Vacation with Grandfather: The Oblivion of Schools

Shanky was quite excited to spend his first vacation with his grandparents. Unlike previous years, when his parents would take him abroad with their friends in the name of a ‘family vacation,’ this time, he was in a small city. He loathed those trips. His parents had neither time for him at home nor during these overseas destination vacations. It seemed they just wanted to have a good time for themselves and had Shanky tag along. So, this year, he was adamant about being left with his loving grandparents while his parents vacationed elsewhere.

As his grandfather drove through the lanes of the small city after picking Shanky up from the railway station, Shanky looked around in amazement through the car’s window. The houses were huge, unlike the small flats back in his megacity. There was also some greenery around, and it was hard to tell where he lived.

All of a sudden, his eyes fell on a dilapidated building. He couldn’t determine what it was until he noticed a board nearby, probably displaying the name of the building. It was covered in branches hanging from the nearby trees. He could only make out the word ‘School’ written on it.

“What’s that building, Grandpa?” he asked curiously.

“That used to be my school,” Grandpa said, a sudden glint of sadness in his eyes.

“So you used to live here earlier?” Shanky asked, more curious now.

“No, I used to come here to study every morning,” Grandpa replied.

“But my school is in my house, the room where my robot comes to teach me,” Shanky explained, wide-eyed.

“This is 2075, lad. I’m talking about 50 years ago, in 2025, when I was a student,” Grandpa said with a smile.

They had reached home before Shanky could process this information and gather his wits. The aroma of a scrumptious lunch prepared by Grandma and the helper robot reached their nostrils, and Shanky’s tummy rumbled.

He rushed to hug Grandma, but all the while, he couldn’t erase the image of that ramshackle school building from his mind.No sooner had they settled for lunch than he asked his grandpa a barrage of questions.

“So you mean you got up every morning to go to that building, which was supposed to be your school?” he began.

“Yes. And not just that. There were millions of students like me all over the world, between the ages of 4 and 18, who went to school to study,” said Grandpa.

“Tell me more about it,” asked a thrilled Shanky. In between bites, Grandpa began, “We had many teachers who taught us different subjects. Mind you, they were human beings like us, not robots, which we have these days as teachers. We had classrooms for each grade, with many students studying together as the teachers taught us using paper books and a board.”

“Paper books?” Shanky threw him a quizzical look.“Just like those printed words on the screen you have today, we had printed words on paper. Of course, we had the Internet, e-books, et al. back then, but real books were common.”

“Wasn’t it chaos with so many children huddled together in one building?” Shanky asked.
“On the contrary, that was the fun of it. We made friends, some of them for life,” Grandpa reminisced as he remembered his school days

. “We played together on the vast playground, shared our tiffins, went for school trips and picnics, participated in creative competitions, and had a whale of a time. That’s how we developed special bonds, not just with each other, but sometimes also with our teachers. After all, they were humans, too.”
“Hey, that’s enough. Have your food right now. We can all talk later,” interrupted Grandma with a smile.

“Creative competitions? What do you mean by that?”

“Shanky, dear, we used our heads to get the creative juices flowing for writing. Of course, by that time, AI, ChatGPT, etc., were gaining ground, but none of them was widely accessible. These technologies weren’t easily available to everyone, especially in the interiors of the country. And ways were being devised to check plagiarized content.”

Shanky sat wide-eyed. “Grandpa, will you take me to see your school today? Please, please, please,” he pleaded.

“Okay, okay. But for now, let’s finish eating, or your grandma…” He winked at Shanky.
“Hurray!” Shanky shouted ecstatically.

Grandpa looked at the exhilarated Shanky, who happily wolfed down the delicacies he couldn’t get in his city. His heart went out to Shanky and millions of other kids like him in 2075, who would never be able to make beautiful memories of a school.
He wondered what else, apart from real schools, had gone into oblivion in these highly developed times of AI!

-By Sarthak Jain

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