Vignettes of my Schooldays: #1

Monday wasn’t interesting
even for me,
Maybe the occasional unintentional joke
which cracks me up too much.
But otherwise
Monday has its blues
which colours the day
with different shades
and each shade shows
a different side
of the day.

On Monday,

Akshat is behind me

Manit on my right

Vedant on my left.

I’m surrounded by boys

one of them who is very troublesome

yet the other kids

find him nice.

I shake my head

and wonder whether I’d be able to survive

if I had a class like this.

Akshat keeps calling Manit
repeatedly
Manit calmly ignores him.
Then Akshat pokes me 
and I turn around

The teacher isn’t in class
so it’s fine.
He tells me to call Manit
and I see through his plot plainly
and tell him to bother me some other time.
But he takes it
like I meant it
and on Tuesday,

he still pokes me shoulder
asking me to call Manit
I tell him he is close enough
to call him.
I wish
he didn’t irritate me so much
but the irritations
are usual.

Monday is weird.

Aadita, Akshat and Manit

are talking about something

I didn’t understand.

I sat there listening

because my parents told me

to listen and observe.

Such a method

is called ‘neutral jing’,

where I listen and wait before doing

and then

out of the blue

one of them asks me,

“Maisha, slap Manit.”

I grin

and say,

“I’d take the chance

to hit any boy,

but we have protocols

and rules

which don’t allow me to.”

Akshat slaps his forehead

wondering why his classmate (me)

is so scared to hit someone.

But I am actually

not bold or brave enough

to literally hit someone.

Maybe I could use verbal gaffes

and defeat someone,

but I am not Katy in ‘Shang-Chi’

where I have the courage

to yell the lyrics

of ‘Hotel California’

in a bully’s face.

Or maybe I do.

Tuesday,

we have Chemistry

with Rema Ma’am.

One of my favourite teachers,

Rema Ma’am can make boring chemistry fun.

She has a lot of good jokes

which vary every class.

Today,

her new ones were

'The Rahul Mohanty’,

'My Name Is’,

'Shreyas’ Rathi’s brother’,

and some more.

I wonder

if Ma’am would give me a nickname

like she gave the other kids.

Maybe I’d like it to be

'Avatar Maisha’,

'Melissa Vega’,

or even

'Chotis’ Girl’

but I guess I am a bit too much

to be given a definite nickname.

I don’t have noticeable traits

like never showing up for class

or saying ‘my name is Maisha’ to answer a question

or having a well-known brother

or anything.

The teachers know

I am a writer,

but being a writer

so well known

that Rema Ma’am calls you

by your pen name

is not in my description.

But I hope to add it soon

and maybe

someday

everyone will know

Melissa Vega.