Those Nostalgic Years - Part 5

Inspection Times

It was inspection time at the school. We were asked to clean the entire class room after the regular school hours. The black board received a fresh black coat and we decorated the board with flowers and other stuff using colored chalks. Girls were busy drawing rangolis on the floors. We prepared ‘science’ charts and pasted them on the walls! I was given fresh badges for my ‘first rank’ and ‘class rep’ positions which I wore with great pride! I came up with a brilliant idea of ‘showering the DEO (District Educational Officer) with flowers as he entered the class’. We discussed about girls showering the flowers on him but decided against it as there was no ‘surprise’ element to it.

As usual S gave the innovative idea of hanging a cardboard box with flowers from the ceiling and open it using strings attached to the lids so that the flowers would be showered on DEO. We all accepted it and overnight we made the arrangements. There were two strings – one to lower the box to fill in with flowers and the other one to open up the lid. I didn’t take permission for this from our class teacher – to keep up the surprise! We made the arrangements and tested the system with paper balls and everything worked perfectly! K assumed the duty of pulling the strings at the right moment as I had to stand with the class teacher greeting the DEO! We were satisfied with our arrangements!

The next day, the DEO came in! Our plan was to pull up the string just before the DEO would leave the class. We were very well prepared, neatly dressed and we managed the usual Q & A session very well! DEO was extremely happy with our performance and openly voiced the same to the principal. The moment arrived; the DEO was standing up bidding ‘bye’. I hinted K to pull the string! He pulled the string and there was the moment we were waiting for! The cardboard box came down with full force and exactly landed at the center of the bald head of DEO – it opened up then and the flowers showered all over the place! K pulled the wrong string! The class could not control the laughter! But as class rep I had to act. I cleaned up everything and apologized.

I was terrified as this was an arrangement without permission and K managed to screw things up again for me! I could sense the fire on our principal’s and class teacher’s eyes! But to our surprise the DEO was also laughing and he said the idea was great but execution was wrong! He went away. The entire class was still laughing, I was furious over K! But he was never bothered! He was laughing with the class and claimed that he purposefully pulled the wrong string! In the next five minutes I was summoned to principals’ room! Suddenly the class also stopped laughing and gave me that pathetic look. K said ‘all the best’! Shivering with fear, I followed the attendant to the princi’s room.

DEO was sitting on the center with princi & vice prici next to him. My class teacher was standing in a corner and their sights were unbearable. DEO asked me ‘whose idea was that?’ ‘Mine’ I replied and I begged for his pardon again. He rose from his chair, came near to me. To my surprise, he started clapping! The others in the room also joined him! He congratulated me and awarded the ‘Best Class’ award to our class! He said the award was not for the execution screw up, but for the enthusiasm demonstrated, the way we behaved during the inspection and the sincerity we had shown in our chart preparations! I was on top of the world and so were my friends! That night we collected some money from the class and prepared a ‘Best Class’ Banner and hung it at the entrance of our class! This was again another thing which nobody had done before – the principal stopped by and congratulated the class the next day! And also warned about executing things on our own without permission. But who cared? K managed to give us another memory to laugh!

… to be continued …