Back to school, all over again

Two teachers of the school were patiently making announcements every few minutes on what one needed to do. 8216;Parents please be seated, don8217;t make noise, wait for your turn, don8217;t crowd the announcement area8230;8217; I felt I was back in school fought the urge to go up and wish the teachers!

Every 20 minutes or so the announcers would call out a sequence of token numbers, say 1200 to 1300. People with these tokens would then be asked to join a line leading to the school hall where forms were being given out. 8220;Only one person per child in the queue, please. Grandparents, relatives, please be seated,8221; announced the teacher, her patience tested as several members of a family collected tokens and stubbornly stood in the queue.

I was sitting in the lawn soaking up the sun, observing parents and wondering if junior stood a chance. Around 2.30 pm, when I was almost dozing off, I heard the teacher call out my token number. I ran to join the queue. In the hall, one had to first submit the copy of the birth certificate, then pay Rs 25 for the form. The date and time of the interaction was mentioned on it.

As I was leaving, I saw the two announcers, still busy at their post, and the crowd no thinner than at noon.

Despite the wait, getting a form was a surprisingly pleasant affair. I did not have to stand endlessly in a queue outside the school, like I did for school at Indirapuram with my restless son in tow. The school had made arrangements anticipating the rush, with enough chairs and water stations. And how often does one get to sit in a sunny lawn on a working day? For once I8217;m not complaining.

The writer is a deputy copy editor with The Indian Express and the mother of a 3-year-old