"Wishing you a happy happy new year..."

 ..."Same to you!"

"Wishing you a happy happy new year!"

"Same to you!"

"Wishing you a super happy new year!"

"Same to you!" chorused the whole school after Venkayamma madam, me and then the rest of the teachers shouted the 'Happy New Year' wishes. It was after that Haseena madam did something that made all of the children cheer.

But let's do this chronologically. I woke up early on the first morning of 2013 after a firework filled night, took a 'headbath' as is customary, and spent some time getting ready for the busy day ahead: like everyone else I put on my new 'dress', one of the sarees which I'd bought in Hyderabad (had to pin the blouse together because stitching wasn't finished!); to accesorise I used my one gram gold bangles on my mhindi covered hands, a gold coloured chain, a gold coloured saree pin, and a fancy bindi; in my hair I put 25 rupees worth of flowers, which I'd brought from a lady walking past with them on her head, and UK hairclips that my cousin sent me for Christmas (Ali, I let Dharani, one of the children in the family, wear a pair too because she thought they were so super - thank you!); and I even put on some mascara for the special occasion, thanks for that Christmas present mom!

When I arrived at school it was eerily empty, but slowly children filtered in wearing their best dress, hands beautifully decorated and flowers in their hair. I shook everyone's hands wishing them a Happy New Year, until Ramana called for me. We headed off for a different part of Tangutur to present flowers to an important man in the village. It made me laugh to watch the process: the gift givers would walk up to the stage, put flowers around the man's neck and in his hands and pose for a photo, before the flowers were removed and tossed onto a huge pile of already discarded flowers so that the next presentees could take their turn. It was after that that I had my second breakfast of the day, including cake and chai. Absolutely stuffed, walking home in my stiff fancy saree in the heat was a challenge. The only reason I managed to keep up with Ramana and Brahmin (the school's founder) was because everyone kept stopping them to shake their hands and wish them a Happy New Year. I did also overhear Brahmin telling everyone how Indian I look, which was a lovely compliment!
 

As soon as I arrived back at school, I was ushered into a classroom for my third breakfast of the day. Social Subashni madam had cooked a special rice dish, which to my horror contained brown lumps of meat. I tried not to panic and pushed the meat balls to the side of the plate, hoping no one would notice. When the teachers told me to eat them and I explained that I was vegetarian, they all burst out laughing. Turned out it was some kind of meat shaped vegetable! We let the children play and decorate the classrooms, whilst we sat, chatted and accepted cake brought around from all of the other Sections. After a while, we shepherded all of the children into the best decorated classroom. Even with the depleted numbers it was quite a squeeze - there are four classes in our Section - but somehow we managed to organise all of the children so that there was still room for the prized 2.5kg cake in the middle. Then it was a waiting game. I felt like we were torturing the children, making them sit in silence with their hands on their lips looking at the cake. But eventually Venkayamma madam turned up, and that was when Haseena set about on her first piece of mischief. She ran into the classroom spraying fake snow everywhere and on everyone. Soon we couldn't see what we were doing and all of the children had rushed forward from their seats screaming. Chaos ensued. Venkayamma was trying to cut the cake and reach over the children to feed us (the teachers) whilst we frantically tried to avoid Haseena with her snow, which was practially impossible considering the children had trapped us in.Venkayamma came up to me and dotted icing on both of my cheeks saying I was "cute" and that seemed to be a sign because soon teachers seemed to be appearing from everywhere covered in cake!

And now we've arrived back where I started earlier. After that first excitement was over, we all headed down to the courtyard area so that the teachers could wish the students a Happy New Year. Then came Haseena's second act of mischief. She noticed that I'd escaped the majority of the cake smearing, so ran up behind me with the remains of our cake and smeared icing all over my cheeks, nose, lips and chin. The whole school cheered and clapped and even I couldn't help laughing. What an amazing day!