We have lived through different
phases of our lives, seen its pallete of colors and have got quite a lot
coming. Looking back, when I was in Bareilly, U.P., where I studied till I finished
my primary education (St. Francis Convent Sr. Sec. School), it is amazing how a
smile from nowhere finds its way to me. It would be unjust to say that Bareilly
gave me some of the best times I ever had, the just thing to say is that it
gave me a lot more than I could ever ask for. You know that whenever we revisit
the past, sometimes we are glad about the moments we lived, while there are
also some moments about which we may have regrets. Everyone have the later. I am just glad
that the later counts so low that it hardly equals to a bucket in the
lake of fun. Right now, while I am typing all this stuff, I am confused about
where to start from and there is so much that I would like to share that I feel
that some of you may even get bored. Decided!!
Right now I am going to share
with you the first 9 moments associated with my friends that come to me:
1. SUYASH JOSHI, my childhood friend. We studied in
the same grade. In cricket, he was my best sparring partner. He is a left arm
batsman and medium pace bowler. I used to go to school in a MATADOR. The person
who used to drive the legend was BHAIYAJI. We used to call him by this name
because somewhere within ourselves it didn’t felt right to call a person simply
driver, a person with whom we have been associated for more than 15 years.
Coming back to SUYASH, who was a great singer whom I tried
to impersonate, but, alas!!! FAILED MISERABLY. One day out of the blue he told
me how our paths crossed, although I didn’t had any memory of it but it was fun
to hear him narrate the stuff.
In schools we all have our groups, mine was especially
large and strong. Then, there comes another group that stood way above our league,
the GUNDA BOYS. During the first 3 years of my school- nursery, pre-nursery and
K.G. we used to have fights with other groups during our lunch breaks and believe
me, to a year old kid that stuff is damn serious. But, SUYASH was a decent guy
from the start, one of those innocent bystander who get squashed in gang wars J J. What he told me was
that one day during that civil war, I was walking through the corridor,
revolving my water bottle and was approaching him. The next thing he sees, me
charging at him and finally the bottle blow on his head.
I probably would have thought that the matter ended
then and there, but, I was wrong. Just after the interval, we were all summoned
in someone else’s class and punished. MURGA BNA DIA. Embarrassing.
2. During those days, WWF (now WWE) was every kids’
favorite. I didn’t had dish connection at home, but, that didn’t stopped me
from not enjoying the show. Guess what, I witnessed it live almost every day in
the matador. My seniors, GUNJAN DI and DEEKSHA DI, sparring each other till one
of their stops arrived. I never really thought about it much, but, it looks
much more fierce and dense when to girls try to get a piece of the other. They both
used to fight and all of the juniors used to bet on the winner, funny thing
being that we got nothing to offer even if we loose.
3. WE WERE SPARTANS - One day, after the school was over, a group of
the GUNDA BOYS, from nowhere confronted us (me and my friends). The leader, who
was obviously 2-3 years senior than me challenged me to fight his younger
brother, who was 1 or 2 years younger than me. I knew it was nothing to fight a
puny brat, but, I knew that if they interfered we would get a serious smacking.
So, I made the leader promise to not interfere. As you know things rarely go as
you plan. The moment they saw the brat get a beating, all of jumped into the
battle and the result was clear like water. The tables turned instantly and we
were the ones being destroyed. It didn’t mattered whether we win or loose the
battle, we always focused on the bigger picture, the WAR. Our egos were hurt
but not the fire inside us. We went head on with them everyday and
unfortunately were badly beaten, everyday. When I returned to auto, a teacher
used to as “why do you get so sweaty in this winter and why is your blazer so
dirty”. Then, one day she found the truth, complained to my mon, she to my dad,
my dad to my principal and finally GUNDAS were brought to there knees. EVEN
AFTER GETTING BEATEN DAY AFTER DAY WE NEVER GAVE UP, FINALLY WE WON.
4. ANYESHA DI, I rather called her TUM TUM. In my
life till now, she is the only person I have ever seen whose hobby is studying.
Even during the break that she used to take after studying the stuff we are used
to in schools she used to read novels. Besides that, she was strong in another
field. Once your wrist is in the grip of her hand it’s like a black hole there
is no turning back. A few of those who went to school in the MATADOR with her
have experienced it firsthand. To put it simply, she is an absolute genious.
5. I never really like HOLY, specially the way
people used colors to torment others. So, one day, my classmate and friend
SHUBHIT chased me for about half a kilometer. In the front I was running,
behind me was SHUBHIT and behind him was my sister. She was shouting at both of
us to stop. Then after a long chase I found myself cornered on a rooftop of a
shop. The stare down between the SHUBHIT and me were on. With each step he took
with the gulaal in his hands, my heart raced. Finally, when he was withing a
hands reach and my sister finally climbed onto the roof top, my fear got to my
head and I jumped off the roof. Guess what!! Nothing happened. I like jumping
around and that’s why some of my friends call me BABOON, although my nick name
is also a major reason behind that name. So what, it never bothered me. I rather
liked it.
6. A stare down in MATADOR – we used to organize
all sorts of game in our mini bus. One day someone came up with the stare down
game, you know the one where one has to keep looking at the other without
blinking their eyes, and the one who blinks first looses. After a lot of rounds
finally it was my turn and PRIYANSHI was my opponent. We were in the same grade
and she possessed an odd habit of pronouncing BYE as BYEEEEEEE, extending the
last E infinitely whenever she got off the bus. Coming back to the stare down,
she was the first girl opponent that I had faced till then and I was not ready
for that. I can’t recall the outcome, but, I am sure about one thing, she was
taking the game damn seriously. A lot of things started running through my mind, my
stomach started growling. I was in no condition to guess what she was thinking. To put
it simply I was nervous for apparently no reasons, although we were good
friends. The thing that I can recall now is that I was looking at her face,
which was quite white and like a fresh plump and it was blank, atleast for me. That
was the last stare down I had except for those that I have with my sis. Right now, my best guess is that must have definitely lost.
7. A HATRICK OF SLAPS- it was on the morning of
examination day, I altered the sitting arrangement so that I could avoid the
first row. I ended up being caught in the morning and got slapped thrice in a
row by my teacher. Embarrassed infront of my juniors, still, thinking of it
today, I was glad that I experience that episode, a comic one really.
8.
AFTER EXAM BLAST- The day of parents-teacher
meeting was a scary one, especially those in which the results were declared. I
can remember that when I got poor scores, my mother was giving a cold stare to
me, while we were heading back home on a rickshaw, she somehow managed to control
her rage. Then when we would enter our home, hell used to break loose on me. Sandals,
shoes, brooms and god knows what, everything was being hurled at me. Looking back,
it is really hard for me to control my laugh when I picture myself running all
around the house covering my ass and my mom behind me with a stick.
9. NOT A PUNISHMENT, IT WAS FUN- One day, I played
cricket more than the time allotted to me. Then when I returned home for lunch,
my dad scolded me saying that the time was allotted because we had to attend a
party somewhere and since I was late and as a result he was late, I was
punished. I was locked outside and not allowed to have any lunch. Imagine, my
ordeal. It was summers, I was all sweaty and I couldn’t take a bath, change my
dirty clothes neither could I have a lunch. Here comes the reason why I like
being called a BABOON. I had all sorts of fruit trees in my garden, papaya,
guava and pomegranate. So lunch was found, now bath and dirty clothes. I went
to roof, jumped in the balcony. My mom had left the washed clothes to dry in
the sun and by the time I needed them they were almost dry. Now, one single
problem, a bath. There was a handpump in the balcony but no mug or bucket. So I
just sat on the marble flooring to have the water running on my head as I was
going to pump the water using one hand and the other hand to use the soap. As soon
as my ass touched the dark green marble floor at 2 pm, it got scorched. So I had
to pump water for quite some time to cool the floor. Then I had a bath, changed
clothes, took a healthy green lunch and took a nap on the carpet grass of my
garden. I woke after about two or three hours when I heard the horn of my dad’s
car. My mom was quite surprised to see me greeting them with a wide grin and
naughty face. She asked me what tricks I have pulled because she knew that
being mischievous was what I was good at. I told her everything, then she
looked at my father and sis, and said to me “so much for your punishment. You rather
enjoyed your day to the fullest and we got not lunch”. It was 5 o’ clock
afternoon and the punishment had turned its side and my dad got nothing to say
to my mom who was so worried about me :D :D :P
