Laughs fill the classroom as lessons commence in Kerala schools

On Monday, when tiny tots — dressed up in uniforms, carrying a backpack and clutching a water bottle — prepared to enter for the first time the world of formal learning, the weather gods themselves paused ‘Operation Monsoon’.

Indeed, golden rays of sunlight pierced the dark rain clouds that had until then hung low all across the state. They dispelled the uncertainties that parents and teachers likely harboured about how their wards would fare in the new surroundings on a rain-soaked morning.