn't leave home in time, so by the time I reached the classroom I was late by a good 10 minutes. As I stepped out of the elevator and hurried towards the classroom I ran into the teacher who was heading to the canteen for a hot cuppa tea. I muttered an apology and breathing a sigh of relief, entered the classroom.
The rest of the crowd was busy copying down what was written on the blackboard. I glanced at it - it was a table of all 24 combinations of a feminine noun ending in 'aa' - माला . We were supposed to do prepare a similar table for one more noun - लता (this is the Sanskrit word for a creeper). I got busy with my tables. 5 minutes later the teacher walked in. She called everyone to her desk to check their homework and today's table. For a moment, I had a vision of one of my school teachers doing the same. :-) After this was over, we all recited the table to make sure that it would stick in our memory at least till the time we walked out the door :-)
Then we all read a story in Sanskrit - the one of a king who looks after an orphan baby monkey, appoints it as his bodyguard when it grows up and dies because the stupid monkey tries to kill a fly sitting on the sleeping king's chest with a sword. :-)
One of our classmates regularly posts Sanskrit verses on our Whatsapp group. I had posted some queries regarding 2 recent messages. So the teacher took us through the messages line by line to make sure that we understood their meaning.
The class was dismissed 10 minutes earlier than usual because the teacher had to go home early. But the students dispersed without any obvious signs of glee. I reflected back upon the days of my childhood when such rare occasions used to fill us all up with immeasurable joy. I guess now we can only experience that feeling when (and if) the office is closed because of heavy rains. :-)
The rest of the crowd was busy copying down what was written on the blackboard. I glanced at it - it was a table of all 24 combinations of a feminine noun ending in 'aa' - माला . We were supposed to do prepare a similar table for one more noun - लता (this is the Sanskrit word for a creeper). I got busy with my tables. 5 minutes later the teacher walked in. She called everyone to her desk to check their homework and today's table. For a moment, I had a vision of one of my school teachers doing the same. :-) After this was over, we all recited the table to make sure that it would stick in our memory at least till the time we walked out the door :-)
Then we all read a story in Sanskrit - the one of a king who looks after an orphan baby monkey, appoints it as his bodyguard when it grows up and dies because the stupid monkey tries to kill a fly sitting on the sleeping king's chest with a sword. :-)
One of our classmates regularly posts Sanskrit verses on our Whatsapp group. I had posted some queries regarding 2 recent messages. So the teacher took us through the messages line by line to make sure that we understood their meaning.
The class was dismissed 10 minutes earlier than usual because the teacher had to go home early. But the students dispersed without any obvious signs of glee. I reflected back upon the days of my childhood when such rare occasions used to fill us all up with immeasurable joy. I guess now we can only experience that feeling when (and if) the office is closed because of heavy rains. :-)
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