Smuggling Times of School

    This is one of my great memories. The craziest is still about to come, but this is about the time when I smuggled snacks into school. It started when I was in 11^th grade, the year 2018. Our school time was 7:20 am. I always reached about 7:40 or so. Our break time was 9:35 am to 10:00 am. The last class ended at 1:20 pm. So, between all those boring lectures of chemistry, physics, and maths, we were used to getting pretty hungry.

The brunch we used to carry with us from home wasn’t always enough. After all, we were growing teenagers who just used to jump around. One same day, a classmate of mine was absent. One of us had a cell phone in the school that fine day. So, we thought, let’s call that lazy guy who slept late and didn’t attend school. We called him and asked him to bring 15 Aloo Puri to the school. Now aloo puri is a famous snack of surat, must try if you get the chance. The friend got us the aloo puri, but the big task was still to get it to the hungry stomachs. Between those delicious aloo puri’s stand school guards and our teachers, our principal was a bonus that we didn’t account for.

As our school’s structure was, I have tried to show it in the image below. Our classroom was on the 2^nd floor, and right in front of that was the teacher’s room. A boon for us was the two staircases very near to our classroom. Traditionally, we used to enter the school from the basement, but the old two basement gates were mostly locked now as the school was renovated. A new wall(zig-zag line) was constructed during renovation. The two side gates(red arrows) were impossible to smuggle through; they were there from the beginning and were guarded. The middle gate was not protected, but the school ground was always crowded with students and P.E. teachers. The two white arrows show the entrance to the building, but we had to get through the ground first. Also, the land was in front of the reception area and principal office. The underground parking was also constructed during renovation; it had no guards. The slope from the entrance(green path) leads to the parking area, where the crowd could only be expected during the morning or afternoon. The parking was adjacent to the basement, and stairs from the basement would get us to our classroom. That was our way.

Me and one of my partners in crime(mentioned him in Me, Me, Me) took the brave task upon us. Both of us reached the parking lot and then out of the school. Our guy delivered the aloo puri to us; we got the snack, easy peasy till here. We ran down the slope, and through the parking, we reached the basement. The worst thing was the onion smell; anyone near us could notice we were smuggling. Usually, we would have taken the stairs on the left(white one), even though they were far. The stairs near the basement(the red one) were not safe; teachers often use them. But at that time, the basement was crowded with students(I don’t know why). We took the stairs near the cellar (red/dangerous one), we were running up, almost made it to the second floor, and suddenly, our P.E. teacher was in front of us. We paced ourselves, but the smell didn’t. It wasn’t hard for him to deduce the scene; he knew what we were doing, he asked, we tried to defend ourselves(I was carrying the bag). I don’t exactly remember how, but he let us go. We almost made it to the classroom. Our principal was right there, at a distance of 2 classrooms from ours(something we didn’t account for). We were terrified, acted like normal kids, walked sincerely and rushed into our classroom.

Now we knew what was coming, inspection and interrogation. We couldn’t afford to lose for what we worked so hard. There were cupboards (with doors) in our classroom, one on top of another. We placed our sweet snacks in the bottom one, closed the door, and placed the teacher’s desk in front of it. It looked like there was no third cupboard, only two. And about the smell, my partner in crime always had perfume with him(I don’t know why). We sprayed it all over the classroom, hoping it would kill the onion smell(it didn’t).

The following lecture was about physics; our physics teacher arrived while we were on this. He started teaching, all the students sat, only thinking about eating. The P.E. teacher interrupted the physics lecture; he checked the class, two top cupboards, and out of the window. He didn’t find anything. He asked for my partner and me. We were taken downstairs to the ground(not a big deal for me, I have been called to the principal’s office multiple times, the land was nothing to fear from), a little interrogation took place. Of course, he couldn’t get anything from us; we went back to the class. After the physics lecture was over, the whole class enjoyed aloo puri. Aloo Puri is always so delicious; I can never forget the taste.

Until school was over, meaning till we completed our 12th grade, we smuggled multiple times for the next 1.5 years. We smuggled aloo puri’s so many times. People usually get their pizzas “home delivered” we are the kind of people who practically got their pizzas “school delivered”. The list also contains French fries(not from McDonald’s; surat’s special fries), tameta bhajiya, etc. We were never caught again.

I miss those school days; the guy who delivered the aloo puri’s is leaving for Canada for higher education. My partner in crime will also depart for VIT, Vellore.

The good thing is, my offline college is resuming soon. From April 3^rd, I will be living in one of the SVNIT hostels. I am excited to make crazy memories there too. I know I am very late for this blog. If you enjoyed reading this and wanna read more, subscribe to my blog. Comment and tell me about your similar school experiences. You can contact me through email(at my blogger profile).