It was MY Day, alrite!

Teacher’s day for a teacher is an acknowledgement and certification of what you have been doing and if you have been doing it right...no puns intended for a change!

This year my students pleaded for a treat and when I could not resist their cute beckoning elongated moans of pleeeeeeeeaseee and equally long faces anymore (that would be precisely for 60 seconds), I gave in and decided to take the senior ones- 10th, 11th and 12thies for a treat to MacDonald’s...Taking the complete whole bunch of 100 was not humanly possible for me or humanly hand-able for the Mcd’s staff and followers....and hence the cut off...that almost broke my heart...but then, sigh! sigh!

Before venturing out though...I handed down to them a verbal list of statutory warnings:
1. Please reach on time...this is not a class that you reach sauntering away to glory, 15 minutes late and always with the same excuse that you car had a flat tyre...What a flattened car that would be!
2. Please come straight to the venue as you leave your abodes and protective arms of your watchful mothers...to say it more bluntly, let me not catch you in a dubious position in the parking lot...
3. Please don’t hold hands or sit with your beloveds...at least there!
4. Please don’t call outsiders...meaning those not in the coaching just so that they catch a glimpse of how drop dead gorgeous you look when not in your usual garbs...after running from one coaching to another!
5. Please go straight home after the party that is scheduled to end in one hour....don’t tell your parents that “ma’m insisted upon our staying there for three hours”!
6. Please don’t make passes at me...you are anyways getting the fringe benefits...the treat that is!

I know my kids and hence the decree...
And also I knew had these been written on a sheet...they would have made paper aeroplanes of it or roses and offered them to me only!
And also since I know them...I was pretty sure, they most definitely would break at least 4 of these rules...
And like I know and pride myself in...I was right again!

The scheduled time was 7 p.m. and when I reached about 15 minutes early...just four of them awaited...I was expecting at least 40...but then there was still time...I was a bit apprehensive too...wondering if I’d be able to handle so many of them in their first official outing with me!

By 7.20ish they began to filter in...
Today the tresses were let loose...there was a dash of mascara and a line of kaajal caressing the eyes...some were reeking with perfume...others with pin straight standing hair as though gelled and stretched beyond human capacity (reminded my subconsciously of a flick called American Pie...but thankfully I put those thoughts to rest...)
Swanky clothes...ritzy accessories...chic style and loads of street smart attitude...it was a party alrite!
Such a fresh change to see them this way...blooming buds on the threshold of alluring youth...And also a change for them because for the first time their ma’m was not in a salwaar suit but in jeans and a kurti...Alrite, I made some attempts to look cool to gel in as inconspicuously as possible!
So after a big round of us complimenting each other...and forming a mutual admiration society of sorts...they just pulled and placed their chairs all around me and the gossip sessions began...rather they began pulling each other’s legs and thank god like is my habit...I did not indulge in here for once!

I was told who was going around with whom...and when I remarked that oh but I thought ‘she’ was going around with ‘him’...
Oh no ma’m...that was last week...they’ve broken up and she’s single again and he’s now hooked with ‘her’...
Ooooooooooohhh! I gasped for a bit of air...breaking news sections in the newspapers...take a bow here!
Two of these ‘couple’ kids I had passed them on my way up to the restaurant...I enquired about them...I was told they are coming...no puns intended again...Well, they kept coming only...for the evening ended and I didn’t see them come at all!

I also learnt of the new patio-ing tricks circling around these kids as the current fad...sit next to the target and flirt blatantly...no scope or hope for subtleties here....
Then some burgers, fries and cokes followed as they teased me to teach them there and I teased them to sing a song...
They did...
Not crooning any Himesh Reshamiyya number...
But singing ‘happy teachers day’ at the top of their voices, as a big fat chocolate cake entered the domain and I cut through it gently with a heart full of pride about to burst with an unknown delight...

They created such uproar that everyone else at Mcd’s turned around to see what was happening...
Never since the day of my wedding had I turned so many heads all at once...and never since that day only had I eaten so much meetha...
(Remember the laddoos stuffed into your mouth just before you are tying the knot and each person under that connubial tent...from the
closest kins to the distant-est of acquaintances bloody insist on putting the laddoo in your mouth before handing over the shagun...and you realize that to earn you have to burn...you here implying the tummy)
Well, aisa he kuch yahan bhi hua...
Then almost each one of them put chunks of that dripping sumptuous chocolatey sin in my mouth...and for the first time in my life I heard myself blurt... “Bas, ab aur chocolate nahi!”

I pinched myself to believe it was really happening for anything brown and melty gets me big time...Waise, abhi I officially have a year’s supply of chocolates that came in gifts...So if you want to be friendly with me...now is the time!

And like this the awesome evening came to an end...
I told them to pack up now...as we hugged and said goodbyes...as though never to meet again...I returned home with a car full of gifts, flowers and cards...and an incomparable high that glowed for the next 24 hours on my face....
The feeling of getting 100% satisfaction from something in life...well, call it my occupational perks, I guess for I still have to know the occupational hazards and know that I shall never know them!