The day I was appreciated for being late

My school logo...
Always felt proud to put it
on my shirt when I was
the Vice Captain of Yellow House

I was in Class 10. It was winter season and nobody likes to get up early in the morning and that too to go to school. But being obedient as I was, I never missed school. Our classes starts at 8 AM but before that we need to assemble for the prayer at 7.50 AM and all of us were supposed to reach school by 7.45 AM after which we were considered late and got caning from a very strict but inspiring teacher Mr. Philip (I remember his Maths classes even today). The prayer would end by 8 and caning would end by 8:07 AM. Everyone would be there in their classes by 8:10 AM.

Our first class was on Mathematics taken by Chakravorty Sir (again a very good and kind hearted teacher) which was followed by English (our Principal is used to take that subject). That day I woke up at 8 AM. Since I was not a fan of bunking classes, I hurried to dress up and dashed towards my school. St. Anthony's High School was just 2 kms away from my house. It took me only a few minutes to reach my destination and there I was standing outside with my heart pumping and mind full of nervousness whether to enter or not.

Fortunately there was no security guards present at the door who would have shouted me out if I had asked him and students had already got their beating from Philip Sir and were on their way to their classes. I ran up to the Principals office to ask his permission. He was quite surprised but he did allow me.

Chakravorty Sir didn't asked me anything about my being late. He carried on with his sums on the green board.

The next class when Principal came he gave a 10 minutes lecture on being late and punctuality and pointed me out by saying "See this boy, learn from him. Most of us would have bunked school after being 5-10 minutes late, but he came. We all should learn from his sincerity and dedication towards studies. He is sure to go much forward in his life with this kind of attitude."

All this while I was smiling and had a sense of pride in myself. My friends poked me and gave a hard elbow on my shoulders and back. They were angry beacuse 1) I was late, 2) I was not canned, 3) I got appreciated and 4) I was made the hero.

(All that was worth remembering!)