The dust on the classroom benches has its own stories to tell: Atul Malikram
Eyes on the door of the classroom, he was waiting anxiously for the girl to enter. Like the past month, he made sure to come to the classroom before the final bell rang. In all his school life, he usually was the last student to enter the classroom. But this year, it was different. The reason for his early arrival is the new girl who made sure to always sit on the front bench. Today as she was entering the class, something made her look up and she stared directly into his eyes and gave him a little smile. And in this way, the school witnessed the beginning of a new love story. There was a time when the schools used to be the centre of many such occurrences, but now the dust on the locks of the school buildings tells the tales of sorrow, loneliness and despair.
It is seen that when two people meet, talk or share the bond of love, they often face many challenges in the form of religion, society and family. Even those people who have gone through the same phase at one time or the other in their life, raise objections against their lovers. They forget that they too have gone through this phase of attraction in their past. Suffice to say, in everyone’s life, there comes a day when the dreams turn to reality, the heart becomes the carrier of an avalanche of emotions, and the wave of faith starts flowing to the one person who becomes the centre of your world. The time when a person finds himself tied with an invisible thread of deep emotions. This consciousness begins at a very unique stage of age… Yes! In adolescence…!
This is the time when changes occur in the way of speaking and living. The seeds of attraction begin to sprout in a fickle mind. Friendship gets blurred when someone starts knocking on the doors of the heart. At the same time, the heart becomes an algebraic equation, which keeps searching for that ‘someone in the crowd.
Many childhood love stories start in schools. But now, with the schools shut down indefinitely, many things have changed. Students haven’t been to school for the last 1.5 years. How can they develop these mild ‘crushes’, without any meeting ground? Yes, we have social media where one can still form the connection, albeit virtually, but can it take precedence to real experience? No, it cannot.
The truth is, the Corona pandemic has also affected the sentiments of teenagers, which has gone unnoticed.
Teenagers imprisoned in homes for the past years have been deprived of making beautiful memories in the last days of their school life. They have become self-conscious, anxious, and hopeless. Some of them are getting more and more depressed as they have no one to share their feelings or talk to. While others under the pressure are closing themselves from others and seeking solitude. There is something pure and wonderful with the school crushes. It is an experience of a different level, the existence that fills the teenager with confidence. But to bridge this gap of 1.5 years, we have to start giving priority to the emotions and feelings of the teenagers. Try understanding their mindset to stop them from taking the wrong path. Be their friends but don’t pressurize them. Give them time and trust them. Be strict, but not overbearing. Guide them but let them make their own decisions. Help them differentiate between right and wrong. Give them your attention and love and don’t forget that you also had to cross this stage once in your life.
