The post carries the memories, though jumbled, of my days at school. This post is after a two short visits, consecutive weekends, to school! The first time it was a planned event and Vaday was supposed to accompany us and bugger ditched us at the last minute. Finally, it was just Dee and I who were left to enjoy the reminiscence and carry home nostalgia of our good days at school!
School at night time sure looks better than at the morning hours, or was it just the silent night that did the magic?! No idea, but it was beautiful. It was like the scene from DCH where Aamir Khan sees himself and the others having a good time at their college. I was seeing myself doing that, there and this, here (well, guys picture it yourself!). I'm getting all senti now!
They have connected our Higher Secondary block (some '_KV_ Iyer') with the Middle School by a path from the flight of stairs which leads to Physics lab to the newly constructed block.
That path, and the walk through it was amazing! (What an understatement!) With the shades of the trees from either sides of the path, well I'm not that articulate or poetic to describe the beauty! Probably need a pro's help to write it (
What do I write about?
Should I write about-
- Vaday sitting at the last bench during Suchi's class to solve IIT problems and never give a damn to what she teaches?
- Or SVLN (LaRa or LN) counting the number of 'follow' and shouting "Century!" when Giri says (in her hollow voice) "Do you follow?"?
- Or we go begging for PT to Ajith sir?
- Or LN shouting "Amma" when they play the Mari-atha's from the nearby slums! (This I actually do not remember, since
- Or Gani blowing the polythene cover and bursting it during the English period and we all unite to say "The sound came from nearby construction area", and ma'am deserts the class, leaves to staff room to cry?
- Or the bet between (10th?) LN, Gani and Hari with Bharathi ma'am on jumping out of the window. (Here comes the funny part…) Two of them jump from the shade, but one hangs from the shade and gets caught with commerce ma'am or who was it?
- Or Ajith sir giving the famous clichés – troubled waters, when I spoke to Mr. Gupta…, since because…and much more (I do not remember...!)?
- Or playing Badminton inside the class room and breaking the tube light? (Gani?)
- Or Adi pushing Aejaz onto the window pane, breaking both Aejaz's head and the glass?
- Or getting suspended because we bunked GS or GVC class and went for PT?
- Or switching classes during our 10th std's workshop (Learning Experience?)- Mridangam, Art and (?) as we never brought the materials for the Art class?
- Or Manu being mistook for a 'thug' by the a replacement-temporary-physics-ma'am who goes by this name Su(Zoo)jatha (this ma'am is not from the middle school, but was specially inducted to replace Suchi during her maternity leave (wonder how many such leaves she took?! Hmmm…)?
- Or Hari and Aejaz's spittle, family damaging (demeaning) fights? For that matter any fight including Gani always ends up with our family being totally damaged!
- Or flicking Kit-Kat from Mummy Daddy or Stickers from the road-side sticker shops (Gani?)?
- Or (this is the best) LN shouting "Suchi, I love you?!" during one of the lab classes when she was teaching the Spectrometer (Is this the one which deals with Prism?) or something like that?
- Or Dili's Thayir Saadham, Rathod's Dhokla, MD's Briyani, Vasu's Chappathis?
- Or Sooraj's Volley ball services?!
- Or me cursing Karna house (I actually went and broke a coconut at the Iyappan temple so that Karna house loses the volley ball match against the Abhimanu house?!)
- Or makkal roaring when Swetha wore an Adidas T-shirt and came to class, straight after practicing?!
- Or Shri Hari and his cashew nut actions (Mundri kotta)?
- Or Jayanth and his stupidities?
- Or Rathod or Karthik (I do not remember!) drawing a _|_ as part of greeting card design competition and Gita ma'am having a look at it?
- Or me dropping the catch of Madhukar at the Cricket match between Bhishma and the Arjun house?
- Or Bhaiyya's lunch at his home?
- Or Varun's Basha style at the culturals?
- Or the salt analysis days?
- Or Bheeshma beating Karna by 2.5 points (Who were the clear winners?) and taking away the Patabhiraman shield?
- Or Manu taking the prestigious "Best Captain" award (in memory of our senior - Avinash)?
- Or the rumours, gossips and ottifying that constantly went around our class (which I was unaware until I graduated from college)?
- Or those march past days?
- Or Midterm, Quarterly, Half-yearly, Annual, Topper's Exam, APSE, Board exams?
- Or running around the ground for coming late/wearing untidy or not-polished shoes?
- Or (How can I forget this?) vandalizing the physics and chemistry labs just before the 10th practical exams?
- Or Karthik's lunch getting over as soon as he enters the classroom?
- Or Gautham getting ragged as whiskey boy, he then complains about it?
- Or MD slapping Koshy?
- Or changing 3 uniforms in 3years- 10th, 11th, and 12th?
- Or Suchi and AIMS coaching classes?
- Or Arjun house's Basketball talents?
- Or Bheeshma losing the triples Volley Ball match?
- Or the number of sessions with princi?
This is all I can remember, if anyone can think of more, please do add them as comments [below] or Shout! I want to treasure this memento! I tried looking for anything that we'd left behind. Well, I couldn't find any. This is all I could collect, a picture of the classroom!
Though not an active participant in all the fun, I thoroughly enjoyed those wonderful days with all you guys! Thanks a million for everything, hats off!
Comments
I dont know whet it is about nightly visits to the school but suddenly the traffic sounds recede, the wind is but a caress on your cheek and this calming sense of returning home envelopes you.
When I walked through those corridors, I could see myself reading a book by the side, or gigling witha group of friends about the teachers. School held some rotten memories for me and many of them kept me from its grouds for a very long time. Unlike some people, when I talk about school I am talking about the buildings, the trees and the grounds not the teachers and most of all not the really weird classmates. But my select few friends center in them generously.
I remember coming to school everyday with Anish and his cook Raji when I was six. I remember my tenth standard farewell party when my sister walked in and told me that my grandfather had passed away. I remember weeping on my friend's shoulder outside. I remember walking home with Ranga during 11th std and even with Manu and his sister Chindu. I remember a roaring camp fire and loud boisterous singing, the many trip to Ranka Farm, when a teacher with memerising cat eyes got married and ochre thread around her neck that was there all the years she taught me. I remember coming to class one day and noticing a new girl sitting in the empty classroom, whom I later find out is Lekha.
I stood in the dark a rendevous with my past, ghostly memories were unvieled before me in those dimly lit corridors. My hurried exit from one room to another, my effected coughs during chemistry lab and my blank state of during physics class. What nightmares they held until very recently, when at night I walked into school and she wasnt the scary matron I thought she was.
I am unafraid to come here now but I will do so only at night because at night I can hear the whispers of the grounds that once held my footprints. They speak to me of days I forgotten about my life, the trees bend a little lower and brush out a memory, their bark that had snagged my uniform or their trunk behind which I hid during a game of hide and seek. The buildings that saw me grow for 14 years hold many secrets that I have forgotten about myself. My childhood squeals of delight, my adolescent trepidations and my teenage fears and misconceptions. They are all here, surreptiously stored away from prying eyes, they await me. When I run my hand through the pillars that line the corridors it awakes in me vivid images of a day in school but the rest is my property, they are safe in my memory and when that fails I will come back to school for she is my keeper of the past.
Need I say more?!
Well, call for GOD! There's she comes!
- (self-promotingly) me coming onto bowl when i saw you walk in to the middle in the arjun-bhishma cricket match. then going on to bowl your stumps and then taking myself off the bowling, having lived thro my dream ;-)
- walking over to FoodWorld's bakery shop for some 'FunJoos' (an orange flavoured sorbet; in other words 'kuchi-ice') after school on those warm afternoons.
- sitting outside the 12th classroom (near that 'pond' area) 20 boys writing appology letters to the principal for playing basketball (commerce vs science, the most fiercest of rivalries) during the GS period. in essence one of us (shrihari? yadav? - some 'pazham') was writing the said appology letter and 19 others copying word-for-word!
- walking around school during lunch with friends and usually posing philosophical riddles to kids from 5th or 6th std and watching their reaction..
- passing 'notes' around chemistry class and almost always getting caught napping in physics class
- playing 'dumbcharades' at every spare moment leading up to School Culturals
- walks home with ranga, deeptha, avinash (7th and 8th std)..
- you coming home at some ungodly hour in the morning to take me to 'CSR' tuition.
- bicycle rides back upto school from CSR tution in the evenings with gani, yadav and you..
- 'ring' volleyball during PT periods
the list goes on..
It is a day dream to bring in all class-makkal from all parts of the globe and ask them to come to school for one last time!
But I like to dream, and feel happy that way!