Inspection and introspection

This is what happened on the day of our college inspection.

'Inspection', that one word takes off like a siren alarming everyone even from the corners .So it did in my college when the concerned committee announced a visit 

Right after our assigned department timings we were assembled in to the department of pathology  which we would be attending on the day of the inspection. The concerned department professors checked out our attendance and got to know why some of the students look long leaves . They were ordered to submit the medical certificates citing the reason for their long leave. Then we were taught the names of the professors and their corresponding posts . we were instructed to tell that we will have to say that all the professors are full time, regular workers. What a lie!!!! Clean shave ,Neat aprons,  in shirt  and boots  for boys,  no bangles on hands and hair in the apron for girls ; were the instructions given. basically we have to be prim and proper. 

Before sleeping that night I asked my mom if  my other apron is ironed.  she said that the laundry was off and the apron in  creases and folds. She offered to get it ironed from the neighbors. But i demurred. I am too adamant to be pleasing.

Next morning I changed the aprons in my bag and it was almost 7 :40 am when I as ready to board an auto to college.

 Walking through the old haunting corridor  I stopped near the cornered bench  to wear my apron. I sighed when i realized that I have forgotten to collect the nameplate from the old apron. Now I have sort of started to panic. Because if the professors made us to stand apart from each other and checked us out I would be caught with out the name plate and the harangue that  I will be subjected to is unimaginable.

Hurrying to the classroom I told my friends about the mishap. My panic just doubled when they said I, for sure, will be kicked out for the lack nameplate. Then my friend , shiny suggested that i call Joe, my other friend on leave, from another batch   to get me a name plate. Joe is a hostler  and the hostel is located right behind our college but it is fairly far  enough to die out of breath if i were to  collect it in  5 minutes. Besides Joe stays in the third floor which makes the distance farther . But then i remembered the grill gate in the first floor of our college which is interconnected to that of the hostels. So i called Joe and asked to meet at the grills with the name plate. Soon I was sprinting my way to the grills when I was suddenly confronted with  one of the staff. She placed a large pile of aprons in my hands and asked me to deliver them to the  pediatric department which was fortunately on the way to the moor. I didn't even care to ask for permission to get in to the department. 

I just rushed in and placed them over a table. The pediatric professor thanked me profusely which i didn't even pay attention to. I hurried to the grills across the room.  The grills were closed by a plastic sheet to cut the intercommunication between the college building and the hostel.But thankfully the hostlers  have made some decent gap between the attached sheets and the grills. I waited for Joe frantically. After a couple of minutes she handed me the name plate  and apologized for being late.The name plate was that of a juniors. Thanking her i was once again  on the sprint to my department. The professors still havent come. I thought I would paste a white paper on the plate and write my name on it. But my friend said that it would be better and less risky if i erased the juniors name and wrote my name on it with a whitener . Our name plate has to be in black with white letters. None of us had whitener so I again called Joe and requested her to bring me a whitener . Sprinting, I got 

the whitener and soon the plate has my name on it. while attempting to write my name, the plate got sort of messed up white with extra ink. Frowning i pinned it on to my apron. I sighed, this time, for relief . Soon we were ordered to sit in our respective places .  For the work,  we were given options to choose from: study the textbooks or study the slides. we, being the lazy bones, chose to study the textbooks. Some of us didn't bring text books and unmistakably i was one among  those. How kind of my junior professor to allow us to get books from our seniors. At that very minute Joe had a text in her inbox carrying my   plea.  soon my liberator handed me  the text book. So that's how my day, that began rocky,  smoothened out. Thanks to who? Thanks to god and thanks to the unstinted act of my friend .

Author's Note

please do not ignore anything. I request you to criticize on everything ; structuring, tense forms, word usage and any other thing that i should know. I Have written a couple of articles before. I want to know if i have improved even a bit. Thanks for your energy and your time :)

Reviews

[Manpreet]

Intersting piece!

[spiritwind]

first person stories are a huge challenge
at times your first person narrator was real and walked and talked
'but too abruptly I'd be thrown out of her character and be reminded that this was not real
For exa,ple, this sentence has no business in a storytelling: "The concerned department professors checked out our attendance and got to know why some of the students look long leaves ." Well, slam on my brakes! You must find a more natural way to say these things. You are the one who picked 1st person narrator which means most things are going to have to flow naturally in a stream of consciousness manner or through interaction with other characters, This story is worth the effort to get it moving

[Sid]

First off sorry for the late review, I was off writerscafe for nearly a month got back a couple of days back. As for the story it is pretty interesting though I agree with Mia, it could be more story telling and also you could have stretched it just a bit more to make it more interesting, just a thought. But it really is a good story so well done, I like it!

[Mia]

I like your writing...I do think that this story could be less stating the facts and more story telling. Not that this isn't interesting, I just thought that you could do more with it. Hope I've been helpful :)

[sudeshna]

though i haven't wrote any stories yet so i can't judge yours.. what i can say is that i can really relate it to my school days.. your story took me back.. so i liked it...

[Dayran]

Our institutions strive for a standard of professionalism in their functions and that is an issue of some significance in relation to the study and work that we bring to society. It tends to be very uncompromising sometimes. Certainly one sees that about your views on the issue and yes I'm sure the professors are concerned too.

[anxia]

Thank you Dayran for your review .

[quinfinn]

dont know if you read my status, but i avoid stories. since this is very short i will defer from being blunt and say it was a solid and interesting write, because it was. i have had to confine my reviews to poetry because i could not keep up with the volume of incoming requests, so it is nothing personal.thank you for considering me a worthy judge of your art. i would love to read any poetry you have written. again, it is regretable that i must resort to this tactic, but if i don't remain firm in this matter i will never have time to submit my own writing. be safe and well, and continue to hone your art.

[anxia]

Thank you so much Quinfinn. I understand you. No i have not seen your status message i am sorry !! Thank you once again!

[quinfinn]

apologies are not necessary....it feels mean to me to have to be this way and i deeply despise the inconvenience to so many talented writers, but i have to make time for all of you. thank you for your gracious understanding.

[anxia]

:)