ITS YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

I come from a conservative family and Madurai the city or town I came from( I will call it village rather) was more conservative than our family. Whenever any of my father’s friends came, we disappeared into the house only to reappear for a few seconds, when we were beckoned. So when I came to kalpakkam after marriage it was really a cultural shock for me to see everyone chatting together!!!!!!!! The extent of conservativeness was too much in Madurai.We were three friends - very close and attached (we studied from nursery(kindergarten) till plus two together).Whenever we got free time we three got together discussing about poems, stories and paintings (one of my friend ,Priya was very good in painting). We shared common interests. We never saw movies, but loved film songs. So it was Ceylon radio always we listened to, like fm suryan nowadays,we loved cricket ,so listened to commentaries(no tv then)and our hero was Gavaskar.When we were in tenth standard ,one day when there was a no teaching period, we three were chatting sitting under a tree. My friend cracked a joke and we laughed, a bit loud I guess.It was the practice of our principal to go on rounds. She never stayed in her room and she was always on rounds.Omnipresent.. My friend Priya used to say…thoonilum iruppal thurumbilum iruppal.The principal happened to be there when we were laughing. She summoned us to her room .Usually we were called because Subhasini a bolder one in our lot was good in calligraphy,Priya in colouring and myself in writing captions (they had none other than me ).but to our surprise when we entered the room we were shocked to see her angry. Her first blast was- Don’t you people know that girls are not supposed to laugh aloud. We stared at each other wondering where and when we laughed aloud. Then she told us …now understand because Draupadi laughed Mahabaratha battle was fought and because Sita laughed Ravana carried Sita.Subashini, the ever bolder one asked,madam, when did we laugh? our principal got wild and said we were accusing her and she told she saw us under the tree.Oh God and as a punishment we were asked to go round the campus three times.It was real punishment as our campus was very large and it took 45 minutes for us to complete and on top of all this she sent the peon to see if we weren’t cheating. Now this is conservativeness to the core. I had a chance of meeting my friend Priya last month and her daughter who is now in tenth standard .when I told her , oh tenth standard,Priya started laughing saying that was when we were punished for laughing aloud. Immediately Priya's daughter quipped 'what? you don’t have the freedom even to laugh'. I can never forget another incident that took place during our annual day celebration.I was in ninth standard then.As ours was a girls school, only parents can come and attend, brothers and other male members were banned. I still doubt if anyone would have come across such stupid conditions. I was in an English skit that was the last programme and so we all knew that it will be 11 pm by the time the skit is over. As my father had gone on an official trip, my mother sent my uncle to school to pick me up. He was stopped at the gate by the watchman and the news went to my principal. She came to the gate and asked my uncle the details. She was not happy with his details as she had decided not to believe him. She told him he looks boyish and he was lying to her .she asked him to go away otherwise she won’t hesitate to call the police. I was completely unaware of the things going on. After the skit was over, I decided to search for my uncle who had promised to stay near the gate. The principal on seeing me asked me what I am looking for. I told her it was my uncle who had promised to take me. She said 'how dare you tell lies to me, you call that boy your uncle. I never thought in my dreams that you will so bad'. I was shocked and I told her that he was married and had two kids. She said that she is older than me and she knows when her student was lying. My uncle who was chased away brought my mother for proof. The principal wasn’t satisfied, but because of my mom I was sent home. I came to tears and was feeling bad about the way they had treated me. My uncle who was from Chennai said that he really thought my school was run by crackpots. So when my father came the next day, I asked my father to go to school and clarify details. I thought the principal would at least feel sorry and my father would support me. But nothing of that sort happened. When my father said that the boyish person was indeed my uncle, she said, ' its ok but we have to be very careful. we don’t want our school to earn a bad name and you should know we have been running a prestigious institution for almost 15 years'. My father said it was good and he just wanted to clarify and he came to me and said 'you are young .you wont understand .what she did was correct'. That was really the crowning point to this issue and I had to answer all questions about my uncle to my teachers who were curious to know till the issue was completely forgotten.I even remember the day when my father was called .... when I took biology,maths,physics and chemistry in my plus one.He was to advice me as they thought I will surely faint on the very sight of dissection.so I wept and got a month's time to proove I was not so weak in mind after all.We visited Madurai recently after 25 years, as my husband was invited for his college function(old student).We also went to my school.My botany teacher was now the principal.She saw me and the way I talked now and she commented that I have changed a lot.She asked my husband whether I am still frightened of everything and she told him also about the dissection story....he said laughing no.She went on to tell my husband that the myself and my batch were a bunch of good students who are a rarity now a days and i felt like laughing aloud about the rounds we had to do around the campus. I told her,' exposure, madam, it does the magic. Had I stayed here I wouldn't have changed'. But one thing ,I thought the teachers will be old and they wont be remembering me...but I was surprised when I entered the principals room ,she stared for a moment and reacted gleefully ....'Mangala, what a plesant surprise' .wow, what a memory.Oh my god the place or the peoples idea haven’t changed a bit….what a village to live in.But when I set my foot inside the school, I felt like coming back home after a long time.Coming from such a background I was like fish out of water when I came to kalpakkam.
All my best memories
Come back clearly to me
Some can even make me cry
Just like before
It is yesterday once more