Wild Days

So after a break, I'm back. This break was unexpected, owing to ' System Breakdown due to Unwanted Game Installation Processes with my little brother'. Anyway I've come back again with a spoonful of old, but certainly not stale, gossips and memoirs of days long lost.

Our 9th year was very short. Though class started in May(I remember MenonGirija miss's reader classes , unbelievably boring, but it could be 10th) it ended too soon, in January, with the Annual Exams, grinning at us from mid-February and our 10th year looming as an imminent danger. I don't remember much about the subjects or lessons because it was the final year for extra-curricular activities and we were all busy.

After the disastrous dance the previous year, we had no courage to attempt another dance program for the Youth Festival, but I managed to be a part of the Vandemataram for Annual Day. Under Sachin's strict supervision, we 9th girls and boys and some 7th boys, enjoyed the event. Though Sachin used to lose his temper very often and scream at all of us and once we nearly quit it, the dance was performed, and appreciated. We held practice in Hitha's house and I'd cried once, when Sachin scolded me. Then at school, we had all those small children for practice and we could roam around at our own will, even Prasannakumari miss wouldn't scold us.

I also played Thiruvathirakkali that year but with the 8th standard students. Niranjana's parents didn't send her and I, Shilpa, Soumya then I think, Hitha, played from 9th. I developed a not so favorable impression about our juniors, they still showed groupism. But it didn't stop us from being friends with them- Anna, Aiswarya, Meera and many others I've forgotten.

It was also in 9th that I participated in running races and won prizes, a big surprise! It was also in 9th that we sang 'Thuyilunaru thuyilunaru thumbikale...' for Youth Festival. And I got 1st prize in Malayalam extempore- Keralam was the subject. I forgot the Malayalam word for Pollution(Parisara malineekaranam) during it, but I did comparatively well. But I had a lot of support then. All my friends were there, I still remember Ragi's smiling face and Neethu complaining later that I had said that 'I think they were my friends' as if I doubted their friendship during my speech(Actually I'd done it on purpose; as my opening sentence; Vediyilirikkunna...ente suhruthukkale, ennu njan visvasikkunnu,...to make sure that people noticed it. It was the only bit I'd rehearsed before-hand)

But I was not a very confident inspiring friend. In fact, I positively stopped Aparna from participating in English recitation because she had G. Sankarakurrippu's or somebody's translated poem and I didn't think it had much chance to win, even though Shana miss encouraged Aparna. But I was not alone in this venture, Greeshma was also with me. I'm glad to see that despite her two best friends' lack of confidence, Aparna has managed to stay, to this day, sure of herself.

But then they sent me to state level Extempore (Vriddhasadhanangalude aavasyakatha) and I stammered on stage, in my full 'Thiruvathirakkali make-up', but luckily, Nasneen chechi was the only witness to it. Priyalakshmi miss was in charge of that extempore and neither she nor me had expected anything better.

It was also during this Bhavan's meet that I think Soumya fell down in the bus during Anthakshari. This time we went in Ayyappa's like buses, since last years school buses had been sold. We stayed in a school that night. The previous year we had been forced to pass the night in a 'Prethalayam', a dilapidated, dirty building and all girls huddled togther to sleep on the dirty, dirty floor- me, Aparna, Soumya, Athira(Juniour- now better known as Mookuthi), Niranjana and all( Varada came with her parents, not with the school, she didn't have to suffer this).And Karthika and the teachers slept in the other room, but no less filthier. And the bathroom was...uh, horrible! But this time we slept on benches in a classroom and Soumya was sleeping near Lalitha miss and she got up in the night and started her English speech(Shana miss's, I think, the one that starts as ''Reading maketh a full man', says Francis Bacon...' )or something. It was real fun.

It was also in 9th that Ann sung Prayer for Christmas. In 9th we had the legendary English Radio show, an event I wish to forget with my whole heart, and something for which I've never forgiven myself, especially, Shana miss getting angry and Deepak crying. The others have forgotten it, Varada don't even remember that she'd been Vikram and that I'd interviewed her( it was when Anniyan was released), but I was my group's leader and I still feel sad at times, though Dowlin has told me many times not to worry about small things.

In 9th I quit Hindi and took up Malayalam and we got a separate Malayalam class where we could sit as we wished- Me, Aparna, Greeshma in one bench, Salini, Niranjana, Sreelakshmi( I have alwys wondered how she ended up with them, I thought Aswathy was their friend) in another, Ragi, Neethu somewhere else. The Malayalam classes were the scenario of many of our mischief- especially 'targeting', our own exclusive creation- once we managed to push Greeshma right off the bench(she's lightweight) and she landed on top of Arjun, in the nearby bench and the poor thing hurried off to Hindi class, throwing frightened looks back at her, while we rolled about in our place howling with laughter. But this could be 10th, I don't remember correctly.

Ann took Hindi and she drifted off from our gang, though, officially, she remained our best friend, a matter determined by the Christmas Cards when Ann, Aparna and Greeshma would get the best and identical cards from me, showing their identical positions in our gang. We still walked to toilet together, but she was now friends with Sneha and Soumya Jose in her Hindi class, so we were breaking apart.

9th was a great year for romance round the school. I don't think I'm bound by anymore promises not to mention them because everybody knows about them. It was in 9th that Sunish proposed to Ragi and Akhil to Neethu(both on the same day, before Christmas vacation and both were refused point blank). It was also in 9th that for one PE class I had sat out sick, and Chandini and Sneha fed me with a big story about some senior boy, some mobile SMS saying goodnight or sweet dreams or something(I forgot most details). They said the boy's name was pronounced as 'Uh-uhm' but of course you can't understand it by reading, it is a sound, but they never told me his name.

In 9th we went to Nelliyampathy for tour and though the teachers had promised to show us orange trees ,all we'd seen were dry plant-lets and no oranges, not even to buy. We also went to to Seetharghundu and Greeshma wore high-heels and she couldn't walk and begged us so much and looked so gloomy, that for sometime we exchanged our chappals. We also went to Pothundy dam and someone lost their hat, I think. It was in the bus that Manu told Jayanthi miss about me-Aswin rumor, which got a lot of fuel in 9th- there had been one debate between me and Aswin in Shana miss's class( You might remember the noise I made that day) and many other small things.

In 9th we did social project on water and we made a nice poster for it too. We went to Salini's house and tore up all the newspapers and stuck a lot of Tsunami photos and laughed at the bathing suits we found in them(Neethu especially).

I think it was in 9th that we did that 'Desert' too for exhibition and though at first it looked really good and all, during exhibition I had to resort to asking people,'What do you think this is?' pointing at our demonstration(Greeshma, traitor, left me at mid-day) and when they said they had no idea, explain to them patiently, that, it was supposed to be a desert.

In 9th I used to talk a lot to Aswin, but once, when I was saying something he said:' Manassilaayi, alla ingane pinnaale nadakkaan thanikku ishtamaanennu' and I felt really angry and he told me sorry later but I decided to keep distance from boys then on. I decided that all boys were untrustworthy. Of course, then I had no idea, the levels to which girls could stoop, I thought they were all pure.

We also did a Gymnosperm-something-demonstration for Saraswathy miss, where we collected all the grasses from the ground and stuck them up to make forests of Jurassic period and had put up dinosaurs and all, but everything had wilted by the next day. I remember carrying plastic bags full of mud and sand to Biology lab for that.

9th ended, as I told you, too soon, and we reached 10th, a big year academically.