The school of love

Despite having strict norms in place, the co-ed schools see many love stories flourish on Valentine’s Day— under, perhaps, the indulging watchfulness of the teaching staff. That’s what schoolteacher Madhurima Mukhopadhyay guesses, as she walks down the school corridors and smells a change of mood with the approach of Valentine’s Day.

In a large assembly hall, hundreds of young boys and girls stand to attention. The school principal is listing out the “appropriate” code of conduct to be followed on Valentine’s Day. While she speaks, students try to stifle their mood with serious faces; they wonder if the fifty-something principal was just as prissy in her younger years.

Students take the assembly hall phenomenon, common to schools across the city, with a pinch of salt. After all, Valentine’s Day comes once a year and hardly anyone wants to miss out on all the “fun”.

A case in point is sixteen-year-old Sujoy Das. The student of class 11 feels he and his friends are “big enough to take care of themselves”. He feels stifled by the moral policing everywhere—in school or at home. Despite knowing the hyped existence of V-Day, he is amused at the way people fall for it. “My best friend had a crush on a girl for some time. On Valentine’s Day last year, he decided to express his feelings and considered gifting her a puppy. But since buying a pup is an expensive proposition, he did the next best thing. He picked up a stray puppy from the road and gave it to the girl. As expected, the crush couldn’t reach the next level!”

A walk down any school corridor in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day reveals how the adolescents are eager to explore the adventurous side of their lives. One can almost perceive the change in the mood. While the senior students exchange cards, gifts and meaningful glances, there’d always be a group of younger, somewhat clueless children trying to gauge what’s happening.

Says Ananya Mathur, a first year college student, “This is the first time I’m not in school on Valentine’s Day, and I’m missing the fun. Ours was a co-ed school and we had quite a few crazy things going on. I remember the time when a Valentine’s Day gift was turned down by a girl and the boy refused to take it back too. The gift was left in the corridor and our vice-principal happened to find it. But she was quite a sport about it, and the next day in assembly she held it out and actually asked who it belonged to.”

While Ananya and other senior students go all out to woo and be wooed, younger children have a different take on Valentine’s Day. Recently, the class 3 students of a primary school, got to know the significance of Valentine’s Day from their teacher. She explained how Valentine’s Day should be celebrated with loved ones. The very next day, the students demanded a Valentine’s Day party with parents and teachers together, because these were the people they loved the most.

But Valentine’s Day isn’t always hassle-free. Thirteen-year-old Ayesha Islam’s is one of the most popular girls in school and her school locker is chock-full of Valentine’s Day gifts and cards. But Ayesha would not take them home. She does not want her parents to see the gifts.

“What is she so scared of?” asks a classmate, “She has not stolen the gifts. It’s strange how parents try to restrict us and in turn force us to lie. Why can’t they be cool about it and accept that we have lives too?”

But not all youngsters are of the same opinion. Class 9 student Joydeep Rakshit offers a quick fix to Ayesha’s problem, “I would never gift my girlfriend something she can’t take home. In fact, I have decided to give her an extra set of the school uniform this year. She can use it daily.”