💬 Chalk dust and old wooden desks, the smell of school I can't find anywhere now

Last month I went to my old school near Narayanguda to collect a transfer certificate for my son's admission. The school building is still the same. Same gate, same yellow wall, same steps up to the main corridor. I walked into the classroom where I used to sit in class 8. The smell hit me about 2 steps in. Chalk dust, old wood, and something a bit sour from the floor. I stood in the doorway for a minute. The clerk asked if I was lost. I said no. I just wanted a second. They've got new benches now, plastic ones, in blue. The old wooden desks are in the store room at the back. I asked if I could see them. She was confused but she opened the door. They were stacked with dust on top. I put my hand on one. It still had initials carved into the corner, and 1 of them was mine. Funny thing is that I hated that school most days. The teachers were strict, the food was bad. Nobody told me I'd miss the smell. It's not something you think about at 14. I've been to dozens of offices since, and none of them smell like chalk. Everything's a whiteboard marker now. My son's school has smart boards and an air purifier. No smell at all. I think that's what bothers me a bit. His school is better, but it has no smell to remember. Is that a thing? Or am I just being sentimental because I'm in my 40s now? I asked my wife and she said her school smelled of wet uniforms in the monsoon. I'd forgotten that one. What did your school smell like? I'd really like to know.

New plastic benches would have bothered me more than the smell going missing.

Pencil shavings and the dust from the ceiling fan, that's my school. I found a trace of it in a stationery shop.