Schooldays - 2

Sanskrit

Sanskrit I was in Std Vth, when I was first introduced to our ancient-classical language ‘Sanskrit’.As a toddler who already had lots of woes around him, one more subject increased my
enmity towards studies. Sanskrit for me was a collection of Panchtantra stories, Verses
from Geeta, Poems and the famous four (Dhatu, Lakar, Karak, sandhi-sandhi viched).

How about a visit to my old schooldays once again!!!

Class VII ‘B’. (‘B’ bole tho Bindass)

As usual my class is all messy, looks more like a fish market. A period straight after lunch
means time for some fun and sleep. Pretty looking gals are discussing something seriously.
Boys will always think that they are discussing about studies, but only God knows (I doubt)
what they are discussing. As usual, boys are creating havoc and are running all over the
place in their half pants.

Manish, our CR (‘siyar’) is standing near the blackboard with a chalk in his hand. He is writing down names of students who are the creating noise pollution.
“Hay, Karthik…keep quiet else I will write down your name”
“Who cares...?”
“I will tell this to sir…..”
“Yah...Yah go ahead…” I love pulling his legs. I know he will never write my name.
He is my best friend.
“Sanskrit sir “shouting like a PA system, one of the toddler rushes into the class.
The black board is full of names. Manish quickly rubs all the names and gets back to his seat.
‘We love you Manish’

“Namskaar Sriman ji”
“Namskar, Upvishanthu”

Jha Sir (a.k.a Jaadu) – I don’t like him much. The fact is I am not that good in Sanskrit.
And when it comes to Sanskrit, Swati is a Sanskrit Pundit (punditayin) and she always scores 100. Jha sir is smart, young and always well dressed. The only problem is that he is a bit short tempered. Man!!! I am afraid of him.

“Open your books, chapter 19 ……… Ashish start reading the verses”.

Ashish, is the only fella in the whole class who really knows Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the only subject in which he gets passing marks. Whenever he reads ‘shlokas’, it looks as if someone is playing an old Mahabharat cassette. For us it’s like a lullaby and half the class starts yawning by the time he finish reading.

Open -Cassette –Start
“Mannina valleyum…valleyenn manni
Mannina valleyen…vibhathi karah….
Kavinach vibhu…vibhunach kavi…
Kavinnna …vibhunaach…vbhathi sabah….”
-Stop-

“Okay, Ashish sit down. Guys, pay attention to this chapter, it will be coming in your unit test. In these lines the poet tries to………...” and here comes a Nuke missile………swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg trrrrrrraaaaaaaaapppppp.
Target destroyed. Only one casualty and this time its Sneha. I thought it was coming towards me. Thank God!!!

“Sneha !!! Stand up”
Poor gal…..Jha sir won’t even allow her to sleep. Forgot to tell, Sneha is the most beautiful gal in my class..

“I hate students sleeping in my class. What you were doing last night?? Huh !!”
“Sir...Sir…I was watching movie”.
“Which one??”
“Sir, Yes Boss”

Hush..hush..”She saw Yes Boss. Got released yesterday only.”
Hush…hush..”Man, I love Sharukh khan.. I want to watch this one, but my parents won’t take me to theatre”
Hush…Hush..”Poor sneha … Its’ shahrukhs’ mistake…”

“Yes Boss…huh…Okay tell me how many songs are there in that movie?”
She stares at him and then hesitates a bit….she takes some time to count, “Six”
“SIX !!! Can u recollect the songs?”

“Yah…Main koi aisa geet gaon and ….jaata hai tu kahan…then…chand tare todd laon….and ..suniye tho….then…..ek din aap humko yoon mil jayenge…And…..Choodi baji hai….”.

100/100 . Man she is really good. Even Jha sir is impressed.
“Hmm ..Well done Sneha… now Can you please recite any five verses from Sanskrit?”

Oh God…not again…..She stands there wondering what to do. It’s not her mistake that Shahrukh is more handsome than Jha sir or Ashish. Poor gal...my sympathies are with you.

“GET OUT of my class….”And there she goes the prettiest gal in my class.

And what the … “Sir, I can recite all the verses that you have taught us…..”, Swati shoots up her hand.She is crazy. Who asked her to recite verses? Over smart. Man !! She is over smart.
“Did I ask you?? “
-Pin drop silence-
I can see her face becoming red. I can see tears in her eyes……..YESSSSSSS!!!!!A perfect day for me….

“Now pay attention, else I will send all of you outside”.

Wicked me..Wants to go out now. Sneha is standing out there. All alone!!! ;)

Schooldays!!!

102 out of 100

I was in class VIIth. Our half yearly exams were over and we were eagerly waiting for our answer sheets. Our Mathematics teacher entered our class room with a bundle of papers.


“GoOOOOOod MoOOOOrning MaAAAAduum”… (A group of 40 young westlife, boyzone, backstreet in unison)
“Goodmorning …sit down….”

Gita Madam (Athanni – 50ps) - One of my favorite teachers. Tall, handsome…oops sorry……tall, huge….no not huge….how about... Tall, monstrous (now that sounds nice), lips ‘smeared’ with lipstick, big eyes, hardly smiles and rest you can assume. It’s better if you are on her good students list, else “Life ki aisi ki taisi”. I still don’t know why she was called “athani”, it was one of those nicknames that you learn from your seniors and you pass on the knowledge
to juniors. A perfect knowledge transfer (KT).


-Pin drop silence-

Legs were shaking. I can hear whispers “Our answer sheets”…”No not ours, she doesn’t correct it this early” ...”Nahi yaar, look at that big handwriting, that Sids’…definitely ours”.

“Hmmm…hmmm…” Geeta madam clears her throat.

-Pin drop silence-

“I thought I will give your answer sheets before Christmas. You can go through it during vacation and solve the paper correctly.”

“Ek aur Christmas barbaad”. (The whole class burst out in laughter)

“Who said this??...Tell me who said this??” Her eyes trying to search the culprit (obviously someone from the back bench)

No use.

-Pin drop silence-

“Ok, NUTZ let’s see how did you fair in your exams”. (In her dictionary NUTZ means Nuts, for us NUTZ means Newton).

“Arun kumar – 45”
“Ashish Pathak – 38”
Hush... hush…. “How come this less? I thought you did it well?”

“Ashwin – 48”
“Bharat – 65”
“Derrick – 70”
Hush…hush…“Thought derrick will get above 90, its maths paper or social studies paper”
:
:
:
“Harsh – 45”
“Karthik- 99” (That’s me...Lucky me….yah...that’s me….)

Hush…hush..“Karti, show me your paper”
Hush..hush…“Let me see it first yaar”
Hush…hush…“What’s the use, just show me… want to see how you solved Q.20. I think my answer is correct.”
Huh!!! Either he will argue and get marks for Q.20 or he will find some mistakes in mine….
Oh God...Why???….Don’t you know I love marks in 80s.
:
:
:
:
“Sapna- 80”
“Sneha-38”

“Swati – 95”

Yessssssssss!!! She got 4 less than me…yahoooooooooo…’Swati ki aisi ki taisi’…I told you, not to challenge me babes.

On her way back to her bench, she looked at me for a moment. I looked at her and grinned.
A nice start to our half yearly competition. Now it’s 1-0. (Just 5 to go)

Geeta madam finished distributing papers. She stood up again from her chair

-pin drop silence-

“See, I don’t want anyone to come over here with answer sheets. There are no mistakes. Just go through your papers and see if there are any calculation mistakes. And I don’t think there will be any”

And with that, I can see lots of disappointed faces around me. Legend says, she never gave any extra marks to anyone after awarding the marks once. I again looked at Swati. Poor gal, she will definitely cry today. Man!!! It will be great to watch.Wicked me!!!! ha ha ha. I can already see some tears in her eyes.

Anyways let me total my 99 once again…
93 +3 …96…+2...98 + 4…102…What???

I must be crazy…..96…+2...98 + 4…102...now what is this…..

“Okay, so I think you guys don’t have any problem, And I can go now, finish the asssignmen…….”

I shot up my hands “Excuse Madam”

“What happened karthik?”

“Mam’ I think there is a calculation mistake…”

“And what’s your total now?”...

“mmm….102”

The whole class went silent. They were all looking at me. Their eyes saying, “This fell has gone nutz…”

“What??”

“It’s 102, I counted it again and again”

“Swati, Can you just calculate his marks”.

Oh God, why?? If I am wrong...I can’t even think what will happen.

She takes the paper from me with a smile, as if saying, ‘Wait you moron, I will show you how much you really got’
But nothing happened, she took a while to count and then said, “Its’ 102 Mam’”.

Oh God!!! Thank you..Thank you... Thank you…

“Show it to me”

I went towards teachers’ desk. All eyes were following me. I was about write my name in history book, ‘The guy who got extra marks from athanni’.

I handed over my paper to her. She started calculating it. “96....102...what?? this is impossible”. She calculated it once...twice…thrice…Then she sat down again and started going through my answers one by one.

“Karthik, I think I did a mistake. I actually gave you same marks as VIth std., you see, for Q.10, I should have given you 4 instead of 6, similarly, for Q…… “

She started giving me correct marks. And after a couple of minutes she raised her head, “Karthik here it is…you are getting 94…..this time there is no mistake….”

I looked back, the class was not even paying attention to what was going on.
But, there she was, looking straight at me, her eyes glittering and I can read her mind, which says, ‘Now howzz that buddy…take a chill pill…’

A bad start to our half yearly competition. Now it’s 0-1. (5 more to go)

Alone...

Alone...

The darkness of night adores me
Moon appeases my darkened soul
The darkness absorbs my tears
My dreams are as dark as my life
Time has passed, friends are gone
Sitting in this darkness, I am alone……

Earthworm And The Barren Land

A barren land that no one cared

To plough and sow, they hardly dared 

Even clouds loathed it to core

Scorching wind blew and roared 

 One day from nowhere came an earthworm 

Very small, very smart, full of charm 

“Hey friend, what can I do for you? 

Tell me, how can I help you?” 

 Puzzled…the land stared at the worm 

Thought “One more devil who wants to harm”

 “No more dreams, no more goals 

I am futile, I have no soul 

Better you go back from where you came 

Else the wind will turn you to flame” 

 “No my friend, I am here to stay 

I will help you out, no matter what you say” 

 (Wind…cloud…sun… in unison) 

“What a fool…is he sane??? 

All your effort will go in vain” 

Little worm didn’t listen to them 

He started working without mayhem 

His goal was clear, he had his sight 

He worked all day, he worked all night 

Days became months, months turned to years 

He kept working hard, without any fear 

 At last he saw, for which he waited all the while 

A tiny little bud, full of smile 

Soon, the land was enjoying little patch of green 

Full of sprouts, which was hardly ever seen 

That day it rained like never before 

The sweetest breeze trying to adore 

(Wind…cloud…sun… in unison) 

“Hey friend, what can we do for you? 

Tell us, how can we help you?”

 ………………****…………… 

Earthworm didn’t wait to say goodbye

He went on in search of another Barren Land

“A friend in need is a friend indeed”

Afraid Of Heights

“I am afraid of heights”
“What?”
“Yah...I can’t come with you…you carry on, I will wait over here”
“But”
“Sorry I can’t”


“Afraid Of Heights”

He looked into her eyes
Knew she was afraid of highs
Was able to see fear deep inside
Was able to see the mount that divides

“Its’ been long we started our jaunt
We faced troubles, hard to count
We faced snow, we faced rains
Overthrew numerous binding chains
Now it’s time to say goodbye
Carry on your journey, promise I won’t cry”

“Let the fear overpower the fear
Losing me will cause you more tear
Come, these heights won’t do any harm
To reach there, I need your charm”



………..And he held out his hand once again

The Accident !!!

The Accident!!!!


He went past crowded streets at 60kmph. He ran his bike like a serpent and within no time he reached highway. Now his 224 cc bike was at top speed. The wind was rushing all across his face. He hardly looked at the speedometer (he hardly cared). He went past whatever was there in front of him. Not even once he applied brakes………… “Come on baby….lets test your limits…..”


After a months’ gap he was going home. He was too eager to meet his parents and his love. He hardly took his feet off the gas. He pushed it to the maximum. His rented car was showing all signs of breaking up. But he hardly cared, just 50 km more…………”Mom, Dad…..Priya….I am gonna surprise you”


He was furious. From past 5 years he was driving his truck on this highway, and it never took more than a couple of hours at the toll. But, this time he spent entire day trying convincing the authorities about his papers. He was already late; the consignment should reach before dawn. 300km more to go……”Corrupt morons....I will teach them a lesson…….”

Three different people, mind occupied with three different thoughts………..
But one common end!!!!!!!!!!! They met each other for the first time…..for the last time.


Give me a chance to tell my dad….”You were right, I was too careless and never deserved a bike. Now I regret for showing my vengeance”.


Give me a chance to tell mom, dad and Priya….”Love you all. I never thought of giving you such a surprise”.


Give me a chance to tell my kids…“Dad always loved you…”.

Am I Blind or Is It You !!!

Am I blind or is it you!!!

You can see things, I can not
You are gifted, I am not
Life is full of colors for you
Totally dark, ‘black’ the only hue

You look at their faces, I see their heart
I smell its fragrance, you see the flower
You believe in things that you see
Truth is something that I perceive

A mist of Ego, a mist of pride
A mist self, that divide
You lost your friend bcoz of your eyes
You lost someone because he doesn’t look nice

Life is short, in a trice it will go
Make more friends, stop making foe
Drop the curtain, clear the mist
See the world that really exist


“I can see things, you can not
I am gifted you are not”