My School memoirs I

I guess the most wonderful memories of every person is of his childhood school days. The days when the sole reason to be waked up early in the morning is rush through, to be ready for school in time. The days when the top agenda in parents plan is to get the innocent child ready for the new world. These are the days when the little ones are pushed to school, which they go to with reluctant hearts; when the little ones march in their smart uniforms, and the young ones are thinking diligently of excuses for not completing their homework.

Of course not all of those sweet looking children are innocent, some of them are Calvin models. No wonder Parents are Calvin phobic. I for one, was not like Calvin, at least in this aspect. As long as I can remember, I always loved school. School, for me meant a place where I could escape the strict disciplinarian environment of my home.

I was always a good student, mostly in the top 10% of the class. I did my homework regularly, learnt my lessons, did well in tests, respected both my elders & teachers. Academically my teachers never got a chance to complain.

However that didn’t mean I was a docile kid. I was a born prankster ad mischievousness epitomized. Bursting crackers, picking up fights, bunking classes, breaking glass windows, deflating cycle tyre; you name it I was in it.

Today after almost 8 years, when I look back, I am amazed to see the fella I was. The sweet & sour memories of the school days are one of my most treasured ones. In the following posts I am going to describe some of the incidents of my school life. These incidents are not in chronic-al order. I am just going to write them as I do remember them.

My best friend in those days and my certain accomplice in crimes those days was Jai. We came to know each other in 6th standard. He & me used to be poles apart, personality wise. He was more of a vocal person, a care free and sporty person. I on the other hand used to be more of a silent kind and the least interested in sports. He was the master planer and I used to be the rough, not so intelligent field man for the execution of his schemes.

Teachers used to love us both. To be frank, they used to love him more than me. But every teacher, till 10th standard was worried about our famous friendship. We had been a part of so many wise missions that our combination used to make everybody wary.

We used to do everything together. Picking up fights, Bunking classes, running across play grounds. Jai was especially good in mathematics. In fact that was the only subject where he could beat me without trying. In other subjects, of course, he never tried. Never a diligent student, he would always be formulating new ways of cheating in exams.

Both of us were afraid of Sanskrit. I still remember the way around he invented for not putting effort in the subject. We didn't knew many ways of cheating in those days. What he did was ingenious & brilliant. In fact, I can still say with utmost faith, that if he had put the same efforts in studying the “Kriyas” of “Pathe-Patha-Pathanti”; he would have easily scored more.

In those days we had to give quarterly exams. The answer sheet was a thin copy - book which every student would make for each subject. Now what Jai told me to do was to write answers of all the questions with pencil in the notebook, but not on the last pages. The answers were to be written on the pages which had been already used in the last test. This way you could just flip the pages back, see the answers, and then write the answers on the current page, all the while pretending that you are just checking your answers. The key to the scheme, as he told me was to always have a thoughtful expression on your face. We never studied for Sanskrit tests after that. And we never failed them.

As time passed, our friend ship grew deeper (Its good that we have not been together since the last 2 years, else they would have to formulate some new laws about black holes. Black holes are the deepest ones, you know.) By the time we came to 10th standard, we had grown mature and bold enough not to bunk classes. We just used to bunk the whole school day. Our fav hangout used to be a old bus stand, some 2 and a half Kms away from the school. We just used to sneak out of the main gate, hike to the bus stand and spend the whole day there, in scorching heat, but in peace.

After some time, teachers came to know of this. And finally a Guard was posted at each of the gates. Sneaking from the gates was out of question now. We were confined to the perimeter of the school boundaries now. But as Red says “Some birds are not meant to be caged, they have just too bright feathers for that”.

We were playing cricket in the hockey field that day. Real bats used to be a luxury those days, few could afford. We used to play with small stumps, made from the broken legs of the desks. No wonder, the school had to get lot of new furniture those days. The stumps were made of heavy “pharsis” (Pharsi is a thick slab of red stone used for paving the pathways.)

Anyway some body got angry, and threw the stump at the boundary wall. Nobody except me and Jai noticed that a brick had fallen loose from the wall. From that day onwards, all our free time used to be spent in the backside of football ground. Slowly, day after day, we made a hole in the wall there, taking out brick by brick. And after hard but determined work of 2 weeks, a hole big enough to allow a person to get out was there. I still wonder how we did that. Its good that neither of us two tried to make career in civil engineering.

My grand-mom was always doubt-full, if he was a bad influence on me. I am sure his Mom used to think the same of me. His Dad just adored me, the same way my Grand-dad adored him. I wonder who was a bad influence on whom.

We have come a long way since those school days, and we still are in touch. School days wouldn’t have been the same without Jai.