I still remember my first day at school. A few months before I was taken to school, there was a kind of preparation in the family for helping me start a new chapter of my life, my school life. A new dress was tailored, a new bag and a few new books were purchased. (In)On a fine morning in January, my grandmother and my mother dressed me up for school, hanged my school bag with the books inside at my back, and my grandfather, who was
excessively fond of me, held me by my hand and led me to school. It was primary school about half a mile away from our home, not very far, but I had never been there before. From a distance I could hear the noise of the students learning their lessons in a loud voice, and there was a sound like the singing of a chorus. When I reached the school, I saw a large number of boys and girls sitting in five different clusters, each cluster was a class. I could see them all, as there was no partition to separate the classes. I was afraid to see so many boys and girls, and the noise they were making. Moreover, the teachers were quite old and seemed rather unfriendly to me. My grandfather took me to the Head Teacher for admission, completed some formalities, gave me some advice and left me in the school. But five minutes after my grandfather had left, I felt so helpless among these strangers that I decided not to continue. Within moments, I took my bag and started running after my grandfather. I managed to overtake him in a few minutes, but he was surprised to see me thus run away from school. He tried to take me back to the school, but I started crying piteously. This moved my grandfather, who carried me back home. When I think of this now, it provokes laughter.
