Bablu’s admission to LKG at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Public School at Jubilee Hills was a much smoother affair than Mamli’s admission in 2002. Padmaja and I were undecided on whether we wanted him to start regular school at 3 but went ahead and applied in Nov 2006 while he was still at Euro Kids Ameerpet. He was eligible for the Sibling Quota as Mamli was already a student in the same school.
We forgot all about the Dec 31 lottery for LKG. In fact unlike Mamli’s admission we didn’t even attend the lottery. One of Padmaja’s colleagues asked her about Bablu’s admission when she went back to work on Jan 2, 2007. She called me and I rushed to the school from work. And to my surprise his name was on the list of kids who won the 20 seat sibling lottery! That was the first time a Satpathy family member won a lottery 
That made things a lot easier and effectively took a decision out of our hands. Admission to LKG at BVBPS is tough and now that we had obtained it for Bablu there was no question of refusing it. God only knows what would happen if we turned it down and cast out fortunes to the next year’s lottery. Better to take our good luck at face value and hope that the young child would cope. We would help of course. Well, Padmaja would help. I cannot claim to have made any contributions to Mamli’s education till date. So it was more Padmaja’s decision as mine. She tried to make me promise to contribute more to Bablu’s education that I had to Mamli’s so far. I agreed.
I must confess that I have not held true to that promise. If my kids achieve something in life I cannot share in the applause. I am but a by stander who got in the way more often than not.
We bought the school uniform at Ameerpet, along with the requisite school bag, books, shoes, socks, water bottles, tiffins, and all the other paraphernalia that goes with school in India. The LKG and UKG uniform had changed a bit from Mamli’s days but not by much. The changes were geared towards making money for the local tailors who have a tie-up with the school. This is not surprising. I have seen the the BVBPS principal, Ms. Rama Devi, go from a lowly “Maruti 800” to a “Honda Citi” in the last few years and initially wondered at how she could do it. I know better now.
The big day dawned on June 13, 2007. We had everything ready.
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| A glass of milk before school, with the new water bottles | School shoes for the new year, Bata of course | The new shoes… |
And the new school bags |
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| The make-shift school badge with all relevant details! | All set! | The new student is ready! Still chewing on breakfast though… |
In the school bus. Everybody looks happy! |
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| Not so sure now that big sister is not around |
Lets try some games to see if this cannot be fun… |
I followed the school bus and was in time to meet Mamli & Bablu as they got off the school bus. The first day of school after the summer vacation is always chaotic and the first day of LKG is particularly so. What with anxious parents like myself hovering around and making the kids realize that their days of freedom are over 
Bablu took some time to settle down and make new friends. His teacher in LKG was Ms. Pramilla, a very efficient and kind lady. She helped him over come his initial shyness and make new friends. Bablu was a quite boy in public. At home he is the same as other boys, noisy and playful.
We slowly heard of his new friends – Aditya was a particularly good friend whose name came up in almost every other conversation about school. Closely followed by Janav & Dhanav. But no girl friends. When asked he would quickly change the topic and refuse to answer.
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