During my 1st two years at BVB, my best friend used to be Dhanya. It happened naturally, since her name followed mine on the attendance list and we were allotted the same bench; there were 40 students in the class and 20 benches, five in each of the 4 rows. Only two students sat in one bench, which itself was a great improvement from my old school, where six or seven students used to sit in one bench and the one who sat at the end, usually me, would never have enough place to keep herself, let alone her bag. Being the youngest students in the school our class was the one closest to the toilet, a precaution to avoid any unwanted complexities. Besides, we were taken to toilet 5 minutes before the bell for break rung and during lunch interval too we were put into line and taken to wash our hands before the bell, we quite enjoyed this luxury.
I don't think I talked to anyone for 2 days. On the third day I called Dhanya by her name, she was surprised that I knew her name; I explained that I learned it from the attendance rolls. That was the beginning of a brief but intense relationship; for me she was my first ever friend in a new school and I believe I chose her because she too had curly hair and reminded me of Krishnapriya. I didn't get any help or support from my chechi, because I irritated her. We were supposed to speak only English in the school and I used to run behind her calling 'sister,sister' instead of 'chechi' in front of her friends, so I can't blame her for getting mad at me.
Most of my childhood memories have faded off and are hazy due to years of neglect. I remember that Dhanya used to bring red 'parippukkari' which amazed me a lot because in my house 'parippukkari' was yellow. I also remember that we girls used to play 'Ghost in the backyard' during PE periods and that Ann Maria, I believe, won a prize during that 'lemon-in-spoon walking' competition. I still recollect our lunch intervals, when boys and girls used to race, to see which team would finish eating first. Vimal from boys and Aswathy from girls were the slowest. I remember Ragi going on talking to Vimal till the bell rung, to distract him from eating. Those were the days of furious competition and boys' leader was almost always Anu and girls' leader Ragi. We others in the class used to think they'll end up marrying or something because the names 'Ragi' and 'Anu' were always coupled together and they were both tall and the others in the class really tiny. I must also say that I was jealous of'Ragi-Aswathy-Surya-Sruthi gang' and considered them 'kusumbis'. I wasn't alone in this treatment of them either. I remember Ragi had cute Barbie doll box and notebooks and her handwriting was really sweet. I remember that Soumya Jose came during our 2nd year, and when I came to know that her mothers name was Stella, I was really excited, because I was sometimes called by that name. Soumya was really pretty and fair. But I don't remember her after that at all. In fact I remember hardly anyone at all, except Swathy who told me a long-winded story about hot water falling on her and burning her when she went to bath and Mariya Raju who won a PCM certificate(B grade) along with me and stole a 'mayilppeeli' from me. I also think that it was during then that I let Jayakrishnan copy an answer from me during the exams- habitat of sparrow. We hadn't learnt that but we had studied that rose had garden habitat. I hazarded a guess and Jayakrishanan was sitting beside me and he hadn't got the answer either; so I took my hand off from 'Garden Habitat' and made it quite visible. I don't know if he copied it, in those days we didn't use to say 'Thanks' or anything for letting someone copy; it was a grave fault, we felt. But considering the amount of details I remember, this could have happened later, in 4th or 5th, I don't remember.
I shouldn't fail to mention Nithin here, because, if I ignored him, I cant be sincere to what I am doing, because he was an integral part of our class. Really cute and superb at drawing, Nithin was the heart-throb of all those 6 and 7 year old girls. He had that Nido Colour Box with sketch pens and crayons and stuff, all in one, which, atleast for me, was a wonder. I can say, quite confidently, that all the girls had a crush on him, though, even years later, only me, Greeshma and Ann have confessed it. I remember, asking him discretely, if he were Christian, to know if I could marry him, but realizing that he was a Hindu, I dropped it, disappointed. Nithin won third prize for a drawing competition, in which he drew our school, complete with the uniformed students. He left the school after 2nd standard. He went to gulf; so did Dhanya, after a few months in third standard. But, curiously enough, I didn't miss her, because by then I had found a friend who, I believe, would last me for a lifetime, Aparna.
