Back To School

It was a cold, lazy morning of February. One of those mornings when don’t feel like waking up at all. And being the last working day of the week motivated me all the more. Had a deadline to meet, so had to drag myself out of the bed and out of the house.

Right behind the stop, from where I catch the bus to work, lays a Municipal School. Everyday I see parents dropping kids off to school. Some kids look happy to come school and some look sad. I guess sad are the ones who haven’t done their homework and fear punishment from the teacher.

What caught my attention today was a little girl coming with a slate in her hand. She had done her home work, as I could something scribbled on the slate. My eyes were too sleepy to focus on what was written on it, but i clearly saw the fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock. Who uses a slate these days? I thought. Gone are the days where one had to use a piece of chalk to write and a slate to write on. Sound of my bus screeching to a halt disturbed my train of thoughts and made me forget about it.

On reaching office and settling down at my desk, I saw a similar piece of fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic thing. Immediately little girl’s slate flashed in my mind. I picked it up; it looked similar to slate that I had seen slate in the girl’s hand. It was a same color, same size and weighed almost the same. Chalk was my replaced by finger and duster probably by wall charger. This "slate" looked more complicated to use than the slate I had seen in the girl’s hand.

This time my train of thoughts was disturbed by a knock on my cubicle. It was my boss who had accidently left his iPad on my desk.

Do you use this slate I asked? Yes he answered. Which also answered "Who uses a slate these days?"