NOSTALGIA

Love and Nostalgia

I assure you as you continue to move forward the story will be more interesting. The deeper you go, the more amazing and captivating it becomes.

"We're H A P P Y
We're H A P P Y
We know we're
We're sure we're
We're H A P P Y
Happy!"

This was my best song in primary school. I can remember how we used to sing it back in those days with joy on our faces. Sometimes one would wish the hand of time could be rewound to those days with everyone and everything present once again. But as the saying goes  "If wishes were horses beggers would ride." The memory is the only thing left, the only thing to remind us the nostalgic moments of our past.

My name is Muhammad Kabir but MK is what people prefer to call me. Kabir is my father's name while my mother's name is Aisha. Both my parents were civil servants. My mum used to work as a nurse in Nursing Home which is now known as Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital Kaduna while my father was an admin staff at the National Eye Centre Kaduna. God has blessed my parents with only me and my younger sister Aminatu.

I believe love is the strongest chain that holds everything together, the backbone of our existence. I cannot flow smoothly without narrating my first experience with love. It was on my first day at school. I learned how to read the alphabets at home. I started going to school at the age of six. The first day I started going to school I was taken to primary one. The school name is Bright Academy. I still see the bright pupils from that school that molded me into who I am today.

When I was brought to the class, I was introduced to the class members. I saw small children like me who were also new to the school. The class teacher made me sit close to a boy and a girl. I looked at the two pupils and smiled. The young girl looked at me and murmured "Kai, my name is Aliyah I have a new pencil and eraser... I also have some biscuits and juice and Abdul said I must give him some..." She used to be a talkative.
"Don't give him," I started speaking to her gladly, "is he your brother?"
"No he's not I met him when I was brought here yesterday"
"Who are those making noise?" Shouted the class teacher Mrs. Adebayo. We kept quiet. We didn't talk again until break time.

"Aliya come let's play together... I'll start running and when you catch me I'll be the one to chase you." I said getting ready.
"No! I don't like running gaskiya. Let's play Mr. Mac Anthony and I'll give you some of my biscuits."
"I don't know how to play that game but..." Nanny interrupted me before I could finish.
"Your mum brought some fast food for you, you should go and eat before the end of break time." She said dragging my hand.
I left Aliyah and followed Nanny. I couldn't eat the food. I ate only two spoons and ran away searching for Aliyah. I saw Aliyah struggling with some bullies who were by the way they looked my seniors. I didn't know their class but I think they were ahead of us with two classes.
I told Aliyah not to cry but she still shed some tears. We heard the bell ringing again, which meant we have to go back to class. I stood there watching the pupils who were still playing as if they didn't hear anything.
Uncle John came out of his office and chased everyone back to his class. I ran and entered a class thinking it was ours. The pupils in the class and the teacher looked at me. The teacher asked me what brought me to his class and I told him I couldn't locate my own class. He gave me some lashes and had me sent back to my class where I sat with my two seatmates Aliyah and Abdul and told them what happened to me. They laughed and we all kept quiet when the teacher stood up and started addressing the class.

When it was some minutes to closing time, Mrs. Adebayo started to sing. She asked us to repeat after her. After she sang and we repeated after her several times, we continued singing on our own

"Good bye teacher
Goodbye friends
Goodbye everybody
We're going home
Tomorrow we shall come again
Come again, Come again
Tomorrow we shall come again
We're going home."

We were about to repeat the song when we heard the bell for closing time. We all ran outside. Aliyah looked at me and waved goodbye, I waved back and started heading home. My primary school was half kilometer away from my home, so I used to go to school by myself.

In the evening I was sent to Islamiyah school. I cannot remember the time I was enrolled into Islamiyah. I just grew up and saw myself going.

When I returned from Islamiyah I settled down at night and all I was thinking about was Aliyah and the new school. I was picturing her in my mind.
I can still feel her cool calming voice. I discussed everything that happened at school that day with my mum when she was helping me with my homework, but I didn't tell her anything about Aliyah. All I wanted that night was to close my eyes and just see morning.

Daddy came to check on me in my room and found me awake. It was very unusual for him to see me at that hour of the night awake. I told him I couldn't sleep due to the excitement. Morning should just come so I could go to school. He sat down close to me and started telling me bed time stories. I didn't know the time I slept.

In the morning Mum woke me up and had me dressed. I was eager to finish my breakfast and go to school. After my breakfast I stood up and said

"Goodbye Mum and Daddy."
I was heading out when Mum called me

"Hey! Wait... You've forgotten your school bag and your flask. What kind of child are you? Many children used to fight before they get used to going to school... Your own case is different. Who knows you might be a doctor."

"I want to be a pilot Mum." I replied.

I collected my bag and went out to school.

When I reached school, we gathered at the assembly ground. We sang the national anthem even though all I knew was, "arise o combanshon...".

The proprietor gave his speech. We were asked to sing and match to our various classes. The senior pupils began to sing and then all the other pupils joined.m

"Match match match
We match together
Match match match
We match away..."

This is all I can remember from the song. When the matching began, the most junior pupils were the ones that started moving to their classes and the seniors were the last.

All that while my eyes were searching for the glimpse of Aliyah. She wasn't at the assembly. After we matched to our class, she still wasn't there. After a while, she came to the class with a red face.

"What happened to you?" I whispered.

She replied me with a shivering voice which sounds like that of a person about to cry

"I... was stopped at the gate... because... I came late and... I was made to.... pick dirt... and after that I got beaten..." She finished in tears.

I calmed her down and told her that we're going to play Mr. Mac Anthony during break. She opened her mouth in jubilation and smiled. When I close my eyes these days I can still see the gaps between her teeth whenever she smiled or yelled at me.

I met many new friends, but we weren't so intimate. Aliyah was the best. Actually I didnt realise I loved her until when I reached secondary school were the life was different from that of primary school.