Mukul boarded the school bus from his home. He smiled when he saw Naira sitting at her usual place. Naira wasn’t coming to school for the past week. She had gone to attend her mama’s wedding. Mukul took his usual seat next to Naira and both filled each other in with details about their last few days.

Nearing the school, they got supremely excited because today their first period would be Environmental Science. Naira hugged and slapped hands with many of her friends (classmates and schoolmates) upon reaching school. The minute she kept her bag in her classroom, she heard the Assembly bell.

She came down to the courtyard and saw Class III students taking the front space as it was their turn to demonstrate the daily exercise routine. After the routine, everybody sat down to sing songs and discuss about current affairs. This part began with Neeti Ma’am’s booming voice echoing in the school building–
Gooood Mooorning….!!! And then... Savere savere, yaaron se milne, ban than ki nikle hum.. Ban than ke nikle hum… Ummedon wali dhoop, sunshine wali asha, rone ki wajah kam hai, hasne ke bahane zyada.

Elen/a Ma’am came in the front and started asking the kids about water, drought, flood and deserts. In a while, kids came to know that the day was marked as World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. Mukul and Naira wondered what life would be in a desert, where every morning one would have to walk miles to fetch few pails of water. They were brought back to the present moment when Neeti Ma’am called Class I kids to present their surprise piece for the day. Shortly after that, national anthem was sung and everybody went back to their classes.

Mukul and Naira took out their workbooks from their lockers, kept at the back of the room, and took their seats. Dina ma’am entered the class with a beaming smile. The EVS Period went by quickly. They did fun activities today on Shadows. Soon it was time for Snack Break. Dina Ma’am was also the Class Teacher for Mukul and Naira’s class and she was the one who usually had their Snack Break with them in class. Every day they would discuss something from their daily eventful life with her. Today, Alok was in full spirits as his grandmother had come to visit him from his village and brought all savoury items she had baked for his friends and teachers.

The bell rang again and Maya Ma’am was at their classroom door to take them for their Activity Class of Gardening. On their way to the School Forest, Maya Ma’am told them that today they would be looking for weeds and undesirable plants that could hamper the growth of their saplings.

Gauri Ma’am had planned a surprise for their Hindi Period today. The class had read about caterpillar and its transformation into a butterfly and its journey from one place to another. Gauri Ma’am had found a short story video on the same theme for them. They excitedly went to the Audio-Video room to watch the video. Later, they discussed how watching the video had made them understand the story even better.

It was time for the all time favourite period of the day – Physical Education! They all ran and crowded around Jyotsna Ma’am, throwing questions at her one after the other – What will we play? Should we go on the swings? Can we play cricket? Could we please play kabbadi today?

Jyotsna Ma’am reminded students that before playing any game, it is important for our bodies to warm up to avoid any muscle injury. Students ran three rounds and did basic exercises. It was time to play their month’s game Kho-Kho. Jyotsna Ma’am divided students in two groups, introduced the game and instructed the rules and regulations.

Coming back from the ground, they had their lunch break but before going to class and getting their lunch boxes, they ran into Parineeta Ma’am and they told her all about their Kho-Kho match. Each of them had their own glorified story to tell and Parineeta Ma’am was equally eager to listen.

Soon the song – Khaane se pehle sada haath dhona kabhi bhi na bhoolenge ho, ho ho started filling the courtyard air, kids spread out the mats on the ground and went to wash their hands. Mukul grabbed the glass near the earthen pot and drank 2 glasses of soothing cool water. Along with Dina Ma’am, Saponi Ma’am and Gauri Ma’am also sat with Naira’s class for having lunch. Small circles for each class with their teachers sat on the ground in the Courtyard to have a meal together. Some of Naira’s friends quickly finished their lunch and went on the swings while others enjoyed the chitter chatter with friends for all 30 minutes.

Ela Ma’am entered the class and everybody took their seats. She showed them few pictures and in a matter of few minutes the class guessed that they would be working with vowel teams – oe, oa, ou, oi and oy today. The class particularly enjoyed learning about vowel teams as they liked pronouncing different words in an elongated manner.

Just like every day, the day had swept by and the last period for the day – Maths was here. Dina Ma’am was there with rajma beans in a basket. The kids started jumping in excitement to learn addition by making 10s.

The final bell for the day rang followed by the song – Mohe Mohe Tu Rang De Basanti… Class IV kids along with Aarahna Ma’am were leading the daily Bye-Time routine of dancing. The entire school with teachers and aunties and kids let themselves free and moved together on the pumping beats of the song. The customary cross hand wave was done at the end and everyone shouted Byeeeee!!

Kids rushed to their buses, eager to position themselves near the window to do high-fives with Sagarika Ma’am. That’s how they liked to go home – with blazing smiles and a promise to have another mind blowing day tomorrow.

Kritika was running late for school bus was about to arrive. Gulping milk and putting stationery items simultaneously, she heard the honk coming from outside. She took the ID card and rushed to the bus. Stepping in, she thanked and greeted the bus driver for waiting on her as usual.

Her classmates Shubhi, Aditi and Vinayak who boarded before were eager to start their morning routine of talking on their way to school about homework, their last evening and current affairs.

As the bus entered the school premises and parked by the building, all strolled their way to the respective classes. Vinayak met Shubham happily after a week as he was ill for the past week and took bat and ball to the ground. Both Vinayak and Shubham love playing sports and cricket was their favourite out of all.

As the bell rang for assembly, Kritika, Shubhi, Aditi and others who are the senior-most class in the school asked all the juniors to gather around the corridor with their mats and form lines. It was Friday and so the routine of the day was games.

Bhavika Ma'am blew the whistle and students were ready with their laid out yoga mats. She switched on the speaker and played sounds of Isha on the speaker. Students began performing Sun salutation on the melodious instrumental followed by Om enchants.

Soon after, students went to the ground and formed two circles. The game to be played would have one chaser and one sprinter. The sprinter has the advantage of running in between the circle whereas the chaser has to catch the sprinter by running outside the circle. If caught, the person who stood next to the chaser becomes the new chaser and runs after.

Thirty fun minutes went by and it was time to return to the classes. Neetu Ma'am who is the class teacher entered the class to take attendance. It was zero periods where students complete their due tasks or read their books or write for themselves. Vinayak, Shubham and Shrey started doing the maths homework, Kritika and Aditi went to the activity room to rehearse their dance routine for Independence Day celebration.

Shortly after, it was time for Mathematics class and Siddharth Sir entered the class. Mensuration was the topic and they were tasked with the goal of accurately measuring the area of their school building and forest using the formulae in the book as well as their common sense and reasoning skills.

Snacks followed by, and Neetu Ma'am was back in the class. Karishma had recently started learning baking at home so she brought some brownies to share it with the class. Everyone absolutely loved it and finished the box in a matter of seconds.

Bell rang, and Neetu ma'am asked students to quickly settle down for it was her class to take Hindi literature. After reading Kabir's remarkable couplets, all started discussing the meaning and intentions of the couplets.

Sejal Ma'am was ready outside the class to take Social Science next. She had planned an interesting activity that required paints and brushes to study the chapter in Geography today.

Following was Science by Gaurav Sir and the topic to be learnt was the human's digestive system. To make it fun and interesting, Vinayak and Shubham suggested to role play food and organs to learn biology.

It was time to get some energy. The corridor filled in with hundreds of voices in fractions of seconds. As the senior-most class, the students are allocated with some duties such as - mentor the lines on the stairs, check if students have enough space on mats to sit in a circle, look for leftovers to be thrown away in dustbins instead of the ground, and so forth.

Kritika, Vinayak, Aditi, Shubhi, Shubham, Karishma and others divided themselves and came together after everyone was done looking after. They sat with Neetu Ma'am and told them about jokes cracked in Science class while performing role play.

Shortly after, it was time for the English language. Akanksha Ma’am entered the class and took them to the Audio-Video class. She had planned to show a short film based on the chapter read yesterday to have a sound discussion after.

Friday was the most loved day as students had two back-to-back Physical Education slots to end the day. Everyone packed their bags and came down to the corridor. They removed their ID cards and kept their bags by the pillar.

Bhavika Ma'am solicited students to run three rounds of the ground to warm up the body. As the students choose their games in the month of August, they all separated themselves for Football and Basketball.

Jyotsna Ma'am and Bhavika Ma'am took students to the Football field and Basketball court. Kritika, Aditi and Shubhi were excited as Ma'am had decided to play matches. Vinayak was happy that Shubham was back and today he'll be present to save goals from the opposite team.

The final bell rang and everyone returned from the grounds. The entire school with teachers and aunties gathered around for Bye Time. Class VI students had prepared a short skit on water management in their Science class. They presented in front of all a beautiful and moving performance. Everyone applauded loudly.

The customary cross-hand wave was done at the end and everyone shouted Byeeeee!! Kids rushed to their buses, eager to position themselves near the window to do high-fives with Sagarika Ma’am. That’s how they liked to go home - with blazing smiles and a promise to have another incredible day tomorrow!