The most important thing about language/literacy is that it matters what you write and where you write. I have always been conscious of that fact and tried my best to keep up with that since my childhood. I have learnt several languages and with each language I learned new alphabets. With the language I learnt both the good and bad things too. But created a barrier between using them. But there was an incident that completely shocked me.

This is about the time when I lived in india. I lived with my whole family(Joint Family) and went to an English medium school there. English medium schools are the ones in which all the subjects were in English and we only used our native language to speak there. I did a part of my studies in Spain and a part of them in India.This incident happened when i was in my 10th grade. In the Indian education system, we have board exams at the end of our school year in 10th grade. Some schools prepared their students by having them throw a series of exams before those board exams. My school was one of those schools. I had 3 pre board exams with a 10 day interval between each series of pre-board exams. I passed through the first two pre boards with very good grades. Then I had a ten day break before my final pre-boards. I studied very thoroughly during that break.

After the break,my pre-boards commenced. On the first two days, I succeeded in completing my English and physics paper. Then came the third day, the day of my math exam. I got up early that day and took a quick shower while remembering the formulas in my mind. Afterwards, I put on my uniform and ate my breakfast. Later, I took the blessings of my grandmother and grandfather and went ahead to take keys from the living room where I usually kept them. As I stepped out of the house, I felt cold as it was a foggy winter day and riding my bike in that cold would give me shivers. Nevertheless, I started my bike and began marching towards my school.It took me about twelve minutes to reach my school. If you view it from upwards, my school building had a U-shape and was divided into three floors. I gave my exams in a big hall which was on the ground floor.

As soon as I reached my school, I parked my bike in the parking lot and stepped in front of the huge black coloured metal door. The guard saw my Id card and then I entered the school building. As I walked, it was filled with tension among the students regarding the exam. Then I encountered some of my friends and afterwards we entered together into the exam. Later the instructor entered and distributed the question paper. We all had three hours to complete our exam. I used all of my time and did a good job on the Exam.

After that, we all went into our class. Our class was on the third floor. I walked with my friend named Raman who was short, slim and wore a turban. He also was happy about the exam. We used to compete all the time about who got more grades. As we entered the classroom, it was filled with laughter and joy as we teased each other after that stressful exam. ThenI sat there for like half an hour and then I went into the restroom. The restroom was between the second floor and third floor stairs. We had to take pass to go the restroom and I did so. After that, I returned to my class and started studying again. About five minutes later, We heard an announcement. It said all the 10 th grade students come down outside the chairman’s office. All of us started whispering what it could be about. Then our class teacher told us to make a line and head downwards. As we walked through the stairs, my curiosity and tension started increasing as being called by the chairman wasn’t a good sign as it always happened only when something wrong had been accured.

As soon as we reached the ground floor, the chairman came angrily and asked that all those who went into the restroom come out. I was like what?. Then all the students went quiet. Nobody came forward and then the chairman threatened that if we didn’t come forward, he would send zero assessment to our board( another thing about our education system is that schools have to send 20% assessment to the board in consideration of our attendance, participation and grades in the school). Everybody got scared but still nobody came forward. It was then he said that now he is going into the principal’s office and going to find all those who were in the restroom. The principal’s room had a big tv screen with cameras filming all the classes and corridors in the school. Then after 10 minutes he came back and called the names of some students.

All those stepped forward and went into the principal room and after like three four minutes, he comes out and again calls some names. And not to my surprise he called my name but that freaked me out. I knew that I went into the restroom but didn’t do anything else. While I took little steps towards the office, I thought “what wrong thing I did?”. As i entered the principal’s office. He asked a question “Who else was there with you when you were used abusing language and wrote those words in the restroom?”. He said that he was downstairs on the second floor looking at how the renovations were going on in the classes when he heard loud noises coming from the restroom. As he came closer and closer to the restroom, he heard that all that noise was actually somebody using bad language and abuses towards the teachers. Then when he started going upstairs towards the stairs, one of those students saw him and then evryone of them ran back into their classes. All he found in the restroom were those words being directed towards the teachers. So now he wanted to punish those involved in that.

I was shocked as I knew none of it as when I went in there, there wasn’t anybody besides me. I then told him in a low voice “Sir, I don’t know any of it”. He looked at me with an angry face. I then said “you can check the cameras and you will find the truth”. The answer that he gave me, I found it to be most ridiculous thing even still today. He said, ” The cameras in the Corridor actually don’t work”. That left me speechless. I then asked me on what basis I was considered a culprit.He responded that your name was on the record book for the list of students going into the restroom. He continued saying nobody was coming forward and I have to take action otherwise things like this will continue to happen. Other than the students called in the office, all the other students were allowed to go home.

One of my friends named Raman, called my Grandfather and told him about the whole situation and within fifteen minutes he was there. He asked them what evidence they had about me being responsible. The chairman stayed quiet. My Grandpa told them about my grades and my attendance that I was a good student and didn’t have any past history with involvement in such incidents. Then he checked my school grades and consulted all my teachers about what kind of student I was. Afterwards, he apologized to my grandfather and let me go. In the end, It were the words that changed my situation that day even though they weren’t written by me. I went from being a praised student to being a delinquent in just a short amount of time.