Saturday Night … Funny Old Memories

Today is 6th,Dec.2009 — 3:09 a.m., technically Sunday but, like that it is Saturday night. Unlike North India Mumbai has started to grow cooler at night now, where as in north India the winter has tighten its grip considerably. I was watching a movie until now, it got over and I looked out of the window, few things caught my sight. The light from the distant street lamp was making lines with the visible moisture in the air. The visibility was low  for watching ahead of approximately 400 meters. Distant buildings appeared tall black masses with few windows transpiring dim light. Traffic wasn’t gone at all at this hour also, but also it wasn’t as irritating as compared to evening hours. Some night bird, may be a bat, made some sound. Cool breeze came into the my room, it is Powai and that too 11th floor of a building upon this slightly hilly area of Mumbai, is cooler than rest of the city.

I went in the balcony to see the  enchanting orangish-yellow  light from the street lamp and  the hazy surroundings. Some  one was talking in the neighboring balcony ..  A girl  talking to her boyfriend … he  he he he .. nice time for all this, well I  am kinda unlucky or may be  lucky, who knows, for not  having a girlfriend at the  moment. I came back in the room and enqueued two of my favorites songs into the playlist on the laptop, sharing the opening lines with you. 1.) Dhadkan zara ruk gayee hai, kaheen zindagi beh rahi hai – from the movie – Prahaar. a classic song, a classic movie. 2.) Tumse mil ke, aisa laga tumse mil ke, armaan huye poore dil ke – from the movie – Parinda, another very fine flick. And not to miss, later I also enqueued the latest favorites — 3.) Tu jaane na(remix) from the movie, Ajab prem ki gazab kahani and 4.) Jao na from Whats your rashi, a pathetic movie but a very fair song to hear at late hours. These are among selected few songs which I like by lyrics and not just by the music.

I don’t know how it happened but, suddenly a foggy morning came to my mind, when I used to go to school(St. John’s School, D.L.W., Varanasi), back in my hometown, the holy city, Varanasi. All this took me to the time when I just crossed my first board examinations for 10th grade and I was growing mischievous … he he he … not in the sense that I troubled others but in my own ways. It reminded me of the time I was suspended from school not once not twice but for three times. Anyone who knows me will not believe it but, it is so, I was suspended. I used to be a very quiet student, but after making through 10th grade somethings changed and I changed. I think anyone reading this blog entry right now must have got what it is going to be all about. Yes, my schooling time  memories. Many more things came to my mind after this like my college days memories and the regular funny accidents which happened when I joined the organization where I work today. But, for now, in this post, just the schooling time memories. Rest will come in further posts.

Suspension 1: I was in 11th grade, we, friends, used to play table tennis on the teacher’s table in the free periods. That day we were involved in our game. We were making quite a noise and it was clearly audible in the empty corridor. Suddenly, someone ran past the classroom windows with warning us about principal on round, and just another minute our school principal, Father Lawrence Mendonsa(tall, round faced, wheatish complexion, with healthy tummy and in white robe) was standing in the doorway. He asked us who was suppose to take the class and why we were making such hell of a noise and also he did saw us playing on the teacher’s table. I don’t know from where I got all the courage and answered, “Father, they were section A’s(we had 3 sections in school for each grade, Section A, with green neck tie and waist belts, Section B, with Blue neck tie and waist belts and Section C, with red neck tie and waist belts) boys and they ran away watching you coming this way. Principal sir knew from that very moment that I was utterly lying because the corridor was long enough for any one to run away without being seen or heard. I was caught red handed, nobody else made a sound. And Principal sir asked me get those 11th grade boys  otherwise I’ll be suspended.

My GOD, now what to do, how to get three or four 11th grade students  born and brought up to be suspended in my place ! ? Well, finally  dreading the outcome of my next encounter with Father(Principal), I  went into the office and said there were no other students apart from us. Then and there the Principal sir picked up the microphone, asked  me my name and announced for every classroom, library, all the laboratories, the auditorium and the staff room, “Animesh of grade  11th B has been suspended for indefinite class and he will not granted  attendance for this period.” For a background, I was considered a good and quiet student by all teachers who taught me and I was favorite for few of them, one was teacher Shukla. She came all the way from the biology laboratory to my class just to ask what happened bete ? What did you do ? And I explained her what happened but by then I was helpless. I went home told my parents, got a good scolding and an apology letter, that I will not tell anymore lies(he he he he …), signed by them for my next day in school. Thats how I was suspended from school for the first time and  got rid of it.

Suspension 2: This time too I was in 11th grade. The annual sports day was approaching  and I used to play basketball for my house’s team, i.e., the Blue house team. The month was  December with cold winter and little unusual rainfall in that part of the year. Our team  required new basketballs for practice because the old ones didn’t had good grip left on them  to play with and it was already slippery and cold enough to hurt fingers while trying to hold  the ball tightly while shooting into the hoop and we had to practice long range shooting. All  the new basketballs with good were already in the hands of girl’s team and they weren’t ready  lend us even one of them owing to the all time girl’s boy’s rivalry. The  picture on the right is  the biggest  playground of our school out of  the three  playgrounds we had. You can click on the image to see it bigger.

In the middle of all this some junior fellow came to us and gave the key to the games  room and said that please give this to the  Games teacher as it was classroom time  for the junior guys and they were leaving  the field after locking the games room. He he he … wickedly and instinctively it struck me in zillionth of a second. The moment that junior guy left, I shared my idea with my good friends and executed it carefully. I threw the key to out of the compound,  with the punchline in my mind, “If senior boys aren’t  practicing no one else will practice  anything.” No one saw me doing that act, at least I thought so but, one very honest, devoted, angel like  junior girl saw me and recognized me and described the incident to the games teacher. There was I, suspended again. But, this time I didn’t had enough guts to tell at home about my yet again suspension from school. So, I used to go to school regularly and spend the whole day in field playing and taking notes from friends. The school captain was my friend and I kept on poking him to catch the principal in good mood and get my suspension reverted because I had to play for the house and basketball match’s points will decide which house takes the house annual sports day’s cup. The school captain, Avneesh Singh, was also from Blue house so he was also favoring the house secretly. And he manged to pull this for me and I was officially back on campus again. My parents didn’t had any clue about this. I wonder even they know this till today. Thats how I was suspended from school for the second time and got rid of it. In the picture below, I am in the center(fourth from your right) of the second row from the top, with blue neck tie. You can click on the image to see it bigger.


A little on Avneesh, he was my best buddy in school days since class 6th. He used to guide me help me with studies and also we shared some good and rough moments as every other friend in school. He used to help me with setting the studying goals while summer vacations. I used to set them but never quite achieve them but Avneesh was real serious guy at studies and used achieve the goals. His birthday was on my favorite day of the year, 14th Jan, so I never forgot it. 14th Jan the whole city engages in flying kites celebrating makarsankranti. I was crazy fro kites and spent whole days flying kites and on the 14th Jan, I used to go mad after flying kites.

Suspension 3: This time I was in 12th grade and few of us used to go to nearby highway to a dhabaa for a chicken treat in school hours. Of-course by bunking classes. The gate keeper, Bahadur was our faithful ally. We used to speak the attendance in the first class of the day and slip to the scooter stand, pick up our LML scooters and Bahadur used to open the gate quickly as we reach the gate. We used to come back by the lunch break and attend rest of the classes. Life was cool for those odd days when we planned to slip out of the campus. It wasn’t a problem at all because we had a very big school campus I guess it was 500 meters in length and 300 meters in width.

One very fine day, we decided to slip out for the treat and as we reached the gate on our scooters, Bahadur didn’t responded, we asked him,”Abey Bahadur gate khol na”. Bahadur remained as he was, standing by his seat near the gate, unmoved as though he never recognized us and we urged him again, “Bahadur gate khol na, marvaayega kya ?”. But again no response except for he looked in the office’s direction and there we saw the doom coming right towards us, the vice principal, Father Mathew. Silently same phrase echoed in all of our ears “Ab Lagi Lanka”. He was a person behind all the student’s disciplined behavior across the campus. There I was again suspended along with my friends. We pulled each other’s legs as we all were in the same league and discussed ways to get out of the unwanted trouble. And Bahadur was bestowed upon by a good amount of gaalis in between the laughs about how we got trapped like mice.

This time, too, I never told this at home and we all spent couple  of days on the field in school. Then some one’s parents came and  spoke with the principal sir and our suspension was reverted  because we all not the bad students after all and made good  scores in exams and teachers knew us all and helped in reverting  the suspension this time. Thats how I was suspended from school  for the third time and got rid of it. There is another incident  when we went to cheer for our basketball team at another branch  of our school in Mehrauli(Varanasi) against a dreaded UP  college’s team. We had to run out of there by jumping off the  walls of the school because we were in the first place not allowed  to skip the classes and go for cheering the team’s performance.  This time too, our faithful ally Bahadur did open the school gate  for us to slip out. But, luckily this time we weren’t caught and I  wasn’t suspended for the fourth time.

In the end, I was never a spoiled student, neither I was an utterly mischievous one, but then there is always, till date, a chance of getting caught whenever I try a caper. I do mischief just for fun not to get something serious out of it and also I lack the required cunningness at it and thats why I get caught. The best person to catch me after I do something even slightly out of order is my Mommy. She can just sense out of the thin air whenever I do something mischievous, and how she does that I don’t have a clue.