Attendance Register

A school student's life is like a delicious mouth-watering & rich in flavour cake; Summer vacations is an icing on top that melts on a palate. Summer vacation is all about extended hours of sleep, playtime & fun. Those are the dream days of being carefree, no homework, no stress of weekly/monthly tests, or those torturous exams. Summer sets the mood to eat seasonal fruits, visit grandparents & play with cousins tirelessly unless fate has other plans.

Summer holidays declared with the expectation to complete projects & assignments leaves anyone with a bitter taste. A couple of months of lecture about the criticality of the last year, the year of one's life's turning point, so on & so forth. For once, Summer vacation was dedicated to weekly library visits, trips to xerox machines & stationery stores. Whenever friends called each other on the landline, they all cribbed about the last school holidays ruined by school faculty. For once, students dreaded vacation & looked forward to school. Waking up early & meeting friends seemed better than writing ongoing projects through the Summer heat.

Kanika was glad to go to school, but the half-done projects caused stress. As she entered the building, she walked to the end of the corridor. She stopped at the board that read 'Class 10' & one step into the class, she paused. She wondered, "How would a large number of classmates from last year fit into this small room?" She looked around & chose a bench in the middle of the room & settled. One by one, her classmates dropped in. They exchanged pleasantries & checked on the status of their projects. None of them seemed to have completed. The class toppers arrived & declared they had not completed too. Rasheeda & Kanika exchanged smiles of relief & got into chatting. Rasheeda said, "If class toppers haven't completed, then what can teachers expect out us?" Kanika replied, "Yeah. Teachers can't punish us all, especially the toppers. What a relief?"

Once the school bell rang, the class teacher & the strict Principal walked into the classroom. Everyone's throat seemed parched & most of them swallowed hard. The Principal began the lecture, "How critical the year was. Expectations from students." Kanika looked up at the roof & thought, "God, have you no mercy at all? All Summer, we have heard it. Now the same lecture on day one, first period? Really?" The Principal continued, "How the responsibility of the school's cent percent results was on the student's shoulders. Also, the reason for letting go of underperforming students." Finally, it dawned to Kanika how they had all fit into a smaller classroom. Students exchanged looks. They couldn't decide if they were happy to be retained in school or upset for their classmates. Kanika wondered, "How many more such bombs was The Principal going to drop?"

The Principal continued, "We have to send your names to the central board. We have checked the application forms submitted at the time of your admission. We have referred to it & updated the attendance register. Please make a note of your names if changed." Everyone whispered, "Why would my name change? How different can it be? What is she talking about?" The Principal looked at students through her thick spectacles with narrowed eyes & the class fell into pin-drop silence. She continued, "All these years, your attendance was set up based on admission number. Now on, it's in alphabetical order. So memorise who is before & after you. As you will be seated in the same order in examination center."

Once the Principal left, the class teacher gave another round of speech about the most critical year of schooling. She called out the attendance & a few names were bizarre. Students had never imagined that the initials could be a nightmare. For some students, the initials were either added, removed, or expanded. The first name Aniketh M was now Madanpalli Aniketh; now he had slipped to somewhere in the middle. Deepa was now Deepanjali. Everyone was thoroughly confused. Students whose names had drastically changed were more embarrassed & confused. It was a shame that one did not know their name. Rasheeda whispered, "As though we had any less load, that they have changed our names & order now." Kanika replied, "I know! Why couldn't they do it all these years? Of all the years, they chose final year to add more fuel to the burning fire." Faculty & students were aware that chaos & confusion would take time to settle.

Amidst everything, adolescence was at its peak. Students continued the tradition of notoriously pairing classmates. As it was the last year of school, students utilised every moment & opportunity to the fullest for teasing. A few weeks had passed & they seemed settled. However, in every free period, pupils rushed into their project work or record book. Kanika was determined to complete the Biology record book & was fully occupied by it. That's when she heard Vicky call her name out from the last bench. As a habit, she picked her water bottle to pass it to him & turned back. She saw Aniketh trying to suppress Vicky. Vicky managed to say, "I don't want water." She put the bottle back into place & turned her attention back to the record book.

Vicky yelled on top of his voice & teased, "Kanika, are you behind Aniketh?" The whole class fell into silence. Kanika cringed, bit her lower lip & shook her head. She thought, "He hasn't learned a thing from 'The Wink' incident." Kanika turned to her right to see Rasheeda's Stunned face. She nodded, conveying, "I got this." While the whole class looked at Kanika, she turned at the last bench. Vicky grinned & Aniketh looked as white as chalk. Her eyebrows knotted & she casually said, "Actually, Aniketh is behind me!"

Take Away: One should learn alphabets correctly, after all its basics.