Over the last week, I have gotten back in touch with at least 10 of my high school (then, National English School - NES, now NPS) friends thanks to Facebook, and I wanted to capture these gushing set of memories from childhood:
[I will be surprised if everything below is true, but it is my current version of the events frozen in my fast decaying memory that I wanted to record]
[I will be surprised if everything below is true, but it is my current version of the events frozen in my fast decaying memory that I wanted to record]
- fracture due to a fall from sarukku maram (slide) in International school, Delhi
- playing running games with Sekar
- playing cricket with Arun and running races against Jameel in Jain school, T. Nagar
- spending all waking hours playing some game or other with periya Anand (table tennis, under-arm cricket, carroms)
- getting together with 20 others in Somanathan mama's house to watch Kevin Curren vs Boris Becker (going home and thinking about Becker being an incarnation of god)
- standing in the bus stop with periya Anand trying to see who can spot the number on the bus from the farthest distance
- going in the rickshaw with periya Anand, Kshiraja and Gayathri constantly counting the number of foreign cars - our favorite was Peugeot
- getting sick before Chemistry test and praying to all the gods for intense rain the next day and/or Usha Ramani also getting sick with the same virus
- getting mother's help for biology class diagrams to prevent my frog by being interpreted as lizard
- missing the 3A bus, catching 5, missing the Music Academy bus stop, and walking all the way from Royapettah Rd. bus stop, plotting with Gayathri to not leak to parents
- Saada Soda - 50 paise, Paneer Soda - 60 paise; Hoping it was closer to Aditya Pappu's Pocket Money day, so everyone nearby gets free paneer soda and puff!
- veg puff in priya bakery with Fiaz
- scrambling in Eshvari Lending Library to find good Commando comics
- long dumb charades practise sessions with Fiaz and Nirav arguing over what single symbol we could use for the movie "The man who knew too much"
- slowly building enough savings for the awesome Coconut bun in Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan and going at 4:30pm on multiple days to find it get sold out!
- begging appa/amma for Eclairs (25 or 30 paise) for birthday gift to friends instead of Caramilk (20 paise each)
- all children watching our parents play carroms every week in the common space between our homes
- being thrilled when the fan that was creaking for 5 months stopped making the annoying noise when appa put a little oil near its anchor
- fighting with Gayathri over who gets the "fairer share" of the 5-star candy bar some visitor just gifted to us (kuTTifying (hitting) the head, promising to use a less militant strategy after appa settled the fight giving her the bigger piece because she was younger!)
- attempting to note down all the girl friends of Aditya and running out of paper
- playing tennis ball cricket in Gopalapuram corporation ground with several cosco balls repeatedly crossing over from the 10 other matches being played nearby
- playing cricket in Vatsa and Srikant's flat complex and disbanding in earnest once a brilliantly played shot got some neighbor's window to an architectural state the neighbor did not have the aesthetics to appreciate
- elated every time Krishna and I beat Hari and another person in book cricket (despite claims of match fixing by Hari noticing some ridges on the pages 268 and 346)
- competing in extra curricular activities leading the Radiance group
- playing for 40 minutes in round toss table tennis going from 50 people down to 3 of us and PT master comes in and says the period is over
- joining with periya Anand to draw on various charts for advertisements for TG for the post of SPL (School Pupil Leader)
- excited to see Gayathri sing in choir in assembly and principal saying good things about her (annoyed when every classmate tests genetic theory by asking me to sing)
R Anand...let me recollect few things from your points
ReplyDelete1) remembering friends like Sameer sood, SP senthil kumar, CS senthil kumar, florence...
2) growing up with 2 supervisors around me ( my elder sisters)
3) reading commandos,phantom,bahadur from eshvari lending library
4) playing cricket with B srikant and calling him IF ( infant frightner) for his deadly bowling actions.
5)remembering G Sivakumar telling physics mam ( parthasarthy, if i am not mistaken) after 12 yrs of teaching that he did not understand anything in physics till then.
6)calling thanigaivel SODA BUDDI becos of this thick (understatement) glasses
7) playing crciket in my compund with Rakesh
8)i still remember playing cricket with ur flatmates
9)getting removed from leadership council for proxy ( thanks to A Arjun)
10) getting caught and reprimanded by princi for smoking ( I think Srini will agree with me) till date we have not found out who bloody hell complained to her.
11) having sugar cane juice and samosa at Santosh juice center next to gopalpuram ground
12) having fun in Accounts class--- thank god i did not take up biology
13)remembering the excursion and coutnless trips every year to rejuvenate our souls and spirits.
14) walking down the by lanes of RA puram ( with someone)...please no points for guessing
15)bunking tuition classes in 12th just to smoke and drink in srini's house
16)having rose milk at south mada street after tuitions
17)geting elected for the rotary club
18) SPL and teams selections
19)good old 3a and 5 number buses.
20)remembering anand r playing mrudangam for school cultural or assembly
21) drama drama drama -- thanks to saguna mam..
22) remembering the first ever prize given to me for fancy dress by DELHI GANESH
23)cycling all the way to t nagar to attend IIT classes
24 ) Ramachandran genius of our class always sleeping and crying exactly at 3:45 pm ..why..becos he has to take his sister home ( i always knew that his sister was more tuff than him)
The list goes on and on .....
Anand - I remember you and me plotting to embarass Ramachandran by asking him the meaning of Aphrodisiac! I still remember Rama's embarassment!
ReplyDeleteDumb Charades - Awesome time
Badminton - Fiaz, Selva, Nanda n I...every day after school
Lol - Adi - it was some teacher who saw you guys and ratted! Princi was telling my mom (all the time praising me! saying that Arun does not indulge in such activities!)
Hello, Anand, Aditya, Arun, this is Fiaz. Fond memories all of them...I remember playing cricket in Srikanth's flat. Great guy! Didn't meet a stronger cricket fan after him. His flat was perfect for bowling but not for anything else. Just a thin, long strip...!
ReplyDeleteI remember the badminton days, the table tennis days. Dumb charades was awesome. Don't forget the book fairs at St. Ebba's every year. We need to plan a get-together some time.