School

I want to tell you a bit about my school. I go to nursery school every day between 11am and 1pm. There are loads of schools in Bangalore and we seemed to visit most of those in the area where we lived before mummy and daddy settled on one that a) didn't have a dangerous electricity sub-station next to the grounds b) was not on a main road c) showed evidence of having been cleaned d) had "fit" teachers. I don't see that the last point is particularly relevant but daddy seemed particularly insistent, even after mummy had poked him in the eye.

Now that we've moved, school is a bit of a trek for me, but our driver and one of the maids drop me into the school and then two hours later they pick me up again. I've been going to this school for getting on for a year now. First I was in playschool but now I've moved up to nursery and I'm learning numbers and letters. Our day starts with the National Anthem and we all stand up straight with our arms by our sides. I think patriotism is a good thing. It never hurts to have a bit of National pride and there are those - like daddy for instance - who would argue that it might not harm school children in Britain to have a bit of national pride too. Then again, if India is a culturally divided nation, Britain is probably even more so. In my class I think I'm the only Christian (whatever that means) and I think the rest are Hindus. We might have a couple of Muslim children but I can't be sure about that.

So anyway, we are learning numbers. Earlier this week we did the number three and daddy was trying to teach me the letter S. He said it looked like a curly snake but I can't see it somehow. Where are the scales, the eyes, the forked tongue? I don't know, it looks like a piece of string shaped like the letter S to me. I just smiled when daddy was telling me about the snake thing. Next he'll be telling me that the letter O looks like an apple or an orange or some other equally improbable fruit.

Mummy gives me a little tiffin box which I take with me to school. She normally fills it with fruits or biscuits, things like that. We're supposed to take different kinds of snacks on different days - so dried fruit on Monday, biscuits on Tuesday and so on. I don't think we've ever toed that particular line though; mummy pretty much does what she pleases and I decide, when we have our snack break at school, whether I'm going to eat what she's given me or give it to somebody else. What am I saying? I'm Indian. I should be selling it to somebody else.

Today we were supposed to go on a field trip to a garden but our driver has the day off to take his pregnant wife for a check-up at the hospital. Mummy and daddy are not too keen on me travelling by auto and so I'm skiving off today. It would have been nice though, to see a garden in Bangalore. So much of the city is paved and concreted and so many of the green areas are covered in rubbish that it would have made a pleasant change to go somewhere decent.

Anyway, that's my school. I'll tell you more about some of the specific activities when we do something exciting.

PS - Sorry about Mark butting in yesterday. He sneaked down onto the laptop and then we had a power cut and so I couldn't respond. It's all lies.