Reminiscing the good ole school days ...

Apostolic Carmel batch of 1994,
This post is for all of you, to bring back happy memories galore.
Let's start with our uniforms in literally different shades of grey,
Some greenish grey, bluish grey, grayish grey ;) , if I may say,
White shirt, red tie, school badge, Blue and white keds and different shades of steel grey socks,
You had to keep your hair tied, if you had those long Rapunzel's locks.
If not, you were given, those " Drop down Dead" looks by Bernadette or Ursulla, 
Three rounds, round the Basketball court, you know you'd be in for.
Luckily for me, I didn't have to worry,
My hair had never reached my neck, so no tying or plaits or anything for me ;).

Talking about Bernadette and Ursulla, how could we forget their hilarious " Lept and Right" pronunciations,
Their reference to our monthly cycles as "Happy Birthday" would make us burst into girlish giggles.
And then, when we think of the Basketball court, the games of kho kho and Atti Patti,
Or memories of running into the basketball post, falling in excitement and scraping many a knee.

Memories of so many teachers, Tr. Maryann, Tr. Sherry, Tr. Natty, Tr. Nancy, Tr. Joyce,
Bernadette's lectures and firings of "I'll shoot you" at the mere mention or glance at boys.
Tr. Hamida's " Babols" and her funny mimicry and explanation,
Of the reproduction and birth of a tadpole creation.

Tr. Iyer such a fine teacher, no one can replicate,
Her whole heart and soul to teaching Algebra and Geometry to us, she did dedicate.
I still remember the day she fired us, new council members of division A, standard 9
she referred to our badges as "pieces of metal", though gleamingly they did shine.
I was punished, standing sheepishly out of class,
What a day to forget my Algebra book and the book of graphs!
Memories of standard 10, with class teachers, Joyce, Iyer and Mercy,
How can I forget the incident of the intercom, accidentally falling on me,
The entire class being made to stand in the corridor by Sr. Fabiola,
And then called to the principal's office, by our quiet docile Sr. Theodimira.

In our batch, we had many class mates who had  " Namesakes"
Like two Sharons, Shabnams, Nahids, Poojas, two Namrathas, 
one only with the "t" and one with the"h",
Two Tanyas and two Sonalis , one with "I" instead of "y",
Both Sonalis healthy as they were, have pulled my leg and the one with the 'h' has even made me cry!

Memories of children's day come to my mind, 
where we'd dress up in colourful "frocks" of the funniest kind,
And the teachers would enact on stage and entertain us too,
And at the end of all the fun and frolic, we were given one bright yellow ladoo!

I still remember the one act plays,
The march past, long jump, high jump, God knows what other jumps on Sports day,
And remember Ruby house losing to Sapphires just because my Red flag flew the other way!!
Memories of the last days of school, traditional days with us dressed in velvet suits, salwars or zari saris,
Sobbing tears of sadness and writing on autograph books " don't forget me"!

Those were the days my friends,
Sadly, our school days did come to an end.
18 years have passed and these memories still remain fresh,
For me school life was fun and those days were one of my best.

Memories of old and new friends, many of us are great friends even till today,
but even if we are not, just being a Carmelite, binds us in every way.
We may be in different cities or in different continents too,
But my heartfelt wish to each and every classmate is
May "God be your strength" and may he shower his blessings always, 
on each and everyone of you!!