Almost always a Milton, the many memories linked to the water bottles are still so fresh.
As we left for school each day, mom would do a quick quality check on us by scanning the usual cause of complaints/ discipline issues. The hair would be combed/ plaited one more time, the nails would be checked to ensure they were clean and short, the shoes would be inspected for any speck of dirt. Then came the final check, whether the tiffin box was in the bag. As we left, the final item to be handed over was the water bottle. Mom would fill the water bottle at the last possible moment to ensure it remained cold for a longer time and this always caused a last moment frenzy with the bus/ rickshaw driver waiting and then honking for us, while mom smiled sheepishly in the background.
Almost always a Milton, the way we held our water bottle changed through the years in school. The traditional hung-over-the-neck style was common during our primary school days and was used as a measure by parents to ensure that the bottle was not misplaced by us as we negotiated our way to the school by bus/ rickshaw. Mom would carefully adjust the handle on the strap of the bottle to ensure that the padded plastic section would come right over our necks and did not hurt us. As we grew up, however, this style was seen as embarrassing and we changed to the “slung over the shoulder” style in a bid to look a bit more cooler. Some even had the habit of swinging the bottle like a pendulum as they walked, much to the discomfort and agony of anyone within a 2-3 feet radius of such kids.
The bottle would be safely hung on the side of the backrest of the bench. Not always though. Over the years, we had all learned to be more wary of our surroundings and on days when a student (especially the bullying back benchers) did not get their bottles to school, the water bottle would be kept right next to us instead of being slung on the backrest behind us. It is funny now, to think of the times when we would deliberately interrupt the class by asking the teacher if we could drink water.
The many memories linked to the water bottles are still so fresh. Like the way in which, on summer days and sports days, mom would give us the bigger Milton bottle which was generally reserved for family picnics, and fill the bottle with ice-cold water and top it up with some ice-cubes as well! Or the notorious bottle flights, when we used to entangle two water bottle straps and pull in opposite directions and would generally end up on our backsides, much to our amusement. Once we had finished all the water, we would often sing and speak random words inside the empty water bottles, just to listen to how different and funny our voices sounded. Even today, after all these years, seeing a water bottle on a chance visit to the supermarket, or seeing a school kid with the bottle hung on the neck brings a faint smile and the memory of the days gone by.
