It drizzled a bit today. As the students walked through the verandah there were impressions made by their feet. They arrived later than usual today. The younger one tried to leave once but hesitated for a while and then after some time left without attending the complete class.
None of them had done their homework and I don’t recall any excuse. The elder showed me a few reels on Instagram. He joined his friends after the school programs were over. They were dancing in a group at some school on Bollywood filmy songs. He seemed animated while showing me those reels. The festive spirit had gripped those teenagers. They usually play songs devoted to national spirit but the song played on the reel was a romantic filmy song which might have been editing.
They had also visited some places in a procession of bikes. It was supposed to be under a religious banner. It means he belongs to a cult. He told about another friend whose paper I had evaluated last year. He was present in one of the reels.
He wanted me to discuss papers from last year. He selected an English paper for the discussion. It had a section on Grammar like yesterday and a few passages to read. We discussed those. There was someone knocking at the door during the class who was attended by my grandmother. I later enquired who it was. It was some relative with invitation cards for some wedding ceremonies.
Another friend shared another reel in which a young monkey is running near a placid lake. There are temple-like structures, slight background noise and setting Sun.
We discussed maps before he left. This book, in English was from his previous school syllabus. I told him a few details about longitude and. latitude. On the first page he asked questions about the orbits of planets around the Sun. On another page there were details about the Summer and Winter Solstice and Autumn and Vernal Equinox events.
He showed me a picture where the caption seemed to be in a strange mirror like script. I couldn’t interpret it for him.
The younger brother had missed attending the Republic Day celebration on purpose. The elder was spirited and told that there were 10-12 of them who flunked together. They used to bunk classes together it seems. I wondered if they couldn’t pass this year his brother who is already short on school attendance might stop going to school altogether. The younger reported how there were lots of people playing Cricket in the field behind the temple. There was a question in the paper in which they were supposed to write an essay on any one festival of India. He asked me which was the biggest festival. I waited for them to figure it out. They didn’t reason it as if there was a ready made answer to it: Diwali. Longest celebrations and holidays. The festivals do affect these kids more than they affect grown ups. The elder entered the class with snacks. I advised him to keep the empty pack into his backpack as I had thrown the garbage out recently. I swept the room today. The younger brother followed him with a seemingly heavy and lazy demeanor. He was staring into the mirror for a while.