The prayer I prayed almost everyday for 10 years of my life. I might forget so many things about school but not the prayer 'Prarthana'. We would sing one Marathi and one Hindi prayer ( the raaga was 'Kaali' I guess). Our music teacher would start the first line and we would follow. It was different experience to sing it, around 8 am in the morning and we would pray the motherland for strenght of our mind. I know many people would just lip sync as they used to consider it stupid to sing that prayer (really!). Funny thing is I used to say wrong words till 5th class I guess. The words are 'labhel devpan tya' and we would say 'labhel dev babantya'; for 'kate kutechi bharale' we would say 'kate kute chibharale' and wonder who was the stupid person who wrote this as it made no sense! It was not until my 5th ot 7th class when they painted this board next to principle's office. This painted by one of our drawing teachers. Here is loose meaning of the Marathi Prayer
" I bow to the land where I was born. It is my 'Matrubhumi' (motherland)
I bow to the land where I grew up. It is my 'Arybhumi'
I bow to the land for whom I toil
I bow to the land where I will rest in peace
There will be lot of hardships in your way
Don't feel sad if you won't have comforts
Cause only the stone that bears thousands blows attains divinity "
I can still see myself surrounded by girls in while kurta and blue salwar, our queue being towards the far end of the crowd. Ah... school memories always make you nostalgic !
