pre-k

the campus is suddenly full of little people. positively crawling.

the bus ride to school has shot up on the entertainment index, though. there is this particular small person who keeps asking every two seconds "where is daddy?" and another one, who wails heartrendingly for his mommy. on the first day, the wailer tried wailing for a full half an hour, before he threatened to hit the driver on the head if he did not take him back, pronto. the driver displayed suitable fear, and promised to take him straight back home, once the bus dropped the rest of us unfortunate people at school.

poor things. maybe they think we are kidnapping a busload of kids. silly kids, though. why would we kidnap other people's kids? decidedly second hand. we can very well have our own.

on the seat next to me sit a diminutive brother and a slightly less diminutive sister. the sister, by dint of her worldly experience of having gone to school for the last year, keeps dispensing pearls of wisdom to the brother in the lines of - there are dinoasurs in the school (i spent some time wondering about this earthshattering discovery, before i noticed one of the other little creatures point at a chameleon and yell -what else- dinosaur!) and it is better to eat one's bruch and drink all the water in the water bottle in the bus itself, so that the bag becomes easier to carry to class.

each able-bodied adult over the age of 7 is entrusted with one such weepy human being to ferry to their respective classes. all the first graders are swelling with pride at being treated as seniors, and it is a common sight to see five people hearding one kindergartener.

walking to and fro on the campus is nothing short of courting disaster. little persons keep getting under your feet all time.

June: life-threatening crisis number one

nothing is safe anymore. especially things like packing and unpacking stuff. i had always said so to whoever would listen -which not many do, bad luck for them.

among the cartons and cartons and cartons of stuff that has come to campus in the wake of the Prep team's shift here, danger lurked. and by danger, i dont mean just the danger of getting a hunchback unpacking it all. this was a danger with far more venom than the combined poison of a roomful of quietly swearing women.

anyway, to make a long story short, bhavna got bitten by a baby snake, and it was the kiss of death. not for bhavna, but for the snake. she is now in hospital under observation, and the snake is in hospital too -dead- for identification. the critter turned out to be of venomous variety, but as it was only a two day old thing, the venom is thankfully not fatal.

it is sad one can wear shoes only on one's feet. i would wear them all over myself if i could, but human anatomy being what it is, that is not possible. now the only surefire way to escape getting bitten by some punk-snake with a death wish is to stop going to the washroom altogether. for some reason, the creepy-crawlies seem to love the place. very popular snake hangout. i wonder why? what if someone unlucky got bitten? and worse, bitten in some unbandagable/undignified part of the body?

cancelling out the washroom visits is quite drastic a step, and would take away a major chunk of time i spend in intellectual musings. it is also a favourite hangout for harrassed teachers, and a vital connecting link in the unofficial underground grapevine system.

i can only hope that all the good deeds that i have done so far saves me from a fate worse than death.