8 Things We Will Not Be Taking To School This Year
- 31 May 2016
- Amala
- Features
Yet another June 1!
For those still in school this day is a dreaded day that marks the end of their summer frolic but for those who left school life behind we become wistful at the thought of walking rain drenched into a class filled with desks and benches. But how times have changed! Everything about the school experiences we remember are distant memories and here is a list of things students will no longer be taking to school.
Slate & Slate Pencil
Remember the days we used different types of slate pencils to get different fonts and the abacus attached to slate which we used on a daily basis?
Those are aged stories now. .
Mashi Thandu
Mashi Thandu or Mashi Pacha (Peperomia pellucid) hunting before going to class was a never ending struggle. Getting a healthy Mashi Thandu with full of water was a secret pride for us. Those days are gone, who cares about our Mashi Thandu now!
Rubber Slippers
The slippery Valli Cheruppu days are still alive in our minds, perhaps refreshed by the Movie "Maheshinte Prathikaram", a whole story where the "Lunar Cheripp worth of 8 Rupees" was a symbol for the hero's pride.
If you have a flashback to school days,the muddy lanes and rubber slippers on your feet, I bet you had got at least one slap from your mother for splashing all dirty, muddy water in your dress!
Trunk Box
The protector of our wisdom, the small metal trunk box. It kept the books of many school goers neat throughout the weary journey to school in older times.
Paise Coins
Admit that we all have stolen paisas from our father’s pocket or mother's spare change. Well, that was our official pocket money. On the way to school, we say many things that called out to us like ice muttayi, gas muttayi and other indigenous toffees so we were desperately in need of money!
Fountain Pen
It was indeed a treasure! Hurray, I got a Fountain Pen! Fountain pens were the mark of a responsible mature student and using it made us feel important and hence most of us loved to write with pen and hated pencils secretly.
Lunch Box
Chottu Paatram we used to call our dear lunch box. Now we have got modern tiffin boxes and the flavour we got from warm rice kept in metal tiffin boxes, with curries packeted in banana leaf are all things that students of current days wont remember. The feeling of our hot meal radiating warmth from inside our school bag were a common sensation for students of yesteryears.
Valapottu
Last but not the least,we all remember school bags whose bottom had a layer of inseperable and colourful debris that contained things of the likes of pencil shavings, bits of paper, toffee wrappers and of course broken shards of glass bangles we lovingly call "Valapottu". Times have changed so much that nobody wears those bangles anymore and valapottu has become yet another distant and colourful memory.
Devoid of all these keepsakes that linger in our memories, yet another generation of students will start their new school year, starting with the buzz of an electronic bell and not the dings of metal bells.
Words: Amala
Cover Image: Aghil Menon
