BASANT PANCHAMI IN A SMALL TOWN SCHOOL

Today being Basant Panchami, Bubun reminisced this day while he was in school over 3 decades ago. It was a small town school where the Goddess of Learning was held in great reverence and awe. “The boys brought flowers , leaves, paper of different colours; the girls made festoons; boys then hung or tied the festoons at appropriate places. Sanskrit teacher functioned as the priest while the school peon turned cook, with some student volunteers lending helping hands for cutting and chopping vegetables and grinding coriander and cumin seeds. The headmaster always made the most judicious deployment of  the human resource at his command for observing the Basant Panchami . There would be no square peg in a round hole. And the most wicked and naughty boy of the school who almost everyday got either a slap or a scolding from the headmaster, would be sent for. He would appear before the headmaster and would almost be overwhelmed by an affectionate pat on his back. The smiling headmaster would assign him a big job .He would prepare four buckets of dry Prasad made of Bundi, cut pieces of bananas and grated coconuts.” I interrupted him at this stage and wanted to know how the most wicked boy made a difference in the making of the dry Prasad. “ No student would go near the buckets to steal a portion of the tasty Prasad while the Bully was in charge”, Bubun explained.

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10th February, 2019