Once, March was the month of anticipation. There were final exams but we knew summer holidays were almost in touching distance. The weather too mirrored it, turning slowly, the coolness receding to mornings and evenings. The afternoon sat in between, hot, dry, slowing people down, reducing sound to a sleepy murmur. It was the trailer of the summer holidays.

Though everyone had different types of summer holidays, every essay titled “How I Spent My Summer Holidays” submitted on the first day of school sounded exactly alike. There was a good reason for this — they were all written on the last night of the summer holidays.