Srinidhi's school year started two weeks back. His first day of class was on Sept 7th. It is kind of amusing to see all the prep that goes into a 2 year old's play school. The application process started 7 months before the school opened! The open houses, obtaining the immunization letter from the doctor's office, the parent's orientation session, meet and greet the teachers, school supply shopping etc. It is hard not to think how easily our parents dropped us in primary school those days (more on that later).

First day of school was full of drama. No no, it is not what you think, it was not just Srinidhi. It was us to start with! For starters, Srinidhi was slightly ill, had cough, and was sleeping past 8 AM. We were still debating if he should go to school that day! When we finally decided to wake him up, we just didn't have as much time as we wished. As any typical two year old does, he took for ever to brush and potty and to have some breakfast. We were in a hurry. All these resulted in us quarrelling. Why were we late? Were we to take him to school that day or not? How did the day, which was to be so wonderful, turned out to be such a disaster? Was it a disaster? Was it okay or not to go few minutes late? Etc.

Finally when Srinidhi was ready, 2 minutes before 9 AM, we simply had no time for Veena to get ready. I quickly put on something and drove him to school. We left home at 9.02 and reached school at 9.06, only to find we were not the last ones!

Since Srinidhi had visited the school before, during meet and greet the teachers session, he knew it was a fun place with lot of toys. He happily walked into the classroom. I kissed him goodbye, took a photo and went hiding. As soon as he realized I wasn't going to stay, trouble started. He started crying.

First day was a reduced schedule of only two hours. Those two hours flew by fast. When we went back to pick him up, we saw him playing, with tears still in his eyes. From the teachers account, he whined most of the 2 hours, even though he played most of that time. When the teacher finally allowed the kids to come out one at a time, Srinidhi was running to Amma with a mixture of happiness and complaint.

Later I learned that Veena wasn't going to come to school that morning anyway, since she thought it would be too difficult for Srinidhi to part from both of us! And it turns out, the delay caused us to leave after the inauspicious time of 7.30 to 9.00 AM [ராகுகாலம்]!! As they say in India, All is for good.


Unhappy Srinidhi...

Class is over...

Why did you leave me mommy??

Now I am happy.