So there I was, listening to old Hindi numbers, and solving my Sudoku puzzle, when my mobile rang. Annoyed at the disturbance, I glanced at the number. Unknown! I generally avoid picking up calls from unknown numbers,because then I have to tell the caller who is generally peddling some scheme or other, to go to hell, and I do not want to spoil his/her day and mine too. But this call I did answer, probably because I was in the exam mood and hence jusified in wanting to give someone a piece of my mind. Besides, I've been working too hard for my own good.
Female Caller: "Mrs R?"
Me (in my gruffest tone, already annoyed at the audacity in presuming that I was a Mrs) : "Haan ji?"
Caller : "Mrs R, I wanted to know if S is coming to school today?"
Me(spluttering) : "erm..whaat?"
Caller, patiently " I'm T, his teacher"
Me,( in a total unrecognizable squeak) :"Good Morning, Mrs. T. No, No, S doesn't have any exam" while my mind feverishly tries to recall his date sheet which he and I had glanced through two days back.
Mrs. T(really really patient) " erm..ma'am, he has his Art I, Paper today!"
Me: "Are you sure? oops, didnt know. Thank you for letting me know. Sending him right away".
Mrs. T (In a very relieved tone) : "Yes, Im sure, Thank you,"
She kept the phone down before I could utter a syllable more. Yes, she is a very impatient lady. I thought so too.
Knowing S would be shocked, I sprinted off to wake him up, resolving to break the news to him gently.
Threw his bed sheet cover off and shook him, (whaat? that's as gentle as I can be) screaming "Get up, get up, get up, you have your Art paper today"
S : "Amma, don't joke, let me sleep"
"Seriously", I think to myself, " this child has chosen the wrong day and time to be like me!"
Shook him some more till he got up, still in disbelief that we had forgotten about an exam. Both he and I were convinced that surely his teacher was mistaken. We pored over the date sheet intently and then looked at each other. Oops, we had looked at next week's schedule. In our defence, who puts Art in between heavy duty subjects like Chemistry and Geography. Who?! It's all the school's fault. Always!
I pushed S to the washroom and sprinted to the other room and barked at G : "S has an exam today, get the car out"
His eyes popping out assured me that he had heard and I sprinted back to the kitchen to make a sandwich for the boy. And then sprinted back to S and then to G again.
10 minutes later, they were on their way to school, and I heaved a sigh, partly from relief and mostly from all that sprinting. Thought for the day, sprinting in the morning is injurious to breathing. Please don't try it.
Then I remembered this, and this (click on the links) and I chuckled. Nothing had changed much since then, and the Apple hadn't fallen too far, from this tree either!
I then practiced a suitably chastened and apologetic expression to face G, when he returned from the impromptu school run. He should be happy though, both S and I are not likely to forget an exam ever. I have it all planned out. We just need to print the date sheet in bigger fonts. Maybe color codes will help too.
Yes, that should work!
Yes, poor G, indeed!
