A Rusty Memory 2022 June to 2023 April

Chapter 1, Start of Summer (Part 01)

First Day of School

As souls move together in time, in a small rusty van. They grow and connect, and time shows them many faces and many conditions. A small, rusty van where around twelve children could be cramped in the back and two in the front, excluding the driver. It holds: sliding doors that hung to its sides; a yellow stripe that went around it like a snake; comfortable seats covered with leather; a sweet driver uncle; and a lot of memories that we treasure, cherish, remember, hate, and neglect. I remember we had given our tenth board exams in mid-spring, and now we move onward with results in our hands and toppers in the skies. It was my first day in the 11th grade. The weather was just starting to warm up. As COVID had also cooled a bit, we didn't have to wear masks any longer.

Before even starting the day, before even reaching the school, before even all of it. Under the morning sunshine, I moved forward to the point from which I boarded the van, still in my winter uniform. I see two new faces in the van. I sat down, greeted the driver uncle, and the van moved with the gentle morning breeze, as gentle as an early-blooming flower waiting for the sun to reach its petals. We picked up all fourteen souls and reached school. As the doors slid open, we all took a departure from the van; all fourteen souls, including me, dissolved in the crowd of students waiting for the guard to let us enter the school infrastructure. Our van had always come to school a few minutes before the school opened, so we became used to waiting for five to ten minutes every morning before entering the school. Our summer hours were 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. 

Even before entering eleventh grade, we had chosen our streams, so on the first day of eleventh grade, we just had to confirm the sections. This grade, this class, this division, and this union of oddballs in this stream made up the different sections of the eleventh. They really are very different from everything we have experienced till now. New faces surround us, and in between them I also find some old friends and old classmates. I can feel the atmosphere; it's like flowers blooming. My ears listen to the profound humming of people asking each other's percentage at the 10th board. Soon enough, we saw our class teacher's face, his honored name, which he never told us was ‘Mr. Akhilesh Pandey’.

With no previous knowledge of him, I accepted him gracefully, just as I was accepting the weird oddballs that formed our class. Many first impressions were formed. But the funny thing was that the tenth-grade board topper of our school was also in our section; her name was Kavya Padiyar. From the first impression, it didn't look like she could be the topper, but with time, things changed. Today was spent collecting school supplies, trying to connect with the teachers, and understanding our section, "A," of PCB. Till now I haven't bought books and opted for psychology as my optional subject. In total, I took Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Physical Education, and Psychology.

Soon the bells rang. The watch showed a time of 2:33 PM. The first day of school has ended. All fourteen souls met at the van; the insects were singing songs, and the van was boiling hot. Standing here, waiting for us, it had absorbed all the heat. The little, slow breezes did make the condition good, but relief from the smell of sweat and heat reached us when the van started moving. The cool wind would dissolve in the van from the open windows, and a sigh of relaxation would hum around. The leftovers of the paper fans, which were made in an attempt to feel better, were still roaming the floor.

When leaving the van, I would be third last. With the wind, I would move in exhaustion toward my house. There were two paths I could take to get back to my house. The first one would take me down a path where houses stood on both sides; small pots and plants would gaze at me from the boundaries; and little to no wind would pass from the narrow street. But the second path had houses on one side and big farmland on the other, and the street had a boundary of small trees and steel wires. I would see corn, onions, and whatnot growing in the fields. Winds would move freely, crickets would sing songs, and suddenly the weather would become balmy. The thing that relaxed me was talking to the plants and dogs that roamed the streets while all of the greens and blues entered my eyes.