Thiruvananthapuram South Subdistrict Science Fair

 

The day started really early as compared to my usual days. We were about to take on our charge as invigilators of the sub district level science fair held at Govt. Boys HSS Karamana. I was quite excited as it was my turn to be an invigilator after spending my school years as a participant and a spectator. As soon as we got there, events were allotted to each of us and we were sent to separate venues.

I was in charge of the vegetable printing competition of LP, UP, HS and HSS along with Kavya. The day had a rough start as parents and escorting teachers expressed their concern over the lack of adequate space for the participants. In fact, the room was congested, but there was no option other than utilizing the available space to the maximum. Along with 3 SPC cadets, I went on a mission to find out more benches and succeeded. It did cost me a reasonable amount of energy just to arrange the hall and calm down the disturbed crowd there. We managed to begin the competition by 10:20, late by 20 minutes.

I took the charge of HS and HSS section participants, checked their participant cards, made them sign the attendance form and distributed their chest numbers. The LP students were making the day more lively as they raised their hands everytime I was calling out HS and HSS students. They were so restless that I had to pin the chest numbers to their clothes as well. They kept on complaining about being hungry, but I was in no position to help them other than informing their teachers. This was saddening to an extent. I felt the strong need for efforts from the authorities to address this basic need of children as they had to spend 3 long hours there.

Throughout these 3 hours, none of us were supposed to sit or relax, as there were complaints and calls to be attended.I was amazed at the skill of students who made beautiful pictures in diverse colors and shapes. They made these on pillow covers, bedsheets and even on pallu of saree. I went on and took a glance at the metal engravings and fabric painting done by other students. Our responsibility ended only after, arranging the participants based on their section and chest number and assisting the judges.

Though the day had a chaotic start, it ended well. It was for the first time I was in a school and children were calling me as 'teacher'. It felt special.