School sports day

7th February

Only Venkatesh and Surya stayed behind to discuss the contents of 2 editions of Young World. We talked about eclipses and as expected Venkatesh asked about the common Indian myth that a snake or demon swallowed the sun or the moon. The previous day, their teachers had displayed many Kannada books for them to choose from. Venkatesh mentioned that Ramesh and Murthy had selected joke books and story books while he had taken one on the wonders of nature. Surya then suddenly remembered that he had a ‘project’ folder.

14th February

I went to the playground later than usual, confident that I would find at least one or two children. There were many of them around, all sweating it out at catching, fielding, batting and bowling for the upcoming school cricket match on Monday 16th February. Their sports day was on and there was a contest or two everyday. Were they oblivious to all the noise about Valentine’s Day and the cultural and moral policing? Probably not.

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