Coming Back

And so, I was back. I believe I'd called a junior in my catechism class, Ann, to alert Greeshma about my arrival, in any case, the whole class knew I was coming back. I was a bit shy, because I was wearing churidar as uniform, for the first time. When I got into the class, everyone clapped and shouted and I felt really happy. I made a beeline to Aparna(I think Greeshma was in the other class.) I was positively bursting with the prospectus of amazing her with My Adventures at Poochatty. But everything I said fell flat before her. She was not the Aparna I remembered, the girl we used to tease 'Touch-Me-Not' for she was very sensitive and who used to be worried about catching Chicken Pox. So as a last attempt, I said, in a huge whisper: 'Ithonnumalla, avide rumors undu...' She looked at me scornfully, ' Ithaano valya kaaryam? Athu ivideyum undu!' Well, I was stumped; rumors, in my class?

Seema miss was our class teacher. She decided to elect the class leader. And this is were I took my revenge against Aswin. I thought the girls' leader would be Niranjana, but they chose me, as a welcome-back-present, I suppose. It was our turn to vote for the boys' leader. The candidates were Aswin and Jeswin. I voted for Jeswin and made everyone sitting near me vote for him too. The reasons were, the Jeswin I remembered used to be a very good boy, calm and quiet. And Aswin, God!!!!!, he disgusted me. I had sat with him in 5th and he was so clumsy, I hated it. He never put his bag straight, his books were never properly covered, and his place was always unbelievably dirty. After lunch he used to throw his lunch box and towel into the shelf under the desk along with his books and the shelf would always be dirty, jumbled-up. It was a very frequent thing for his lunch box to fall down too. So all in all I thought Jeswin was better(of course, I had no idea he would turn out to be such a big alavalathi). And besides, it gave me the opportunity to write Aswin's name on board and avenge his writing my name on the board, for saying just one word 'paalu' in malayalam.

And so our 8th standard started. One big difference was that along with Greeshma and Aparna, Ann would also walk with me;she was officially our best friend. I didn't, for a long time, realize how this happened until later Greeshma explained to me that Ann was her best friend in 7th when Aparna was in the other class.

I dont remember many things about our 8th. It's all hazy. I do remember after one interval we'd Seema miss' class and Anu, Varun and all had kicked somebody's shoe around and I'd said Varun's name to Seema miss and he was very angry and I realized that I must not be a sneak.

It was towards the end of this year that the 'Mother-Of-Five-Children' rumor cropped up. It could have been a Physics or Boiology period, I don't remember, anyway it was a free period. I was sitting near Sneha, reading something. And near us the boys were laughing and fighting but I was completely oblivious to them until Justin called me. Laughing and hiccoughing, he explained to me what had happened. Someone had said Mahatma Gandhi is the Father Of The Nation. Then someone else said Nikhil Mukund is the Father Of Tension and then Aswin said Christabella is the mother of five children. A harmless sentence, only those boys heard, Christabella is the mother of my children!

But it didn't seem like a big thing to me, then, but it grew up through the years and has, despite my many efforts to thwart it, managed to survive for five long years. Stupid thing, really!!

I remember the Children's Day in 8th. I wore a blue jeans and white kurtha and read Thought-for-the-Day in the open assembly. It was also in 8th that we played 'Gujarathi kaalthala kettiya...' for Youth Festival; an utter disaster!!

I suppose it was also in 8th that we went to Salini's house to do Biology project-still model of paddy field. We worked really hard but it was a fiasco. I still remember Neethu getting excited about gilt and Niranjana teasing her.

Then what???
Ever since I started writing this blog Aparna has been compelling me to write about her but I cant remember much. As for Greeshma, she's absolutely forbidden me from publishing her list of yearly infatuations, so I can't write that either.

I remember the 8th tour, but we went to Veega Land, so it's not a great deal.

Aah, yes! In 8th I played Thiruvathirakali for Bhavan's Meet. From 8th, me and Soumya and Niranjana. Rest were chechis from 9th- Akhila, Neethu, Anagha and many more. We used to just fool around since we were the little kids and after practise I and Soumya would walk all the way home from Bus Stand, eating groundnut(Rs.2 pack) or Chochos. We used to walk like drunk people, I think, we had no worries at all, no responsibilities, absolutely at peace, shouting and laughing and not caring at all that we were walking through crowded streets. Those were great days. I can never be like that anymore, because I've grown up and therfore I am, and should be, consious of my each step.