10. Corona days: A school day

She was on a boat and her friend was rowing the boat. She could not identify her friend but she was sure that this friend was her best friend. They were talking about a horse that was drinking the water from the lake but she did not remember the conversation. The surrounds of the lake were quiet. Suddenly, she heard the calling of a few birds. The sound of the cuckoo stood out. There were a few crows crowing too. She could also hear a Myna. She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. During the past few days, she had come to realize that the lands she visited in her sleep were quiet. As she woke up, the silence of her dream was broken by the sounds that surrounded her. The transition was sometimes startling. One morning, she had asked her father "Papa! Why are dreams so quiet?" Her father looked at her perplexed and asked "Are dreams quiet?" She looked at him before exclaiming "Of course Papa, Did you not know?" Her father looked at her with sheepishly and admitted "I don't remember my dreams, dear". She shook her head and walked towards the her parent's bedroom. She was sure that her mother would know the reason. Her mother was sitting on the bed looking at her laptop. She asked "Mama! Why are dreams so quiet?" Her mother looked up and asked "What did you ask?" She repeated her question. Her mother responded with a smile "Maybe, because we are sleeping". She was not convinced by the response "But Mama! We see the dream while we sleep but why can't we hear anything?" Her mother's smile broadened. She took off her spectacles and thought for a moment. She asked "How do you know that you can't hear anything in your dreams?" She could not believe that her mother did not understand what her. She showed her exasperation lightly as she said "Because suddenly we start hearing everything as we get up Mama. Have you not experienced it? As you wake up, you start hearing the birds and you realize it was quiet earlier." Her mother continued to smile as she confessed "No dear! I have not experienced it. I don't remember my dreams". She felt disappointed. She thought her father and mother knew everything about everything but for the first time she realized that that was not true. They did not know about dreams.

"It's Monday!" she said as she sprang out of her bed. She stretched her body to shake away its lethargy and repeated with a big smile "Its Monday!". A few months ago, Monday was the worst day of the week. She would roll this way and that on the bed till her mother walked into the room shouting "You are late! Get up now! You will miss the bus". She used to hate Mondays but now she loved Monday mornings. She did not take long to get ready. As she walked out her room, her mother gave her a cup of hot chocolate milk. She sat on the couch sipping from the drink from the cup. Her mother sat in the balcony with a cup of coffee. As is usually the case, she spent her mornings talking over the phone. From time to time, she looked at her daughter and if their eyes met, they smiled at each other. When the cup had become empty, she held it upside down above her head and let the last drop form on the rim of the cup. She looked at the forming drop intently. When she felt that the drop was big enough, she held the cup over her open mouth. Slowly, she brought down the cup towards her extended tongue and let the drop touch the tip of her tongue. She felt she savoured the last drop of the chocolate milk more than the whole cup of it. She placed the cup in the kitchen sink and came back to the hall. Her mother was standing by the front door holding her mask and bag. As she got closer, her mother started a session of rapid fire questions.

"Books?"

"Yes."

"Diary?"

"Yes."

"Pencil pouch?"

"Yes."

"Chart?"

"Oh no!"

She ran back to her room, picked the roll of chart paper from her table and ran back to her mother. Her mother uttered "Hmmm!" before continuing.

"Sorry mama."

"Water bottle?"

"Yes."

"Cap?"

"Yes."

"Spare cloths?"

"Yes."

"Sanitizer?"

"Yes."

"Napkins?
"Yes."

"Towel?"

"Yes."

"Good! Here is your mask,"

"Can I wear it when I reach the bus stop?"

"Please wear it now! You cannot go out of the house without wearing the mask."

"Oh OK!"

She took the mask from her mother and looked at it. The mask had lower half of Spider man's mask printed on it. It was gifted to her on her birthday. She loved it the minutes she saw it and used to wear it all the time; sometimes even on the dining table! She used to remove the mask, take a mouthful of the food, don the mask again and then chew the food. It was her favourite mask. She loved the mask still but had got tired to wearing masks. Wearing a mask turned out to be the worst part of going outside. Nearly everyone wore masks these days. She could remember a time when her parents would be annoyed to see people wearing masks. When she asked why the people were wearing masks they scoffed "to save themselves from pollution and dust". She used to feel confused "Isn't that good? Should we not wear masks too?" They used to respond that the people wearing the masks were "overdoing it" and that pollution was not so bad that people had to walk around wearing masks; not in Chennai anyway. But now they scoffed at people who did not wear their masks  

She  wore the mask and walked out of the house. As per her mother's instructions, she did not press the elevator button. As far as possible she did not touch anything outside her house. The ride from home to the school bus stop took ten minutes. Her mother wore a dark green mask with a multiplication sign on it. When she had seen the mask for the first time she had asked the meaning of the mask. Her mother shrugged her shoulders and said "It's just a pattern. I liked it". But she did not agree with her mother. It did not look like a pattern; a pattern would require many multiplication signs and this one only had one. Every time she saw the mask, she wondered what the mask meant. Her father had a red mask with the emblem of his favourite football club - Manchester United. The day he bought it, he had shown it to her with pride. She liked the mask but was annoyed by her father's obsession for football and Manchester United. This obsession had resulted his creating a football stadium like area around the television. He watched football matches till late in the night. Some nights she was startled out of her sleep by her father's shouting "Goal! Goal! Goal! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

The excitement rose within her as the car approached the bus stop. As her mother parked the car, she looked out of the window at the line of children waiting for the bus. She got out and waved at her friends. She did not walk towards them but waited for her mother to come to her. The children from the higher classes stood in a circle and talked. The smaller children stood with parents at a some distance from each other. From time to time, they looked at each other. The mask made it tough for them to talk to each other. They could not even smile at each other as their smiles would be hidden under the masks. Sometime they attempted to communicate to each other using their hand. The parents did not talk to each other either. They busied themselves with their phones and at times spoke a few words to their children. She noticed the bus when it was a few metres away from the stop. She liked to see the front of the bus as it approached the stop. She loved her school's buses, especially its front with the large windshield. The windshield had the school's name written at the top is bold letters. She loved the name of her school. It was simple and she thought it was the best name a school can have. As the school bus approached, she fixed her eyes on the name. Her eyes were filled with love and she smiled under her mask.

The bus stopped and the students started boarding. The boarding took time as the Akka on the bus recorded the temperature of each student and noted it down in the attendance register. Two minutes later, she found herself in front of the Akka, who smiled at her. Though the Akka wore a mask she was able to identify her smile by the way the skin around the corner of her eyes tightened. The Akka looked at the device in her hand intently and nodded her head in approval. She and her mother exchanged  goodbyes before she got in. The masks had brought an end to the custom of kissing each other goodbye. She was glad that the custom had come to an end though. She got into the bus and walked to her  seat. She sat alone in a seat that could seat two children. Previously, she and her best friend would occupy the seat but now they went to school on different days. She had not met her friend for many months. She wondered if they were best friends still but then remembered that they had vowed to be BFF. She decided to call her friend that evening. The bus journey was not as exciting as it used to be. For one, the bus was only half full and everyone sat away from each other. Also, the masks made it difficult for the children to talk to each other. Except for some of the bigger children, everyone slept through the bus journey. She placed her head on the bunched up curtain and watched sights on the road. She slept within a few minutes.

The Akka shook her gently back to wakefulness. The bus had reached the school and the children were getting ready to deboard. She got down from the bus and walked towards the school gate. She joined the line of students waiting to get into the school. Soon she stood in front of a teacher who recorded her temperature and gave her a few drops of sanitizer to clean her hands. She walked into the school. She had not woken up completely and as a result trudged along to her classroom. Her face brightened as she walked into the classroom. She greeted her friends and her teacher. She went to her place, placed her bags and took off her mask. She took two or three deep breaths and let her lung enjoy fresh air. The class only had twelve students and yet was noisy. The students sat away from each other and had to speak loudly with each other. Unlike the previous years, the teachers did not seem to mind the noise. They looked at the children with a smile on their faces. Since the class was split by half newer friendships were forming this year and as a result she did not miss her best friend once she reached the school. There were others and since they only meet two times a week, there was a lot of catching to be done. They got ten minutes before the start of the class to talk. 

The children remained attentive in the classes. Unlike earlier, most children did not talk during the classes. The classes went by quickly. At the end of each period, the children went out to wash their hands with soap. They maintained some distance between each other as they walked and stood in line to wash. To make up for the space they talked louder than usual and their loud talking made the school not seem only half full. She liked these five minute breaks between classes and spent all the five minutes talking and listening to her friends. The classes continued through the morning. The big unhappiness for all the students was that lack of games periods. Instead, they got 30 minutes of free time. During this time they walked around the school looking at the stones, plants and trees. Some sat at different spots in the campus and talked to each other. At times, three or four children stood in a circle and threw or kicked a ball towards each other. Some watched the bigger children doing shooting practice in the basketball court. Two or three teachers were present among them during the free periods and they ensured that the children were a few feet away from each other at all times. They washed their hand thoroughly at the end of free time. They had a fruit or snack before getting back into their classes. The classes after the break tended to seem longer than the classes during the morning. When she got bored of the class, she looked out of the window at the trees beyond the school's walls. The last thirty minutes before lunch were the toughest. The ones who wore watches looked at it every few seconds. Others looked at them eagerly and tried to determine the number of minutes left for lunch from their reactions. 

The sound of the bell announcing the beginning of the lunch period was very popular among children. At times, few of the children whooped on hearing the bell. The teachers did not take this kindly and spent the next few minutes talking to the children and thus delayed their lunch. Sometime the teachers talked to the whole class and this made it worse for the child who whooped. He/She had many pairs of eyes staring viciously at him or her. Though the lunch hour was a relief, the children did not enjoy it as much as they used to during the previous years. Earlier, each of the table used to be filled with children who chatted away happily as they gulped in their food. But now only four children sat on each table and the time was spent more in eating than talking. She looked forward to the lunch not as a break from the classes but for the food. She had missed the school food during the months she had stayed at home and was glad she could have it for at least two days a week. Though she knew the children with whom she shared the table, she did not consider them as friends and so she preferred to eat the food quietly.

She walked around the school campus with her friends after lunch. They had their masks on and maintained distance between each other as they walked. Teachers watched over them at all places in the campus. If the children forgot to maintain the distance or wear masks, they were instantly informed to rectify the lapse by the teachers. The conversations between the friends were invariably about their earlier life. They remembered the visits to the malls and theatres, the evening spent on the beach, ice cream parlours after dinner, pleading for pack of Lays in the aisle of a supermarket, trying to keep pace with the panipuriwala and birthday parties. They really missed the birthday parties and talked about incidents from the many birthday parties that they attended during the previous years. Though she liked the time she spent with her friends, she really missed her best friend. They used to laugh a lot more when they were together. Except for some of the bigger students, no one laughed much these days.

When the teachers announced that it was time to get back to the classes, they walked towards the wash basins and washed their hands for twenty second (though they no longer sang "Happy birthday to you"). The afternoon classes were tougher than the ones in the morning. They felt sleepy and since the class was only half full there was only half the amount of whispering in the class and that was not enough, Yet, she did not get bored of the classes. She only got two days of school and that too after a break of many months. So she enjoyed every minute of her time in the school. As the end of the school day approached, sadness crept into her. She will be getting back to her small world till day after tomorrow. She had always liked being in the school and these days she loved it.

When the day ended, she walked up to her teacher and said "See you on Wednesday". The teacher looked at her and said "Wednesday is a holiday. See you on Monday". She was stunned by the response. It took her a moment to say "Oh!" She walked away from the teacher quickly. She kept her head down as she walked towards the bus. She did not want to look or talk to anyone. She did not want them to see the tears that were welling up in her eyes.