chinnu gaDu.....application form!!

Many of you know, I have a little nephew, Sriniket, whom I fondly call as chinnu.
He is my brother’s three and half years old son.

Well, this guy is supposed to join the school in June next year.
His parents started the preparations from last 2 months!!
This was my first shock….to join a school after almost a year; they had to start the back ground work now!!

The research which school to go was started very much earlier, and his parents opted for finally for one of the 2, 3 schools near by to my house.

The story started then….!!

They made calls time to time to the first preferred school to find out when the applications will be distributed.

My brother never gets satisfied with the attempts we do for anything…this time too he made me , and himself, personally go to the school and find out the details again!!
Every time they said that it would be by September end, October 1st week.

This happened a couple of times, and finally last friday my sister in law called up home (she is currently out of station) and said the applications were already distributed and now it was closed!!

I was seriously working on something at office, my mother called me up.
Before I said hello, she started talking in a tension filled tone.
I was a little bit worried that something serious happened.

Trying to figure out what it could be, I asked for the matter.
In a very disappointment voice, she told me “Uma , you know, vodina called now, the applications at NPS were OVER, I am all worried what to do next”

I was a little confused what was OVER and what she was worried about.
I took a pause and digested the matter, and said is it?

Then she started again…"yes, its over, how lazy you people are, this week you both didn’t enquire about it, you guys are always like this, never do a thing in time, no seriousness" …and it continued!!

I tried interrupting her saying “But amma, last week only we spoke to them and they said they will give in Nov 1st week….”
She did not listen to me, but continued with her big disappointment….” I don’t know what you guys did, now those are OVER, your brother went to the school now to find out, but I am not sure if he gets it or not, I am very much worried what to do now…”
I did not know how to react.
After a few words of exchange, I told her not to worry as we find the alternative and kept the phone!!

Boy, she did not worried this much when my brother did not get his passport even before 2 days of his first onsite assignment!!

Later on Sunday morning, my brother told me that Monday morning we both will have to go to 2 different schools separately and get the application form.
He told me specifically that the school opens at 8:30AM and I should be there at 8 AM!!

And yeah, this is the only day they give the application form and that too limited!!

Oh…I am going to get a very important thing in my life…sorry, chinnu’s life!!

Before I went to sleep, my mom asked me if I set my alarm at right time….I keep the alarm every day, but she never bothered till then.
She warned me twice that I should not be lazy and get up as soon as the alarm rings.

Finally, I got up, finished gym a little early, to get ready by 8AM, and was all in hurry to reach the school in time.
Hey…I reached there by 8:10AM.

Now the most interesting part….by the time I reached, the parking was full and I had to search a little to park and finally got it!!

I parked and walked towards the school and saw a very big queue with all elders standing!!

I thought that there might be something else going on in the same area and so the queue.

I asked the security guard where to go to get the application form.
Then received another shock….he showed me the queue and asked me to stand there.
I was puzzled.. and asked again the same question.
Then he said again that the queue is meant for the same.

God…such a long queue, people were standing with their laptops, back packs, lunch boxes…. a hi-fi queue :-)

With a shocking expression on my face I went to the end of the queue and stood there After a few minutes, the queue grew longer and longer…!!

The people who pass by were asking what this queue is for, and the person behind me with so much of excitement answered “for the application form for LKG”.
By then I could not stop my giggling and started laughing loudly.
Every body started at me as if I am insulting somebody.

I stood patiently in the queue, wondering how my mother used to receive parents with warm welcome, never made them to wait though they came at a very odd time (we have our own school and my mother used to run it till some time back).

The people in queue were talking with each other about the schools they already applied, worried if their kid gets the seat, what is the last date to apply etc etc.

The lady in front of me was calling her colleague and enquiring if there is any urgent issue to be solved, as she would be late to office because she came to get the application for her kid.

Some people were replacing the persons already in queue to share the “long waiting”….so much of planning :-)

All are excited and waiting eagerly when the gate will be opened.
Finally the gate was opened at 9 AM, and we are allowed to go inside.
Then our queue was separated into two, one for the nursery and one for LKG admissions.

I wondered for a while which queue I should take…but concluded that it should be LKG, as chinnu is already 3.5 yrs old :-)

Once we are in right queue, they made us to enter our visit details in a register.
By that time it was 9:15 AM.

And now the queue moved to reception area!!

The persons in the front were going inside, coming out after 10 minutes with the application form in hand, with all pride in their faces, while others looking at them with a little disappointed thought that “I could have come a little early”.

They were enquired about the procedure, how much it costs, if the applications are still available etc etc.
I remembered the interview sessions when I was searching for a job!!

After another half an hour wait, I could go inside and went to the counter.
The lady asked me Chinnu’s DOB, when I told 2006, she was with a satisfied smile that I was in a right queue.

She asked me to enter his details in a register and I did it!!

After a few words exchange I could get the application form and came out with a great relief…….looked at my watch and found that the time was already 10:30 AM.

I started running from there calculating in the mind till how late I should stay in office to complete 9.15 hours :-(

Let’s wait and watch for the day when he will be admitted to school :-)

"kids... are the tough guys to bring up"