The Sunday night syndrome!

The hands of the clock showed 9:20 on Sunday night. How did Sunday run away so quickly? Mentally, you ran through the day’s proceedings. There was the nail-biting Cricket match on TV. And then, the Hindi film in the evening. You tried to break away, but the absorbing plot centered on smugglers and stolen gems and the cliffhanger ending, dragged you helplessly.

Only now, you remembered school- that gathering gloom looking forward to Monday morning. So much was left to do- 2 exercises in Mathematics, an entire History chapter, the moon’s phases to be drawn and finally a test in English grammar. You were yet to begin on any of them.

There was a sudden panic attack. You rummaged through the school bag in a frantic hurry. The flutter of activity invited unwanted attention. Elder siblings were a nuisance especially when they played by the rulebook all the time. “You had yesterday and the whole of today. Only now you remembered to do your homework?” my sister questioned. Your gut reaction was to snap back with, “Mind your own business!” However, such an attack would be too frontal. It could escalate into a full-fledged war. The retort had to be stinging and yet tactful. “Since when did you become my mother?” you shot back. And then, threw a rider with a hint of blackmail, “The next time, you forget to do your homework, wait and watch!”

You had to stay cool and calibrate the next move. The History class was after the lunch break. Food can be gobbled up in 7 minutes. The rest of the lunch break was enough for the History homework. It did not deserve any more time or importance.

Only the morning classes had to be taken care. Provided the school bus reached on time, you had 45 minutes before school started. Sridhar, the brain of the class, would have surely reached. In 20 minutes, the mathematics answers could be copied down. That left you with 25 minutes. That was more than adequate for the moon’s blessed diagrams.

The English Grammar test was the stumbling block. The topics were transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, Gerund and Participles.  Anger bubbled up. “Who invented grammar? It is as dry as toast!” and stuck the tongue out to demonstrate its overwhelming sweetness! There was no hope in hell English Grammar could be mastered on Sunday night.

As you went to bed, you shut the eyes tight, knitted the eyebrows, and prayed feverishly. “Dear God, please save me! I promise to do my homework on time, from now on!”  Mentally, you braced yourself for a hostile Monday.

Sometimes, God answered a child’s prayer. On Monday, the English teacher was unwell, and the Grammar test was canceled.