When is June 10th?

After waiting and longing and praying and generally feasting on mamma's brain as to when April 19th would come and his summer vacation would begin, the brat has now got himself a new target date to count down towards, namely June 10th. That is the day school begins. And he goes to second grade. Excuse me for a moment, while I fling myself onto a solid sofa and weep for a moment. Where did my small little baby disappear, this is a big boy I have now. A big boy who actually corrects me when I speak to him in his baby speak.

Now the countdown actually begins to get into Grade 2. When I was a child, I would have bribed any authority to ensure that school reopening was interminably delayed. I have, I am ashamed to say, even attempted to bribe God occasionally with pocket money offerings to have reopening delayed by a few weeks post the summer vacations. I have been known to develop inexplicable stomach aches and pains to keep myself at home, rather than make the trip to school (which was also understandable in retrospect because Goregaon to Bandra was a long and boring trip to make for a nine year old on her own). The child is actually marking days on the calendar. He has, thanks to misplaced generosity on the part of folks, got a new school bag already for the coming scholastic year. Not the kind of bag that he wanted, but he's charmed enough with the newness of this one to use it till he sees a better one on the back of a fren and will then nibble indelicately on my brain until he convinces me or his pappa to get him the very same bag on the pain of not going to skul.On his shopping list is a new pencil box, wid magnets, and wid a sharpener place, and thermometer (might come in handy given his febrile seizure scares), a place for an eraser (in more innocent times, mamma would call it a rubber with absolutely no shame, not knowing the implications of yelling across a crowded classroom for what could be construed as a loud demand for a male prophylactic), all sort of pointed instruments like a compass, and such like which could be employed more suitably in the fist fights that undoubtedly erupt during lunch break, and of course, pencils. Which must be discarded when they reach half their size. Mamma remembers struggling with pencils which were barely an inch high, until they were too tiny to hold and sharpen anymore. And of course, new uniforms, and new shoes (wid laces, and nod with velcro, because he is now a big boy and velcro shoes are for the small chilrin). The actual nitty gritty of getting his nose into them study books is not under consideration at all. Mamma's not complaining. At least she doesnt have to haul the brat into school in those first days like some children she sees who actually attempt to flee the premises or cling leechlike to their parents, howling piteously enough to make any sane, right thinking, rational parent do what's the most obvious solution, aka, homeschool the child.

And as for June 10th, I'm trying to convince the child it will come soon enough. Given that I'm not getting any work done at the office for the past two weeks, it cant come soon enough for me.