The Holiday Register

“Raja no chopdo aavyo, raja no chopdo aavyo”.
“रजा नो चोप्दो आव्यो, रजा नो चोप्दो आव्यो”.

This is how mother remembers the best moment of her school days in Calcutta in the early fifties. She says, in her school, the holidays of the month were announced to the students via a fat register called ‘chopdo’ in Gujarati. A minion would bring it from the Principal’s office to the class and the teacher would read out the announcement. Now, in a school, there must be many other announcements. But, it seems that this register was exclusively for the holidays. Not surprisingly, the arrival of this ‘chopdo’ was the most welcome relief for the girls in the middle of a class. I could just guess the sentiments of delight and joyful cries as in माय school, the holidays were given as a list in the diary, the element of surprise and dramatic revelations were not for us। I never knew what it felt like.

Until yesterday. When, in the middle of my history class, our peon brought a notice and asked me to read it out to the class. Absent mindedly, I began to read. The first words out of my mouth, even before I realized their meaning were: “Holidays in September”. There was perhaps a micro second of stunned silence and then uproar.
I found myself reading a list which was seemingly unending and each item on it was greeted with delightful cries, the loudest for the last two which happen to be Mondays when I have a day long studio covering two subjects for the same class। I don’t recall ever having brought a greater cheer to my students than this।

When the uproar died down, I continued my lecture amidst a very upbeat class. However, I being me, with my wicked ways, unleashed another list at the end of the session. This list being a schedule of submissions (the dreadful stuff every Architecture student has to keep turning in to avoid being eaten alive). For sure, I did not read it out myself, asked the CR to do the honours.

Why be a villain when just a few moments back I was their hero?