April Fool

The First of April is a marked occasion for celebrating All Fools' Day the world over. Primarily it is a western concept, but like the others such as Valentine ‘s day is popular world wide. The present young generation may not even know that there is a 1964 Bollywood movie having the title- April Fool .There is no harm in having some light moments at the cost of others by cutting harmless jokes or playing innocent pranks , but one should desist from having practical jokes, which, God forbid , may at times prove devastating or even fatal.

This takes me back to some more than forty years in time, when I along with a schoolmate were made fool of by an innocuous, elderly man. It so happened that unmindful of the ominous date, we were walking to our school, one fine morning, when an elderly person , who was walking side by side , causally asked us the name of our school. . When we answered his query, he, in all innocence, making a sad face and with a sullen expression said- unfortunately, your Principal is no more. Completely shocked and taken aback, we looked askance at each other , spouting some nice words about the Principal, whom we held in high esteem and had for him genuine respect. It was only after about ten minutes that to our great relief, the gentleman, disclosed that it was a First April joke.

As for our dear Principal, as per my information , he is very much alive and is almost a centenarian. !