Head here and here to read parts 1 and 2, respectively.
__
This piece of the last part of the DPS Saga or the DPS Trilogy, call it what you like. I know in my last piece I said that it was the last time I’ll be talking about my school life. Although I did say, I’ll talk about the bus stories and some of the good parts of my school life. I said I’ll write it when the time is right but because my workload is going to increase in the future, I decided- “Screw it, let’s just get this over with”.
I have to admit that I had a love-hate relationship with school buses. Some buses are god-sends and some are just spawn of Satan. In other words, some are pretty good and some are just awful. I don’t know about you but DPS Patna has bus number systems like P-1, P-2, P-3, etc. Those buses are then grouped and each group has to collect kids from a particular road or street. I think that’s called a bus stoppage or stop.
Since one bus can’t accommodate all children, other buses will have to fill in their gaps. I know it’s not the best way to describe the process, but it’s the only way for me to describe it.
The problem with such a system is that you have no idea what bus you’ll end up in. School buses are supposed to take children from home to school and school to home. The rinse and repeat process continues until you graduate. You just don’t know what kind of environment you have to deal with.
Anyway, when I was in 6th grade (2010), I was in Bus P-11. The first time I’ve seen seniors bullying their juniors is when a senior used to make the 8th grade salute. I thought it was cool to salute as well. They made me scream the surnames of someone which I did because I thought it was fun. But little did I know that I was only making a fool of myself. The 8th grader although troubled by this, he was somehow friendly to me and I was a prick to him (because I was imitating my seniors by telling him to salute) which I still regret even to this day.
Why I Have A Love-Hate Relationship With School Buses
From 2011-2013 (grade 7th to grade 8th), I was in P-15. If you’ve read my previous articles then you all know what happened. I don’t recall much of my grade 7th but 8th grade was the worst time for me on the bus. The kids, particularly the juniors were mostly pricks who are only carbon copies of their beloved seniors. Since the bus had few vacant seats, I was forced to sit in the hot seat (opposite the driver’s seat) and it was hot as the sun. When I ask anyone for a seat, they’ll act as if they’re some royalty or the members of the Cosa Nostra (The Italian Mafia. If you’ve watched any Martin Scorsese mob movies like Goodfellas or the Irishman, you’ll see how egotistical and aggressive they are). They’ll act tough while refusing to give me a seat.
You might wonder, what were my batchmates and seniors doing? The answer to that question is nothing. They’ll either join in, ignore it, pity it, or sometimes give me a seat. I remember one time we were returning home and one of the seniors almost opened an emergency door of the bus. My seat was on the window side and I was asleep. I don’t know much of the details but it caused a huge ruckus. By the time I was in 9th (Summer 2013) grade, my bus got changed into P-14. It was during that time, my academics were at their lowest point because I failed two subjects in the first semester. Given the treatment most juniors gave me in the previous grade, I became extremely hostile to them, and sometimes arguments and physical fights happen.
It didn’t help the fact that most students in my class were ignorant pricks too except some. I remember one guy who I used to fight sometimes which I now regret. But like me, he was also ignored or treated like garbage by most kids. Also, like me, his father passed away. And the teachers gave him the hard time (Except one teacher who later became my mentor). I was a prick to him because of my trust issues and my lack to control over my anger. I wished I would’ve treated him better and hell, even formed a friendship with him. On the plus side, he’s in the army now and he’s doing a lot better. We reconnected during the lockdown and although we talk in a limited manner because the army has a better workload we enjoyed having conversations with each other. I respect him more than I respect the majority of 9-B.
I remember one time when I screamed in front of the entire class and the teacher was present there. The reason that happened was one student was threatening me continuously and I screamed at him just to show that I’d reached my breaking point. We were never on good terms and he acts all high and mighty just because he was good at studies.
I returned to P-11 in 2014 and nothing has changed a lot. Aggressive juniors and ignorant seniors. Didn’t help the fact that I was similarly as aggressive as them. You might wonder whether the bus teachers did anything to prevent such escalations. Unfortunately, nothing happened and even if they stepped in, it was mostly half-baked.
However, the situation started to change when I reached 11th grade. My bus was P-16 and I liked the environment. Yes fights happened and toxicity existed too but I felt like the environment and treatment were far better than the previous ones. I remember one time when we walked to the main road to reach our buses because the path to school was under maintenance. I remember some kids trying to play pranks on me by trying to make me fall on the road. I was livid but because there are a lot of crowds, I had to hold back.
I stayed in P-16 in 12th grade. You probably remember the slapping incident if you’ve read Part 2 of the DPS saga. Now let me tell you the funniest part. It was morning, and the bus was closer to school. Some idiot did something and bus the bus teacher scolded them. She said “D for Donkey” to that student and me being the genius I am said- “D for D*ckface” Since I was in the front seat of the bus, everyone in the front laughed like hell. The teacher was confused as hell and started questioning me and the students in the front about what happened. We went damage control and said something in defense. Luckily, we already reached school, and we left the bus.
When the class 12th farewell ended, we went to our bus and we took pictures and selfies since it was my last bus trip. It was really sad that school ended but whatever it is, it felt serene after years of dealing with negativity and toxicity.
The Good Parts Of My School Life
Bullying affected my self-confidence, self-esteem, self-respect, and above all, my social life. Although I dreaded every moment of my school life till the 11th and 12th grades. One of the good parts about my school was when I get good marks. Before the 11th and 12th grades, getting good marks was a rarity. Well getting more than 40 marks out of 50 in weekly tests was rare. Back in 8th grade when I got 45/50 in social science, I was happy.
Remember when I told you that I failed in 2 subjects in 9th grade? One of them was math and the other was the foundation of information technology or FIT in short. It’s the basics of Computer Science and I was quite weak at it. I know it was an easy subject but I never gave an effort to it. That was until the second semester when I realized that I only have to learn definitions and practice questions. That way my grades improved in that subject. In semester 1 I got 14/90 in FIT. By the final exams, it improved to 54/90.
Although I decided to improve my grades by 10th grade (in reality I wanted to get rid of math and get the bare minimum to pass), it was the later part of 11th grade (2015) where my grades started to improve a lot. That was when I took arts. I remember when I got 47 out of 50 in history. I was laughing hysterically for the first time and my other classmates laughed at it too. The truth was I cheated, I wrote my notes on my handkerchief, and during the weekly test, I cheated the ever-loving hell out of it. The invigilator was stupid too.
Throughout the entire 1st semester and until the weekly tests of the 2nd semester, I cheated by writing my notes on my handkerchief. But by the time, the final exams came I studied and that’s when I started getting better marks. I got 77/80 in history and 70/100 in political science. By 12th grade (2016), my grades in academics were at their prime.
I was doing well in my grades, and my classmates were supportive as well. During that time, I got my PS4 and my first iPhone. Some might say, I’m a materialist. To that, I’ll say “I am and so is everyone else”. Probably my best academic moment was when I was getting good marks in both Pre-Boards. I paid a lot of attention to my studies and I didn’t have to cheat. The only downside was I failed in psychology and I have to give two attempts to clear it. It was during my farewell that I got my hallway ticket.
My humanities section also played basketball during the PE periods and despite constant fights and matches with each other, we always make it out and showed camaraderie with each other. Not to flex or something I was a crappy player in basketball but I did enjoy the sport (I was a crybaby too like Deku).
Probably my best moments in the last years of DPS were the speech I gave in the assembly during the independence (a day before the independence day). It was like this…
“In the United States of America, they sing the Star Spangled Banner, in the United Kingdom they sing God Save the Queen, in France, they sing La Marseilles and in India, we sing Jana Gana Mana.”
I don’t remember the rest, but I also forgot the rest of the line in the assembly because of my nervousness. Thankfully, my classmate handled it well. Another thing was when my poem was published in the school magazine. It was the first time my work got published and I got a certificate for it. Another time is when I went to Siwan for the 5-day rural programmer where I interacted with a lot of people (One of them was Sanjana Kapoor). Probably the best day was when we cut the cake alongside other birthday kids (mine too) as well as, ate non-veg food (very unusual for a vegetarian-only school). I enjoyed it a lot. Another part was when I got good marks in my history practical because I made Buddha drawings from Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha mangas which my teacher liked. One of the drawings was like Milkha Singh Running. I don’t have the drawings anymore but they inspired me to draw when I’m bored.
In 2015, our teacher organized a fire-free cooking workshop for the independence day celebrations. We decided to take part in it. I brought a Tabasco sauce with me. We didn’t use it in the workshop but while returning some of the juniors tasted Tabasco and they immediately drank water. They were regretting it. The whole scene was so comedic that we were laughing as if Kunal Kamra made a funny joke. I know I’m not supposed to laugh at this but since they wanted to taste the sauce, I couldn’t help myself.
A few months prior we had a fire drill because of the earthquakes in Nepal. This thing was hitting Bihar too. When the earthquake came one day during our class, it was like a disaster-comedy film because no one was taking it seriously. In the farewell when I shook hands with the principal after my name was called, I raised my fist as if it was some sort of victory. In reality, I wanted to show my middle finger to everyone but for some reason, I didn’t. Although the reaction of the faculty would’ve been amazing.
I’m starting to remember the good parts of it and I feel like I’m doing them a huge dishonor by not properly articulating it because I was discussing the worst parts of my school life in the first two pieces. It gave me this sense of nostalgia where you experienced it in a movie or a video game but it happened in a real life. It completely amplified a ton.
I have to say that I enjoyed school, not regularly though because I dreaded it every day. I know most of you have dealt with the worst aspects of school. You should know that school does come to an end. I know it’s hard to face the environment and it’s a very long time but everything has its due date. Unless they fix their system, it’s what we have to deal with. It happened to me when I was going through bullying. I just wanted things to end and by 2017, it practically ended by the time I gave my last board exam paper.
The last thing I should talk about is that my school never cared about children. They only cared about their image which is why most people hate them. DPS is like an out-of-touch celebrity that tries so hard to tackle social issues but it feels tone-deaf.
I Managed To Move On, Eventually…
Bullying in school affected my social life. It took me till grade 12th to trust people and my studies again. By the time I was in Amity, my social life slowly repaired as I had selective yet trusting friends which made my college life much better. Life in Amity wasn’t all perfect but at least I enjoyed it while I still can before the pandemic.
Video games like Star Wars Battlefront II and Metal Gear Solid V made my school life much bearable, while memes and anime made me forget about it for some time, although the former became toxic by the time 2017 came around. I already wrote about it on Medium. (Link is down below). Until 2016, I used to spend my time playing Star Wars Battlefront II on my PS2. By the time I got my PS4, it took me a few months to get Metal Gear Solid V. It was a great experience back in those days although it also caused some trouble for me after I graduated. I played PS4 most of the time while I failed to find a college. I got some good scolding and I eventually ended up in Amity. Read my LiveWire stories to know more.
Now that most of the memories are out of my system, I think it’s time I finally put an end to my school life saga. I never knew that writing about DPS would finally help me come to terms with some of the memories. Something just came into my mind. I know how I should end this saga. With a poem, I wrote in 2015. It’s called memories. I know it might sound cheesy but it’s my poem, sue me. Here it is-
“The things I hate the most, are the only things I remember the most,
The things I love the most, are the only things I remember the most,
The things which make me sad, suffer, and oblivion, are the only things I remember the most,
The things that make me happy, alive, and completed, are the only things I remember the most,
The things which hurt me, are the only things I remember the most,
The things which protect me, are the only things I remember the most,
Those things which gave me nightmares are the only things I remember the most,
Those things which gave me sweet dreams are the only things I remember the most,
So… What are those things?
These aren’t just things, these are my memories that I remember the most”
That’s all I have to say.