Balloons!! In the pages of the early days of my life, balloons would definitely fall in category of things that would drive me scared and run away from situations that included having balloons like Birthdays and parties in schools.
Yet, as I recall I had some connection with them when I saw them from a distance specially when they were being blown up.
1993, I was in lower infant class of my school.
One of my distinct precious memories with balloons.
Those days, when somebody had a birthday, they would often come to school dressed up in a casuals and would bring a gift bag for all the students in the class.
This bag would contain many small gifts - pencil, a rubber eraser, a sharpener, 2 chocolates, a small toy, and many a times 1 or 2 balloons.
Those days birthday balloons would have a print of happy birthday on it and around 11 inches.
It was a classmate’s birthday and as usual she distributed this gift bag and had 1 balloon.
When I opened it, I saw the balloon. I had a dark red balloon inside. My 5 yr old brain was quickly able to process what would happen if I took the balloon home. There was a high probability that my mom would open the bag, find this gift bag, open it up and probably inflate the balloon even though she knew that I was scared of balloons. Sometimes parents feel that facing the fear eradicates it. So that would be her motivation. She had also tried it before. But that story another time.
Anyways, my little brain came to a conclusion that its best to give it away.
I mean who would say no to a free balloon who unlike me didn’t have a globophobia.
So I asked the girl sitting next to me - “Hey Pallavi, do you want a balloon ?”
She happily without suspecting took it and was feeling in the top of the world as she was a unique girl in the classroom to have 2 balloons.
Now here comes the surprise, this was a free class and a substitute teacher was sitting in. Pallavi immediately stood up and went upto her with the red balloon in her hand. I couldn’t hear what she said but whatever she said she parallely held out her hand with the balloon.
The teacher, who I later realized used to teach Hindi to secondary section. She was in her late 20s wearing a yellow saree that day. Nearly all the teachers those days used to come in sarees only in a typical Indian School.
She smiled and and happily took the balloon.
Now this was good, I was at a safe distance in a classroom of bumbling 5yr olds so the even if the balloon burst it would get subsided.
She started stretching it and did it 2 or 3 times. From a way a person stretches the balloon, one can say whether the person is good enough to blow the balloon or not. And I could say that she was good.
She held it sideways towards her left and blew into the dark red latex.
The balloon immediately responded to the pressure of the air being gushed in by her breathe.
And it swelled.
Those days I never got how the person who blew a balloon, knew when to stop. But out of observation, I realized that they keep going until there is no more space in the neck of the balloon. They leave enough just to tie. Now this was a recipe for disaster. Unlike the expert balloon sellers who would not only look for defects on a balloon but also check the tightness of a balloon to decide how much they can take, regular people didn’t care. They would just blow.
So this teacher too kept blowing. As she blew she decided to rock her chair back and forth. It was like the actions were in rhythm. As she would bring the chair forth, she would put another wooosh into the balloon which would respond gladly and the happy birthday print would become more distinct.
Finally, she felt the balloon is good enough and big. She tied without even looking at it pretty skilfully giving her more points for being a skillful balloon blower.
Pallavi happily received the balloon and came back.
But these events of probably 5 mins were enough to leave a good impression in my memory for a long long time.
Yet, as I recall I had some connection with them when I saw them from a distance specially when they were being blown up.
1993, I was in lower infant class of my school.
One of my distinct precious memories with balloons.
Those days, when somebody had a birthday, they would often come to school dressed up in a casuals and would bring a gift bag for all the students in the class.
This bag would contain many small gifts - pencil, a rubber eraser, a sharpener, 2 chocolates, a small toy, and many a times 1 or 2 balloons.
Those days birthday balloons would have a print of happy birthday on it and around 11 inches.
It was a classmate’s birthday and as usual she distributed this gift bag and had 1 balloon.
When I opened it, I saw the balloon. I had a dark red balloon inside. My 5 yr old brain was quickly able to process what would happen if I took the balloon home. There was a high probability that my mom would open the bag, find this gift bag, open it up and probably inflate the balloon even though she knew that I was scared of balloons. Sometimes parents feel that facing the fear eradicates it. So that would be her motivation. She had also tried it before. But that story another time.
Anyways, my little brain came to a conclusion that its best to give it away.
I mean who would say no to a free balloon who unlike me didn’t have a globophobia.
So I asked the girl sitting next to me - “Hey Pallavi, do you want a balloon ?”
She happily without suspecting took it and was feeling in the top of the world as she was a unique girl in the classroom to have 2 balloons.
Now here comes the surprise, this was a free class and a substitute teacher was sitting in. Pallavi immediately stood up and went upto her with the red balloon in her hand. I couldn’t hear what she said but whatever she said she parallely held out her hand with the balloon.
The teacher, who I later realized used to teach Hindi to secondary section. She was in her late 20s wearing a yellow saree that day. Nearly all the teachers those days used to come in sarees only in a typical Indian School.
She smiled and and happily took the balloon.
Now this was good, I was at a safe distance in a classroom of bumbling 5yr olds so the even if the balloon burst it would get subsided.
She started stretching it and did it 2 or 3 times. From a way a person stretches the balloon, one can say whether the person is good enough to blow the balloon or not. And I could say that she was good.
She held it sideways towards her left and blew into the dark red latex.
The balloon immediately responded to the pressure of the air being gushed in by her breathe.
And it swelled.
Those days I never got how the person who blew a balloon, knew when to stop. But out of observation, I realized that they keep going until there is no more space in the neck of the balloon. They leave enough just to tie. Now this was a recipe for disaster. Unlike the expert balloon sellers who would not only look for defects on a balloon but also check the tightness of a balloon to decide how much they can take, regular people didn’t care. They would just blow.
So this teacher too kept blowing. As she blew she decided to rock her chair back and forth. It was like the actions were in rhythm. As she would bring the chair forth, she would put another wooosh into the balloon which would respond gladly and the happy birthday print would become more distinct.
Finally, she felt the balloon is good enough and big. She tied without even looking at it pretty skilfully giving her more points for being a skillful balloon blower.
Pallavi happily received the balloon and came back.
But these events of probably 5 mins were enough to leave a good impression in my memory for a long long time.
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