Little stars

At the annual day in Mira's school today afternoon... with the IInd year BSc Nutrition students of WCC after the programme, alone in her specially tailored dress, with her teachers, and singing hymns (left on the 2nd row).

The function lasted an hour and had - apart from the customary welcome note, vote of thanks, a couple of speeches by the college dignitaries - the children take part in a few rounds of singing, dance to the tune of "Five Little Ducks went swimming one day" (dressed like five bright yellow ducks) and later an African number (in tribal outfits) and a fat little boy sing "Old Macdonald had a farm" with some prompting from his teacher. While some kids looked extremely confident and comfortable with the whole show, some looked unsure and miserable (that lil boy on the extreme right in the bottom picture bawled loudly throughout the song session). But the audience, mostly the proud parents and their relatives, enjoyed their performance or lack of it. It made me misty-eyed as I watched tiny tots in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 age group perform under the watchful eyes and quiet prodding of the teachers.

To V's alarm, Mira looked the smallest among them all. She seemed to sing out loudly, and a couple of folks told me as we walked out that "she was full of life" and "sang well". She didnt recite the verses as she never got round to learn beyond the first sentence. While Hitansh (the 2nd boy from the left in the front row), the son of the Gujarathi lady I made friends with when I went to collect the application form for the nursery last year, confidently recited a couple of verses. We have ordered a DVD of the programme.

The girls of the Home Science dept, displaying their anorexic figures in brown silken kurtas, had arranged and anchored the programme. Mira told me the chechis dressed her up and coloured her lips. Looking at them, I knew why college girls called me, with my unmaskable mummy figure and visage, an aunty. It irritates me no end.

As the head of the dept of Home Science said, some of the little girls would come back to study in the college 12 years later. And some boys return to invite their teachers for their wedding or to just meet them. Someday Mira will realise that she was part of a special experience, being part of the laboratory nursery school of the WCC.

Many parents came with a baby in their arms. Which meant their wards were the elder siblings. Ash, who has his school in the afternoons these days, did not attend. We left the college in time to pick him up from school.