For some reason, yesterday, on the occasion of Independence Day, I was thinking about my school — the Barpeta Government Boy’s Higher Secondary School — where I studied from Class VIII to Class X. I never went to the flag hoisting ceremony on I-Day (or R-Day); there were chances of bombs going off (especially on such occasions). But I miss the time in school, despite the mounting chaos outside (the school is next to the district police headquarters, and in my last year in school, I remember Army vehicles crowding the road; the year President’s Rule was declared).

But I miss the time in school. So I Googled and found this photo. I remember this corridor so vividly. On the last period, my teacher and I would sit on the stairs at the end of this corridor for our Sanskrit lesson.

I was the only student who opted for the subject, and my teacher (I’m so sorry to have forgotten his name; I think it was Sheikh, or something), preferred to sit outside as he regaled me with verses from Kalidas and Bhartṛhari. It must have been an odd sight indeed — I, a puny, little thing with a Brahmin surname, and he, a tall, hulking figure, with flowing salt-and-pepper beard and a skull cap, sitting in the open, studying Sanskrit.

Sadly, I couldn’t learn as well as my learned teacher tried to teach me (the 32 variations of a single word was too much!), but still remember one Bhartṛhari verse my teacher recited to me (I don’t remember the Sanskrit words, but the translation goes thus) — “Be like the swan that swims in water without getting itself wet…”

And I’ve tried my utmost!