The mysterious classroom

When I was in school, the schools were not glamorous. Most schools were just tired buildings, painted in beige or grey colour. They would look sad and gloomy. Our classrooms to had no glamour. All classrooms used to look the same. White walls, a black board, wooden brown benches, wooden table for the teacher, a chair, an old cabinet for keeping the daily teacher's register. Looking at today's vibrant and decorative classrooms, I feel that we were treated like second class citizens in the school.

My school was a 4 story building which had 18 classrooms, a community hall, a laboratory, and a huge playground. At least that was what we were told. In reality, the school had 19 classrooms with 1 always closed.

This particular classroom was on the second floor of the school next to the laboratory. It was secluded. In front of this classroom an open cabinet was kept for "lost and found" stuff. The cabinet would block the entrance of the classroom. This was a reason why for a long time we were not aware of the existence of this classroom.

I was in grade 7 when I got to know about this classroom for the very first time. Me and few of my classmates were going to participate in a competitive examination, representing our school. Our teacher had arranged some sessions for us. These sessions were before our school hours. Our school used to be at 12:30 and these sessions were to start at 11. We came to the school only to find out that there was no empty classroom for the session. Our teacher asked the school caretaker to open "that" classroom. The caretaker was hesitant but he had no option but to open the classroom. This was the first time we got to know that there was a 19th classroom in the school.

We sat in the classroom and our session began. The classroom was dusty as noone had used it in years. Cobwebs were everywhere. The classroom had a weird mushy smell. Probably of fungus or moss. The air in that classroom felt different - moist, heavy, dusty. We all were looking at each other as if we all were sensing the same weird feeling. But nobody said anything out loud.

Sometime later another senior teacher arrived at the classroom door. She asked our teacher to come outside of a minute. Both teachers' faces said something. As if they knew something was wrong; they had done something they were not supposed to do. The expressions on their faces were fear mixed with guilt. Our teacher came back and asked us to pack up and head to another classroom. We followed the orders. That day during our regular classes, another senior teacher came to our class to tell us never to go near "that" classroom.

We never got to the answers to some of our questions about the mysterious classroom: Why was it kept hidden? Despite crunch of space, why was that classroom never used? Why it was forbidden to go near that classroom? Why the air felt different in that classroom?

After so many years, we still discuss that incident and the classroom. It still is a mystery.