Ma'am, may I go to drink water?

Sprite bujhaye pyaas

Baaki sab bakwaas..

No way. It had always been the water. Then, today and forever. After surds, trigonometry and quadratic equations, the water cooler used to be the escape.

"Ma'am, may I go to drink water?"

Teachers used to think twice before saying a yes. After each period, the bell rang, and the queue at the water coolers grew longer. The big green water cooler. Taps had to be either pressed, or lifted up for the water to flow, and the gush of cold H2O would chill our dry throats. Dry of chattering away to glory, be merely standing in the queue - admiring the teachers and seniors (sometimes a little bit of loose talk as well - do not kill me for this), ragging the juniors, or envying the talented batchmates. 

In the world of purifiers and RO systems, I wonder how many of us would drink water from the old refrigerated school coolers. I have a gut feel, the coolers must be fitted with such systems now, just for their survival. I need to cross check this. 

Water reminds me of this: 

I carried it till class 7, and lost it umpteen number of times. Finally, totally abandoned it, out of embarrassment. Seniors do not carry water bottles and lunch boxes. Well, they just manage. Fool's thought. Who leaves home without water, that too at 45 degrees? Oh, yes, it was me. 

Water reminds me of the monsoons. The rains. Puddles of water to splash around. Slip in the puddle while accepting a challenge to walk across, and then beg Sister Thomas, for extra skirt, to change. (This is truth, experienced truth). 

Once, when it was raining hard, my Hindi teacher, Mrs Vinod, ordered samosas for all of us. Peter, the canteen guy, was thrilled. It was me and my friend Anjana, who had the responsibility to get the samosas to the classroom. While going down the stairs, we slipped. Both of us, together, hand in hand. And the first thing came in our mind. Thank god, we didnt slip while going back with the yummilicious samosas. We would have wasted the delicacies. Up we stood, and ran to the canteen, getting drenched. Thank god, it was the last period of the day. 

  

This post is dedicated to the A-to-Z blogging challenge - the largest Blog Challenge in the history of Blogkind. My selected theme is "memories of St. Thomas' "- my Alma mater. This is the twenty third  post of the challenge, and is linked to the letter W: Water bottles and water coolers 

Linking this post to UBC too.