Mission admission is a testing time for parents
The lottery season has begun. Those with children must have guessed it by now. It’s that time of the year when parents, especially whose children are between three and five years, can be found to be anxious, lost in their own world, jittery, grumpy and less responsive to surroundings. They look dazed and confused.
That’s because it’s that time of the year when schools, especially the esteemed ones, open their windows and doors to new entrants. Parents go on an overdrive on social media after reading the dates of the lottery for a handful of seats. What follows is not for the fainthearted. Yes, you are about to enter the chakravyuh, a maze so complex and tortuous that only the supreme warriors and truly gifted can circumnavigate.
Conversations with the spouse are restricted to downloading forms, checking for font size, page format, size of paper, thickness of paper, which colour it has to printed and even logo size.
Food is ordered from fast food joints as there is no time to visit the market for grocery.
Recent photographs with family, without siblings and with siblings makes life worthwhile as evenings are spent at the neighbourhood photo studio followed by an hour of photoshopping efforts for the perfect family picture.
The photo session is followed by mandatory trips to the notary for affidavits stating that the schools will not be responsible for anything that happens to the children in school or on board the transport to and from the educational institution. Legal bonds that allow schools to hike the fee anytime they want with clauses that specifically protect the interest of schools are added.
Parents look like gullible sheep among wolves as the rates of everything right from photographs, printouts, forms and attestations are doubled during this period.
This is followed by long serpentine queues in front of all important and noteworthy schools starting as early as 7am. If you are lazy during these days no one can save you from wrath of your wife and the guilt trip that follows on seeing other over-enthusiastic parents sacrificing their cosy winter sleep for their beloved tinytots.
A person needs at least six working days to apply for three schools as the authorities concerned are likely to raise objections. Chances are they will return your form for corrections in details. After all this rigmarole the application forms are accepted for the lottery draw. You feel elated and joyous. It is a feeling that cannot be described in words. Perhaps, the feeling every parent feels when he/she accomplishes this task is akin to scaling the Everest.
But this moment of jubilation and euphoria fades when one realises that it is just the first step towards a long, arduous journey of the years ahead. Maybe the system is preparing us for major battles where parents and parenting will be tested to its extremes. You suddenly feel indebted and are filled with gratitude towards your parents as you realise what they must have gone through for you.
All the best to parents who have applied for a nursery seat, may our efforts bear fruit this admission season.
PARENTS LOOK LIKE GULLIBLE SHEEP AMONG WOLVES AS THE RATES OF EVERYTHING RIGHT FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, PRINTOUTS, FORMS AND ATTESTATIONS ARE DOUBLED DURING THIS PERIOD