School Begins

I had a very hard time processing the idea of Prerna going to school. The idea itself seemed very strange to me, how can we let this innocent child into a world of strangers?

Passport size photo taken for Prerna’s school admissions

But well, as usual Prerna surprised me and all of us in the family with how she handled it.
She didn’t cry even once, even on her first day at school. As if it was so normal to go out into the world and meet new people and follow instructions from teachers for a 3 year old kid.

I remember, Harshali and I stayed back after our school was dismissed and waited with our parents outside her school building. We were on the same campus, Prerna’s Jr. KG school session started at around 12:30 PM.

I was very curious and almost pessimistic about Prerna’s experience of this day.
But Prerna came out of the school building like it was a usual day for her, totally normal and in no hurry to be back home.
She does love new experiences.
And she is always up for anything that takes her out of the house and out of the monotony. It goes far back to her childhood.

Admissions

Prerna, Harshali, I and our mother(Aai) have all studied in the same school. It is the only decent government English school in Dhule with a reasonable fee that we could afford.

The school would interview parents and kids and ask kids some basic questions for admissions.
There was a long queue. We were sure Prerna would answer all the questions but would they take in a third child from the same family? Thankfully they did!
Prerna did really well in the interview.

I remember all of us went to school and double checked the shortlist board.
Looking back, it does turn out to be a very big deal. Finding a good school is such a life changing event.
There were no other good schools in Dhule that we could afford, getting into St. Xavier Canossa School was a life changing event for all of us.
The school till day is far far better than other government schools – in discipline, infrastructure, cleanliness and quality of education.

Canossa Pre-Primary Centre, St. Xavier Canossa School (Primary) and Canossa Convent High School campus in that order

The shortlist board was placed inside the fence outside the red pre-primary school building near the corner facing the ground. Until the board was displayed, I checked Prerna’s number every time I passed by it.

KG Memories

The first and third buildings (red and orange) above were pre-primary and high school buildings at the time. They are next to each other and I would be able to see Prerna on some rare days if her school started a little late in the afternoon and mine was already dismissed.

A few times that I remember I spotted her, she was always playing some game that involved running around. She always had the scarf on.
She had 5-6 friends playing with her and sadly my sweet child was always giving the den in the game. I really hope that it was just co-incidence.

Prerna use to mention her friend Dikshita during these years. Dikshita and Prerna shared the auto rickshaw that dropped and picked her up from school along with 7-8 other kids. She was also part of Prerna’s play group at school.
Their KG friendship fizzled out later though, like most of them do.

2 important accolades from her Jr and Sr KG years –
Prerna participated in the singing competition and she sang “Sindoor Lal Chadhayo ..“ aarti for the competition.
I remember the entire aarti till day, due to the rehearsals with her.
She won the first prize in this competition.

She also won first prize in handwriting competition in Sr KG (first of many during her school years)

During this time Prerna also participated in the school Christmas Day function (it was Senior KG if memory servers us right)
Meet the cutest angel ever –

Best Moment of my Life

There are moments in your life—core memories—that bring you joy every time you tap into them.
I have one such core memory with Prerna. It is the best moment of my life.
Its from her Jr KG – she was playing with her friends on the school ground before her afternoon school began. I spotted her from far after my school had dismissed.

I reached close to her group and thought to myself – would I embarrass her if I call her out in the middle of her game with her school friends?
But I called her out anyway – “Prernaa ..” (I had not started calling her Guddu yet)
She turned around and in a fraction of a second she was happily surprised to see me, not embarrassed, not awkward, just happy!

As soon as she saw me, she left her game and ran towards me smiling. I opened my arms and hugged her and then fixed her scarf.
I sternly asked her friends to not make Prerna always give the den and then let her get back to her play. I don’t think it helped, but I had to at least try.

In that moment she ran towards me smiling, so much in the 13 year old me healed that I didn’t even realize was already broken. I did not have the right words for it back then, but it felt like life was worth living after all. No matter what, life was worth living for moments like this.
Life was worth living because Prerna loved me.

Auto Rickshaw

In Jr and Sr KG, Prerna went to school in an auto rickshaw. The kind where the rickshaw driver picks up school kids in groups and drops them to school and back home for a monthly fare.

When I was 14 years old (9th standard) I met with an accident on my way back from school. I was not able to ride my cycle (out of fear) for a few weeks after that.

So on the day I went to school for the first time after the accident, I went to school in Prerna’s auto rickshaw.
Prerna was in Sr KG at the time and our school started at the about the same time.
Aai asked Prerna if it was ok if I came in her auto for one day and Prerna did not even blink before saying yes.

That meant she would have to give up her seat and sit on my lap, most kids would not agree to this. Not just because of the discomfort but because kids are bullies. And having an adult family member coming to school with you in your kids auto can be an embarrassing situation.

Prerna has a big heart, and she truly cared about me. Even as a 4 year old kid.

I took her seat, she sat on my lap and off we went to school together in her auto.
On the way, the auto stopped to pick up one of kids that Prerna had an ongoing conflict with. I don’t remember what it was, I think it was about who gets to sit near the door.

The kid’s mother came to drop her and kind of scolded Prerna about the conflict.
Both Prerna and I were not able to say much. I had no context and Prerna got a little scared on seeing the other kid’s mother getting involved. Prerna got very upset throughout the ride to school after that.

I tried to comfort her and also talked to the other girl and tried to resolve the issue. But kids are tricky.

I realized Prerna had her own problems to deal with already, and going to school in a shared auto was not easy. She would not even mention these incidents to us, she was dealing with them on her own.

It sounds silly to adults, but its not silly at all for a 4 year old kid going through the stressful experience.

Thankfully we decided to pickup and drop Prerna ourselves a couple of years later and discontinue the rickshaw.

Open Day

Harshali and I went to one of Prerna’s open days with Aai in this period.
I don’t remember if it was Sr KG or Jr KG, I think it was Jr KG – her first open day.

Prerna stood first in her class in both years.

Prerna’s class teacher was all praises for her. It was so heart warming to hear all those things.
She mentioned Prerna was not only excellent at her academics but was also a very disciplined and obedient student.
I saw her exam papers myself. She would write very neatly, almost perfectly between the 4 lines and answer all questions correctly.

Her teacher told us that Prerna would also not bother anyone in the class and listen to everything that the teacher said.
If the teacher asked all students to put their head down, Prerna would obey that and not raise her head at all, until the teacher said heads up again.

Can you spot the teacher’s pet in this picture?

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