It was a beautiful morning. The rays of sun were smacking my cheeks as clearly I was late from school. I heard the voice of my father shouting out loud to get up and get ready for school. I woke up and almost ran towards the washroom to clean up and get ready. No breakfast that day. Soon I was on my way to school with my necktie in the pocket, Thanks God I did not forget that. It was a beautiful morning , there was a bit of fog left to be in the view as the sun was already up reminding me I was late.
Everyday I had to be present in the ground before everyone else even before the teachers because I had to address the whole school with morning prayers, anthems and inspiring songs etc. Two choir girls used to help me and I was pretty sure everyone else could have been looking for me as this probably was my first day being late. I was scared , as I knew my father must be very angry of how ignorant I had been to sleep late at night and the perfect scolding was due as soon as I come back home after school. Really had to prepare for that as well. On the other hand our strict Principal must have been frowned as the whole school might have been waiting for me.
It was far beyond my reach to become Tarzan and run like a leopard to reach there yet I was trying my best to steer the paddles of my bicycle with full force. Soon I was at the gate and the guard at the gate reminded with a shout "Hey buddy .... Never saw you that late" . It was a gentle reminder of what may come in my way from the gate to the ground where everyone else was standing for assembly. All the teachers and all the students from all the classes.
The morning drill had not yet been started at that point as the principal was still in his office. The old man might have had a phone call which to my interest was pretty awesome. Suddenly I realized that I was not really that late just a few minutes on the clock and it would have saved the day. A sigh of relief while walking through the corridor as I walked pass by the office of the Principal and made sure he did not have a glance at me. But still thinking about my father what he would have to say after school. I started running towards the ground, all the teachers were looking at me as rushed towards the stage where the two girls were waiting for me to start the assembly drill.
A vivid look of anger by Ms.Maliha and Ms.Ejaz nearly terrified me. They were my teachers I was most scared off. And finally we started the proceedings as usual and while in the middle of the performance I noticed from the rare view of my right eye that the Principal was standing right next to me. Thank God I said in my heart as the principal was totally unaware what tragedy I survived that day alone. Soon all the students were lined up and going back to their classes along with their teachers to begin the day. I was on my way to my class when a voice smacked my ears " Hey why are you late today"? It was Ms.Maliha. I said with a confident voice " My bicycle just broke down on my way,it is an old one you know but someone helped me". She murmured "hmmm" and that was the confirmation that she bought the story completely.She followed me to the class. The girls obviously were sitting on the left corner at the front row and my desk was on the right. Almost everyone was in the class except Yasser,and as soon as I looked back he was walking right through the door to enter the room.
Shahrukh started gossiping as he would everyday and whispered slowly " Hey ! where the fuck is your tie"? and it had me thinking you know that everyone was so generous that day including nature as I might have broken many rules at the school including being late but yet no one had punished me yet , except my father as I knew he would never rest until he would throw me a beating for how neglectful I had been on that day. I quickly fixed the tie around my neck and till then Ms.Maliha had already ordered everyone to get the books out of the bags and bring her the homework from yesterday. Ghazal shouted " Everyone ! we are going to count the Golden stars today". Ms.Maliha had a smile on her face confirming the act and I was puzzled a bit because I did not really know that the count could make me win that day or not. Nothing was going perfect and I had a feeling of being missed out on this one as well. Gullrukh was so neat and clean with the home work and always ahead in collecting the Golden stars. It was an excitement to be the first and being prominent from all which I were by the way but never had been proud of it.
Ms.Maliha had counted all of them from all the students and was about to announce the name who had got most of the Golden stars in last 30 days. All of a sudden Ms.Zahida sneaked in the class room and walked right at my desk and asked me "Everything all right with you son"? I figured she might have noticed as well for " Me being late". I said " Yeah Ma'am everything is fine ,its just I was a bit late today". She said " It is Ok but make sure you do not repeat it" , she had a smile on her face pretty soon and I realized how much all the teachers or the people concerned or connected to me really loved me. One day being late for a few minutes and it had me many lessons to learn , many faces to read and many things to worry about. Ms.Zahida soon approached Ms.Maliha where she was being told that the name of the student with most of the Golden Stars was going to be announced. Ms.Zahida quickly had a look at the result card in Ms.Maliha's lap and she quickly turned her eyes towards Gullrukh. That moment on I was pretty sure she was the winner. Within seconds Ms.Maliha started in her soft voice " I am glad to announce that this month's winner of the most Golden Stars by topping all the tests and the best in doing homework is " Rana". I had my heartbeat double at that time and Ms.Zahida was smiling and clapping soon enough as did everyone in the class.
It might have been an ordinary day but I learned many things that day..
