Last weekend, Me and my school friends visited our alma mater. Our joy knew no bounds on seeing a huge growth in infrastructure of our school. Felt very proud! We were just strolling on the school corridor, visiting all old class rooms and labs. Felt good to rekindle all those memories, some are green and some are blue too. We did have few tough and bad moments during school days. Corporal punishment wasn't thrown off during those days. So poor souls we were!
Few interesting moments to look back,
All through the academic year in 1992, we were pretty much freaky, sporty type. We used to play little tennis ball, notebook-bat, steps-as-stumps type of cricket on the class immediate vicinity. The last day after exams, we were little loud while relaxing. It kinda disturbed the other crews and the whole class were on top of benches in that evening ;) It's painful, but looks odd to see whole classroom standing on benches.
Those big sports grounds in the back of school are the places for Marches during Independence day and Republic day. Those one hour march show during the D-day needs lot of practice. The whole school will practice for the d-day with marches and drills for one whole month. Those are amazingly interesting days. Full of fun and scorching heat hit us too.
Lot of documentary movies were screened during those years. Ex, Gandhi live story, independence struggle, small savings, documentary on leprosy..... Those little movie breaks were always welcomed by the full crowd. We did collected lot of donation during Ayodhya Ram Temple fund raising, some other social and health donations.
For all achievements, School management used to give badges like First Rank, 100% attendance, School Pupil leader.... It was a fight of honor to get those batches! I know a friend of mine who used to wear 4-5 such batches on his shirt. Pride in his face is more than those army majors with those coveted valor awards....
There were instances in my life when I felt the inhuman powers (like ESPs, ghosts ...) exist in this world.
For the first time, I heard about ghost story in one vacation in my granny's house. He was constructing a new house in native village. I went there for summer vacation (as usual a big family get-together). One day night, we were sleeping in kayathu kattil (couch made of ropes) in garden outside the house. Some construction work was going on in the top floor. There were few construction workers continuing work on the night. One worker went to the kinnaru (well)to fetch water. The well was at end of the garden. While he was fetching water, his wandering eyes landed on some moving white object (may be ghost!) on the top of the building. He got scared to death on seeing that. As he was all alone in end of the garden, he started to run for cover. He could barely reach the place where my family was sleeping before collapsing down. Next day morning, my granny were out in investigation to bring him back to normal state and was curious to know what had happened. That guy: "Aiya, madi mela naan peiya parthen, athu nalla vellaiya irunthathu. medhuva nandhu pochu, looks like calling me" The moment he said he saw ghost in top of the building, everyone bursted out laughing. May be people decided to laugh out to bring him back to normal, we didn't disbelieve it fully.
I had spent lot of summer vacations in my native place. We (me and my cousins) would go there after school finals. In one such vacation, we were chatting in top floor. We were having nila soru (food in moonlight) with patti. It was a huge gang of children and patti kept us engaged by narrating interesting stories. The servant maid came up with a scary story in the mid. Hero of the story was ellai kadavul (god who guards the village border) like Aiyanar. The servant maid was staying with her daughter near our paddy field. One day night, her daughter woke up in midnight That gal: "Amma, ennaku thanni thagama irukku. Naan poi thanni kudichitu varen ma" "Mom,I want to have water" Maid: "seri ma, ana pathu po....ore irruta irukku da" "Ok dear. But be careful. It is dark inside" Five minutes down the timeline, there was a mysterious silence and then a loud noise from kitchen. Maid got shocked, ran to the kitchen to see what had happened. Her daughter was lying down on the floor in almost unconscious state. That gal: "Amma, vellai ore satham. Kollai gate-a thiraka ponne ma, yaro kannathala payangara adi vittutanga amma. Enna nadathuthane theriyulle". "I heard some noise in garden outside. As soon i opened the back entrance, someone slapped me hard. The blow was very powerful that I couldn't get up to see who did that". The servant maid concluded the story with her guess "Aiyanar was travelling on that side then, He only slapped the girl to protect her from bad evils. I could see some white man on horse when I went inside the kitchen". May be it just a story, may be the girl is affected with some paranoia, but it was bad enough to get us a bad dreams then.
Later, when me and my cousin were chatting My Cousin:" I don't care much for Ghost movies" Me: "Appadiya??!" (with awe) My cousin: "I can see Evil Dead movie in midnight" Me: "Ohh man, lemme also give it a try. We will watch this weekend" Yep, we indeed rented out Evil Dead movie on that weekend. There were no one in the house then. We chose to watch in night. I was bold enough to see first few scenes. Thats it. I run away from that room once the real scary scenes started. I haven't seen that movie till now. Not just that I still don't prefer seeing those ghost movies. Sick!
Got tagged by GP. I like this tag for giving me an occasion to fly back to good-ole childhood days. The tag is to Write 8-10 things about your childhood ( 1-12 years) that you miss. Write 8-10 things that you disliked about your childhood.
First, I will start with 'What I love about my childhood that I miss today'
Love the moment I got a heavenly sum of Rs.5 as packet money from my dad for my first school tour. The best part is I saved Rs.3 in that. Future MBA?! :) Worry free life with not even a day longed for someone's love ;) Dunno when did I lost that character! Playful-yet-serious fights with my brother for all things-under-the-sky. He is bully, you see! :)
Playful summer vacations with all my cousins. It's been long time since I met all of them in one place. Cribbing-and-not-yet-given-up kind of school. I love those school days but hate those monday morning blues for not finishing homeworks. Paddy field tank's baths, tender coconuts, eating-fresh-sugarcanes-from-Grani's-own-lands. Situations when I used my brain (athanga lied!) to bunk boring tution classes after schools. Now I can't run away from my responsibilites. Huhhhh Street cricket days. Still managed to get chancse to live this. Never missed it;) Days when I was young kid in my entire family. Young kids are unannounced kings in receiving choclates, gifts and unlimited love. Isn't it? All those crushes and childhood sweet hearts! Drinking glasses (enga-pakkam tumblers-innu solvanga) with straw attached and Kuzhi thatu (Plates with different levels for variety of foods) Sunday movies (one in afternoon and another in evening) on DD(DoorDarshan), the National TV channel of Govt. of India.
Second list is about 'the things which I didnt like in my childhood'.
Missed school tours many a times. Though most are pilgrimage-style-boring-kids-tour, how could they go without me?! Bad Bad. Never picked up any one game properly. Jack of all trades ;) Missed many 'Oliyum Oliyum' shows in DD while sitting-cribbing-and-reading in tution classes. Hurted a kid while bowling (rather throwing) in a street cricket. The ball hit in his eyes. Didn't know his whereabouts after that. Hope he is finel. I throwed up my street cricket interests after that incident. Some cried-moments-after-serious-fights with my brother. He made me cry badly many a times. I love him but hate those weaker moments. Hate all those teachers who broke my hand by making me write big homeworks. In next birth, I wish to be their high school master. Revenge Time. :) Didn't had much time with both Grani's. They died before I grown up to understand their love. Miss you Grani's! Didn't have lot of photographs to kindle my childhood memories. I have grudged on Electronics giant corporations for not inventing cellphone-with-cameras then? They are real stupids yaar :)
P.S: This is a good song! Totally unrelated to the title of this post. Song from Akon, titled "Mr.Lonely". And ROTFL on seeing someone polambying ;)
On friday night, We were in the Bengalooru (!) airport to send off our friend. One of my roommate had left for HongKong on that day. He is an embedded system techie. He had accepted a job offer and going there on long term work permit. Is it some kind of precursor to this trend? The china story is becoming more prominent in embedded industry now. Indians are losing in competition with chinese engineers in embedded field.
On a lighter sense, we had a quite entertaining time while waiting for his early morning flight in airport. Two of his girl friends were also there. They were sweet chatterboxes. We didn't have to do much action, they would start with some topic and kept on dragging my friend's legs. Driving (ooturuthu..ikku english translation nalla irukka??) is fun for me as long as I am not in the hot seat. :) Had a cold, ice-clad, Tropical Iceberg coffee on that cold night in aiport coffee day outlet. I love having cold drink in cold climate (Is it some weird habit of mine??!)
My college days was very interesting, thanks to 20 odd clubs there. We had a big Dramatix club, those guys are wholesome entertainers. They perform dance, ad-mad, adapt theme and adapt theme in lighter sense too. Here are few video clips from one of their comedy show. It was performed by my juniors batch. All credits goes to Balamurali (98-02 CIT) for uploading the videos to youtube.
On saturday night, I saw 'varalaru' movie with my friends. It was ok-ok movie, could have become more interesting if music was good. AR Rahman had done a lousy job for this movie. The story line kept people fixed in seats for the whole three hours. I had an interesting dialogues with a fanatic fan of Ajith after the movie
Some Ajith Fan Mr.X: "Super movie-ila da". He was clapping for long time after the show Me: "Ada pavi, intha kadi padathu poi oruthen superb movie-ina sollaran da" (i was passing comments with my friends) Another Ajith Fan Mr. Y: "Sir, intha movie-ku enna korachal?" "It gathered three crores in the first week in tamilnadu itself, theriyumma??" "And you know what, this movie is going to Japan for a release" Me: "Aiyo, nanga kashtapatathu pothatha??! japan makkale vere Ajith torture pannunuma??" :) Mr.Y: "Enna sir, ippadi sollintingo? Intha padam nalla illaney sollaru muthal allu neenga than sir" Me: "Ithellam too much boss" :)
We left the conversation then itself, but it would have hurted his sentiments on Ajith. He was morachifying (staring at) me for the remaining time, when we were coming down from PVR. ;)
The culinary experience of eating sea foods is taken to new heights in 'The Kudla' restaurant. I was dining in this restaurant with my cousins and his friends on sunday night. Had a memorable time with crab, fish and all sea living creatures ;) I would definitely recommend this restaurant for all my friends. It can boast itself for serving best sea foods in the city. Note for all those whom I promised a treat in the city: I will host you a dinner in this restaurant if you are a non-veggie.
Koncham 'polambals' time: Depression has become a vicious addiction for me. I was (atleast trying desperately) free from depression of love break for quite a while now. But few incidents put me back in the depression cycle once in a while. My pillow might have had count on number of nights I slept with wet eyes. I am happy that I didn't torture any of my friend by narrating my feelings to him during this time. My independent attitude kept me silent now. One of my best buddies in US of A has recently scrapped me in orkut asking me, She: "Nirek, How's life? What's happening in her end? Any updates" Me: "Hey, I am just sticking to your words. I am waiting for her to speak to me. so no talks and no hurts till now. Life is sailing on" She: "Thats good for you, Enjoy" But, I got back into depression cycle yesterday because of my trip towards Malleshwaram in bike. I went there to meet my cousin yesterday. I was travelling in same roads which had a beautiful past memories about my love. For a split second, I thought I will drop plan of going in the road and go back to home. Then somehow managed to go to my cousin's house in sadashiv nagar. I was silent for the whole day and slowly depression thoughts has creeped in. First love and first love break are not definitely a good memories to live with. I wish I move out of this city as soon as possible. There are some developments in that side. Will keep you posted guys.
