Vignettes of my Schooldays: #2 (Holi Special!)

Exam days.

Especially finals.

They are

brutal,

unforgiving,

and

tiresome.

But usually

I can ace them

or at least

I could

in FIS.

In PPS

I really need to try hard

and float above

the drowning ocean of academics.

But

for once

today’s History and Civics exam

was super easy.

Easier than

Maths 2 yesterday,

which most of my friends

discussed

while clapping their hands to their heads

in frustration.

Today

the discussion of the paper

is cut short

by other topics.

The bus students

including me

are much more jovial today

and decide to talk about other things.

Suddenly,

Amaradhevan 

somehow

lashes out or something

at Aadita.

She moves to stand near the school building

by a big window

and she notices some bags stacked

in a corner.

Her eyes quickly change

from puzzlement

to excitement.

I move to see what she’s staring at

and my jaw drops.

In one of the bags,

pink powder

fills it to the brim.

Pink powder,

which I now remember

is used to mark the lines

for warmup sessions

in the ground (where we are now)

during hybrid classes.

I don’t really see

Aadita’s devilish grin

due to her mask covering her face.

But I bet

she has it

when she scoops up some powder,

and yells,

“It’s Holi today!”

She holds up her hand towards me

I cry out

and run as far as I can

away from her chalky-pink hand.

Everyone sees what is going on,

and soon

Ekampreet and Maadhavi jump out of the way

and Oditi shouts for mercy

and the boys go haywire.

But soon

someone gets caught

pink-handed

when I see that

Aadita dabs Manit on his forehead

colouring it a bright shade of magenta

which makes us all

erupt in voracious laughter.

But she is not done.

Soon

I get a handful on my cheek,

Ekampreet gets some on her wrist

and everyone else

is hit.

But then,

a worst hit arrives for Aadita herself.

Amaradhevan grabs more pink

and as we head for the gate to wait for our buses

he comes running 

and literally throws

all the pink

at Aadita.

The powder stains her face,

her hair,

her shirt.

I might be ruining fun

by fuming at Amaradhevan

for trying something

so idiotic.

Maadhavi and I check on her

as the other primary children arrive.

A teacher notices Aadita’s disarray

and looks to Ekampreet and I

for explanations.

I expect a response about Aadita

so I say

that Amaradhevan’s stunt

caused the distorted bright-pink handiwork.

She then asks Amaradhevan what happened

and he responds

that Aadita started it.

As the teacher gives them a talking-to

The little kids ask Ekampreet and I

about what happened.

I grin

and pull down my mask to show the colour on my face

while Ekampreet narrates the incident.

I turn to talk to Oditi and Manit

the latter trying to furiously wipe the colour.

He asks us if it’s gone yet

and I suppress a smile and pull on my mask,

while Oditi remarks that he needs a mirror to know.

“I still feel bad for Aadita,” I say to Ekampreet.

“She just wanted to have fun,

but then that Amaradhevan literally ruined everything.”

“True,” she remarked.

“He threw the colour.

She dabbed it.”

“In which is a stark difference,” I remind her.

“Dabbing is harmless.

Throwing…”

I sigh.

“It was chalk.

What if

it went into someone’s eyes?”

Oditi says to me,

“Maisha, you should write a blog post about this.”

I grin and nod.

And I have.

This adventure

is the post which she was talking about.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Signed,

Melody Vega

(As Maisha Saighal in this chronicle)