The School reopens and my daughter turns a coolie again.

It’s that time of the year for the school going kids. Something special about the sight. One can’t help but feel nostalgic about the visual. The school reopens after the quarterly exam holidays. With the official Indian festive season declared open, kids generally have no dearth or access to fun.

The holidays are over, the school resumes today. Or should I say the holiday season is punctuated by a short session of school time. My daughter is excited to meet her friends again and curious to know how she fared in her exams. She sets up everything the previous night - uniform to shoes to bag as per time-table. 

She has an early start and as my wife was travelling, the onus of getting her started to school with all the bells and whistles, was on me. Like a diligent assembly line manager, I go through her preparation meticulously - striking all line items in my mental checklist. All good!

The dawn breaks, the alarm goes off. She gets up and goes about doing the “school stuff” with clockwork precision. Then she calls me as she was sliding into the shoes - Appa…”can you bring my bag from room?” 

I was on call with my wife taking directives and getting my tasks audited. I dashed quickly into their room to fetch my daughter’s bag. With my slipshod attitude, I grabbed the schoolbag only to realise that I completely underestimated the weight of a simple school bag. It was heavy. Certainly, very heavy for a 11 year old. 

The School reopens and my daughter turns a coolie again. 

I’ve felt the same in the past, I will feel the same in the future. Feeling helpless, sorry, angry – all at the same time. Whatever happened to the Yash Pal committee report! Oh, Yash Pal is no more. With him, his recommendations.