Assembly time in school was one long dragging session of prayers, pledges, news, thought for the days.......and many more blah blahs in the scorching sun. Many a weaklings fainted and swooned. Many bore the brunt of the heat. I used to be one of those who bore the assemblies on almost all days when I was not conducting one. Though I stayed close to school I was always in the nick of time for the assembly............ habit as usual you may call it........ I still practise being late............. Huffing panting I would run the stairs into my class, throw the bag onto the bench and dash off for the assembly. One day Iwas just a bit too late. I had just made it to the class and could hear the band end. I knew it was no use going down to join the assembly. So I decided to be in class instead. We also had an practical record to complete. I wanted to make use of the assembly time to complete it. It was not allowed to be in class during assemblies and our vice principal(VP) normally made routine checks to catch us bunking assembly. But I found Jeny in class. She had already taken excuse on the pretext of being very sick. Anyone would believe Jeny -such a fragile girl she was but no one would believe me......... I would have to put up a super act and our vice principal would not be fooled by that, I knew. Jeny said "Go and hide somewhere before she sees you. When shes gone you can come and sit" pointing in the direction of the girls toilet. As I was about to leave I saw a pair of feet behind the partition wall in our class and behind it was another poor guy hiding from the VP. I then rushed to the washroom. I could hear giggles from the washroom. I was not the only girl in there Ameenah was already there. Ah now I knew why she never used to be seen in any of the assemblies. She quickly gestured me to get inside one of the toilets and make myself comfortable. She told me that the VP would be there in few minutes and after she left we would go back to the class.
Now we could hear someone walking down the corridor to the washroom. Both of us got into the toilets and closed the doors behind us making sure not to lock them from inside. Now my heart was pounding louder than the band going on in the ground. Many thoughts were racing through my mind .......What excuse should I give if I got caught? .......how do I face the VP etc etc.......... I held my breath lest I make any sound. The VP did come and inspect the wash room and to our worst fears she even closed the washroom from outside while leaving. Maybe she wanted to catch us red handed.......
Oh Gawd what a way to start a day. Caught in the washroom and that too with Ameenah. When I was sure that there was no more sound of footsteps I called out to Ameenah. we then peeped out through the window in the washroom where we could get a view of the assembly ground. VP had already take her position in the ground. I thought I could see a smile on her face.......... Now we had to do something to get out of the washroom before the assembly ended.
Ameenah said"why not trying to hit lightly on the door so that Jeny will hear" we both started pounding on the washroom door slowly hoping that Jeny might hear it. Minutes passed but no luck.
We could clearly hear the thought for the day and the news being read out which meant the assembly would be over in minutes. I was desperately praying that someone would get the call of the nature and come....... but who?? Why had not jeny come?? One look at Ameenah and I knew that she was also tense. Why hadn't we made backups that Jeny would come over if we had not reached class after the VP left............... Oh such a bad planning................... were some of the innumerous thoughts that crossed my mind.
Suddenly we heard the creaking of the latch and the door opened.......It was Jeny. For a minute she was God to me. She burst out into a laugh on seeing us sweating and tense. "who locked you both in the washroom....... I was waiting all this while for your record book. Did the VP see you?"she blurted. We quickly hurried out of the wash room to our class. The return band had already started and it was time to join our classmates on the stairs and sneak into lines as if we were part of the assembly. As I joined the line I could see Pravi giving me looks which meant "I caught you in your act".
Now that I was trained in bunking assemblies, I was rarely seen during assembly sessions. We often utilised this time to complete assignments, records, last moment studies for UTs etc etc ........
No comments:
Post a Comment