The suspect

A young boy, mostly in his teens, clad in a blue polo t-shirt and dark gray trousers, had a plastic bag in one hand, a book within it, purchased hardly a few moments ago, his hand kerchief and the key of his prized pulsar, along with it. The other hand was fumbling in search of the token which was required to get his bag back. A wallet in one pocket, cell in the other, but the token seemed to be missing. Where could it go… About thirty minutes ago he had entered the shop, and like in all shops he was required to keep all his possessions outside with the guard before going in, for which he was given a token and while leaving on producing it, he would get back his possession.

The guard, hardly a few meters away, held a constant vigil on him. There was not much of a crowd in the shop, so not many eyes were on him. Not had many noticed the thirty long minutes he had spent at the shop. Nor none bothered to know what he did all the while. A cell in his hand, going through the range of books available for selection, he took his time to select the book he wanted to buy. He narrowed it down to a single book, 'The hungry tide' by Amitav Ghosh. After a while of thinking on whether or not to buy the book, he finally picked it, went to the billing counter, got it billed and was about to leave when he felt he had misplaced his token. He recalled no such incidence of placing the token somewhere, or any such thing, yet he couldn't find it now..

Looking just once more, he finally found it, gave it to the guard, got back his bag, put his stuff within it, and hung it over his back. It was another favorite possession of his, his adventure worx bag. Just as he was about to leave a thought occurred to him, something seemed to have caught his eye. He immediately turned, gave the bag back to the guard, excusing himself for the moment, before the guard could question him, went in for a few moments and returned back. From there he took his own sweet time roaming around the mall, noticing every small detail that was required to him, observing every person crossing him. Not one bothered to notice him roaming around aimlessly in the mall, a lone stranger minding his own business, after all it was usual in malls, so this was no exception.

It was long after the setting of the sun that he finally showed signs of having to leave. It was quite dark, although the insides of the mall were fully illuminated. As for the outsides, there was a busy street out there, going in its own pace, brightly illuminated by the street lights, head lights and taillights, of the various vehicles going by. He stopped by a cane juice centre, had a cold cane juice and though it wasn't entirely anything compared to the one he had a few months ago, it was filling and that was what he wanted it to be. As he was finishing his drink, he saw a group of four pass by, and one of them seemed to be very familiar to him, why, it was certainly a person he knew. He was sure it, also the who, but couldn't place the reason for that person's being there. He made a mental note to enquire about it later and got back to his drink.

It was high time he started back, for there were more things to be done.. He walked back to the bus stop, which was hardly a little away from the mall, waited for a while, skipped the first bus, and when he saw the bus he wanted, got on to it. He found it a bit disappointing to know that it was almost filled up, but thankfully there was a seat for him, which he occupied, settling himself for what was to come ahead.

The first half of the journey went uneventful, of course with the rush that there was it was quite obvious. At one particular stop, the person next to him got down, and so did the three behind him. Immediately he shifted and took the seat behind to the one that he had formerly occupied.

A man sitting across his seat, was deep in slumber, one leg upon the other, and as he was just looking by, his eyes suddenly caught sight of something!! Was it what he really thought it to be? He wondered.. On inspecting it more properly, he was sure it was what he took it to be in his first glance! A five hundred rupee bundle half out of his pocket. He thought about it further. It was certainly a five hundred rupee note that he had seen, for the color was unmistakably right and he couldn't be wrong, no way. There was a rubber band on it, which meant there was more than one. Now if it was just ten or twenty it would have been folded, but it wasn't. Also the rubber band was quite straight which meant there was easily a minimum of a thirty to forty thousand in there. He was quite sure of it, very much certain of the facts he arrived upon.

He looked across, the fellow still seemed to be in deep slumber, quite unknown of the fact that his possession was noticed, calculated out, and in moments planned out too. There were not many people in the seats behind him which meant that the chances of anybody noticing, was next to nil, unless something very stupid was done. There was a strong breeze coming through the window, and as he let it hit his face, he thought of the plan he could put into action. It was pretty simple and straight forward, there was no doubt in it. Perfectly clean, hardly any risk but for the timing, which would be the key for the entire plan. All he had to do was get up from his seat, flick the bundle and pocket it. All done with moments to the stop already decided upon, and once he got down, there would be no trail. It would be quite late before it would be known, and he would taken the next bus back. Very simple, indeed it was!!

He kept his gaze steady on his prize, but soon enough the person seemed to wake up at a slight disturbance in the road, when he chanced to glance towards the person looking at him, but before he could actually do anything, he was back asleep. Moments later he looked back again, as the person signaled to his pocket, but funnily he didn't seem to notice at all!

With all thoughts clear in mind, his actions decided, he calmly walked up towards the person, gave an acknowledging pat on his shoulder saying, "Be careful to conceal your money the next time, when you tend to sleep" and before he could say or do anything, walked away.

Standing by the foot board, he noticed the man, realizing what had happened, turned around, and smiled as I got down from the bus, giving just another few moments to notice him smile again...

Art life - The beginning

A short boy, standing in the assembly of the Independence day celebration functions. The flag is hoisted, the rest of the formalities done, the various speeches delivered, it was now time for the prize distribution function where the prize winners in the various competitions conducted with regard to the day, would be receiving their prizes. The list of the winners in the various was being announced, while the boy was lost in his own thoughts. A part of him lost thinking wish my name also is called up now, so that I can go and get a prize too.. No matter what it is, it just doesn’t matter. It was the pride of winning that, he wanted or though he dint know it, that was what it was in a way.

His thoughts raced back to his pre-primary classes where during the various celebrations only the prize winners went down to the assembly while the others watched on the proceedings from their class itself. There was a place, rather a room which was the exit from the nursery section leading directly to the quadrangle, where the assembly took place. He remembered those times when he saw others walk through there while he along with others stood there besides one of the windows from where he could have a clear view of the assembly, or rather when everybody sat down once the formal function was done. Even back then it was the same thought that crossed his mind, wish his name would be called up so that he could go to the stage to receive the honours...

The funny fact was that he very was aware that he had to win the competitions in order for his name to be called, and to win he had to compete in the competitions, which he never did. Yet the childish part of him always thought one day his name would certainly be called out…

To think it would really happen a few years later was quite unbelievable and now, years later he still found it unbelievable to take it in.

This series is all about his journey in the field of art describing the various things that happened with him, trivial most of the times, yet certainly a step towards the unknown dream.. His realization of the fact that, it was all about learning, rather appreciating the art..

जवाब के खोज में...

जिंदगी में हसी के साथ साथ ग़म
भी आता हे, कुछ ऐसे पल भी आते हे

जो न किसी से कहा जा सकता हे, नही

कहे बिना रहा जा सकता हे।

बस उन्ही लम्हों की परिणाम हे, की

आदमी एक कवि बन्ने, लिकने लगता हे ।

जब मैंने अपने हालत को एक कविता
के सहारे लोगों के सामने पेश किया,
तब लोगों ने कहा, वह! क्या बात हे!!
इतने दिनों तक हमें पता ही नही था..

पर शायद ही कोई एक होता, जो,
मेरे लेखन को कविता के नज़र
से बहार देखता, तो मेरा कविता
लिखने का कोई मतलब मिलता..

किसी ने मुझे एक बार पुचा,
तुम जो भी लिखते हो, क्या वो सुच हे,
या फिर अपने कप्लानाओ के झलक हे,
जिसे इतनी खूबसूरती से समाते हो...

जवाब तो बस, उसी को देना था...

- Nocturnal poet

The Arrogant Boy

A notice is brought in the middle of one the classes. And a rough reproduce of it goes as follows:

All students are required to come in decent color dress.

A student sitting in the last bench, that's me, commenting, Common now.. what nonsense is this? The uniforms are due in a few days and the notice comes in now..

"T-shirts with provocative writings and graphics are not allowed"

(Note the line carefully, coz the whole post is based on it..Finding loop holes in rules, yeah that's going to be fun..)

Round neck t-shirts, sleeveless t-shirts not allowed....

The rest of the notice was never heard as our bench was already discussing about the stupid rule. We were sure our HOD Mr. Hala Nayak would surely be the key person responsible for the notice and it would soon be as good as a power of attorney in his hands to bash all the students.. (Mind you, the degree students fear him a lot.. God knows for what reason, I still haven't realized..)

My friends wouldn't like me to mention their names I suppose, so let me do them a favour by not doing it. Anyway one said, from tomorrow this fellow will roam around with the notice in his hand and would to pounce on anybody who is wearing a dress opposed to the so called decency..

A few days later one fine morning our HOD comes into the class, before the beginning of an English class to be precise, and starts repeating the same things again.. As usual I was in the last bench simply staring at him when he saw me.

You there, stand up.. I did.. I was in a full sleeved round necked t-shirt, but then he just checked me out and asked me to sit.

OK, in every class the lecturers will note your dress while taking the attendance and anybody who breaks the dress code will be noted. The names will go to the principal, and your parents will be summoned and you will have to pay a fine for breaking the rules..

Now I am waiting for that.. I will certainly question him back saying why cant we wear round necked tees..and of course what is provocative in this tee..

A few days passed uneventful, until one day when we were standing nearby the stage, he came by and standing directly in front of me asked the boy next to me, Dint you hear to the notice? He produced the notice and asked him to read it.. And the fellow said sorry sir, I wasn't well so was absent for a few days...

(Shey!! He dint even say anything to me.. and I was wearing a round necked tee..)

The following Friday again the same place more or less, and this time it was finally my turn..

I was in a orange tee, a collared one mind you, with "THE PRIDE OF TODAY IS THE HERITAGE OF TOMORROW" written in white to cover the full length of the shirt!!

He came up to me and blasted, Whats your roll number?

09107, Ist B.Com (Voc) sir, I said.

What nonsense are you wearing?

This is not nonsense, sir!!

(That just hit him square in the chest.. ouch!! :P)

Don't argue with me. Don't you know that these kind of shirts are not allowed? Its been almost a month since the notice is put up on the notice board and you still continue to break the rules!!(Damn now.. the notice, oh! sorry his power of attorney wasn't with him.. else could have asked him whats provocative.. )

Whats your roll number?

09107, Ist B.Com (Voc) sir, I calmly repeated again.

OK, meet me in the department today @ 4.

Off he went..

(Now who is such an idiot to go to the department to go the moment someone calls, that too after such a confrontation, and so I never went)

The next day during the FA class the mam tell that myself and another fella are supposed to meet the HOD after the class!!

(Lo ji.. ye to kal ka parinaam he.. Ab mazak ki baat ye he ki mein ab phir se t-shirt me hi hu, woh bhi round necked aur kuch chitr bhi that us par.. )

My friends suggested that I go home, change and then go to meet him.(I was again in a red round necked tee, with some little design on it) I thought about it for a while and then decided that when I had done no wrong, why should I even fear him.. Told them I would be going the way I was, and jo bhi hoga, dekhajayega..

The class ended and that day we had no other classes after that, also we had to change join in to Red Cross, so went to the department, spoke to the concerned mam and got the work done.

When I was about to go out our HOD enters.. tadtarada!!!

What's your roll no?

Sir, you had asked me to meet you now..

Oh, Manoj Kini, yeah right. You are Mularidhar Kini's son right? Come in, I want to speak to you.

(Lo ji.. ab baat na jaane kahan jaayega.. par mein to kuch bolne wala nahi hu.. )

Went and stood in front of his table.

Should I speak to him about you?

Yeah sure sir, you can.

(He dint even expect me to say that.. hehe.. He just skipped it..)

Yes, whats your problem?

(Oye, you called me saying you wanted to speak to me and you are asking me whats the problem?? lol..)

You are again in the same dress.. What does this mean?

(He went out, washed his hands, and comes back.. )

Yes, tell me.. Even after telling you yesterday, you are again in the same dress again!!

This is not the same one sir.. (lol..)

I meant with design and all..

But sir, this is not at all..

No, don't argue with me.. You are challenging me.. In spite of me telling you yesterday, if you are again doing it, it means you are challenging me.. Is it so??

(Obvious right?? I thought it was very much obvious.. and to think he is asking me.. he he.. maybe he wanted me to tell otherwise..)

You are not speaking.. You have something in your mind..

(Ab jab kuch bhi bole to sunne ko hi taiyaar nahi he to mein kya bhi bolu..use mind reading shayad aata hoga.. par gham ki baat he ki woh bhi pura nahi..)

No sir, I don't have a so-called plain shirt..

What do you mean, you don't have?

(I must say repeating whatever is said is a very bad habit.. If I said something, I meant it.. Whats the need to check on it by repeating it again.. )

I don't believe you.. Should I call your father and ask?

Yeah, sure sir you can call him anytime..

He picked the phone but kept it back again..

OK if you don't have, you should get one.. (If you pay, I can think of it..)

I am sure your father fulfills all your needs.. and your brothers too..

(Now why was that extra phase added? I realized where the conversation was leading to.. )

But sir, the uniforms are due anytime..

How can you say that.. Just because the uniforms are distributed, it doesn't mean you are to wear it from the next day. We haven't yet decided if the uniform is to be worn this semester or not. In fact we have still not decided if its there or not.. It could be from the next year too..

(Are you alright sir?? I wanted to ask.. He certainly was losing ground on his argument and cover that all this nonsense.. If the uniforms weren't yet decided upon then why did they even bring it? They we have money plants at home.. pathetic..)

Well If that's the case I will think of it..

Your father was my favourite student. When he was studying here I was here as a lecturer.. Though I never taught him, he was my favourite.. He was and still is such a gentleman. Such respect towards everybody. I still hold a very high regard for him. And you being his son, doing like this!!!

I know your whole family.. most of them were my students.. You can ask Vidya, Aruna, Jaya..(My relatives) They were all so humble, descent..

You are the first ARROGANT BOY in your family.. Never before did I see a boy like you, who is so arrogant..

(Zidh karo, duniya badlo.. Dainik bhaskar.. lol)

You have not even tuck your shirt in..

(Ab toh ye puri tarah se phisal gaya he.. )

You got 91? 92 % percent in PU ryt?

Yeah..

See, you have such intelligence.. Am sure you will do well in your studies, no am sure you will excel in you studies and do better than anybody else.. Understand the reason you are here for, and am sure you will do well.

You may go now..

Done!! Guru charitre mugitu.. I came back, least bothered about anything he said..

Walking down one of the teachers says, I wonder why he even scolded you.. thought it was for the writings on the shirt, but I find none. This is a good shirt na...

To date I still continue wearing round necked tees, of course I dont have a so called plain tee.. He stares at me sometimes, I dono whether intently or otherwise, but I stare back, and he just walks away..

Its only a matter of time before we have another confrontation and well if the limits crosses am sure there will be a lot to pay.. I am not too eager about it, but if it comes up then certianly there wont be any looking back..

(Kindly ignore any mistakes, if there are any in this post, as this is mostly written with the emotion of the incident that I just went on narrating without bothering much about either my language or the grammar..)

Times @ Maddy Kripa-V

I am sitting here, wanting to complete the task at hand, but a lot of reasons have kept me away from writing here. Its been a while since I posted my last post and the time gap has fed me a little laziness, one of the main reasons, for not writing. Also with the college having begun, days just seem to run away. Returning in the evening, tiredness comes as a compliment with me, so blogging has been a step away.

Anyways back to the good ol times...

Year 02-03

I believe this was one of my best years at Madava Kripa, even when I was in there it was certainly a fun filled year, beautifully wrapped with all the excitement and a whole wide range of activities to be looked upon. A bunch of my most memorable moments at the school were born in this year, so in spite of this post being held back due to a lot of reasons, let me try to share the same things that this year showed me.

Solomon teacher was our class teacher for the year. She was a special teacher, and when I say special it was for many reasons. She handled English and social studies for us. She used to conduct a test after each lesson and the best thing about it was that, it would always comprise just fill in the blanks, match the following, and such other one mark questions. It always saved the trouble of reading pages long question and answers.

In English, after each poem was dealt with, while writing notes, we were required to be drawing a scene which depicted something from the poem, maybe a overall picture if it was a poem concerning something in general, or a scene or line if it was some kind of story, and we would be given marks out of ten for it. It would always be an achievement for me when I used to get 9 on the average for it, and I would be on cloud 9 on the occasions when I got 10 on 10. It was the same case in social where we were required to maintain a map drawing book, and again I was happy to be getting 9 or 9.5 usually.

Among other things, everyday after the prayers, one of us was required to read news and another was supposed to read a thought. I still remember those two occasions when it was my turn to read news, that after the normal few news items, I had spoken of those things that happened in our immediate surroundings. It was the time when signals were just installed in Manipal, and the time when they no longer worked!! My headlines went something like, Signals a waste investment in Manipal, or something like that, and I had received a merit for it. Another proud moment, among the many in that year...

For the first time in my life I heard of the concept of Friendship week, and it was because we celebrated it. It was usually in the afternoon sessions that we were indulged in these activities and I still remember that particular afternoon, when we made bookmarks for our friends. Our teacher provided us with a piece of nicely cut red colored ribbon which we used for our bookmark. We were required to give it to any of our friends, and I remember receiving one, and I am very much happy to say that I still have it with me. On the last day of the week, she had asked us to call our friends home and give them some snacks and anything else. I usually played in the evening and so I had no problem gathering friends. There were about twenty of us, and after a round of play, we enjoyed the snacks I had got along with other things. Back then it didn't mean much, but thinking of it now, it really is a wonderful feeling to be with friends, enjoying as if there is nothing else more wonderful in this world....

We has three rows in our class, and usually whatever competition was conducted as a group, it would be between the three rows, which were named love, peace and joy. My row was "Love", and like elsewhere, it was LOVE, our row, that won in most of the competitions. Once we had a kite flying competition, wherein each row was required to prepare a kite and then fly it during out P.T hour. Our kite was both the most beautiful and the one the touched the maximum heights. The other time that we worked together on something was, when we were required to prepare a model of, "The turtle beach", which was a story of a turtle, which comes to the shore, to lay down its eggs. It faces a lot of difficulties on its way, which included stumbling through the bricks and other materials lying around, of a building being constructed nearby. But in the end it succeeds to lay its eggs safely, but dies in the process. It was really fun doing it, but it was more fun when children from 1st and 2nd standard came in a line, to see it and each group narrated the story of the turtle to them. Again we won it.

As I said above we received a merit for our good deeds and it goes without saying that we received a demerit for our misdeeds. On earning ten merits we got a silver star, and on earning five silver stars or twenty merits, we got a golden star. It was a very proud moment for every student to receive a star. At the end of the year, she had in fact presented us with those golden stars that we had earned. Its a pity to say that I misplaced it sometime ago, but those were really hard earned moments of happiness within those stars...

Once it so happened that our maths teacher was on leave and the class was in chaos, of course. At that time our class teacher was taking class for students of seventh standard, which was situated in the ground floor, unlike ours, which was in the first floor. She had asked a girl to make us do some work, and give her names of those who misbehaved, so that she could deal with them. It so happened that, we were having fun and that girl just for fun wrote my name as well as another guy's name, and guess what? A few moments later the teacher comes to inspect the class!! There you go.. no excuses from her to anybody, so off we go. We had to sit in her class(seventh standard) and listen to her lecture, which happened to be the causes and results of the battle of Panipat. So for no fault of ours, we simply got punished...

Within no time we reach the end of the year, a year full of excitement, and memories that will be cherished through out. The various things that we did was mostly just for fun, back then, but now they really have paved the way for us to learn a lot things... Actually there were many more things that were a part of the year, but to pressurize my mind too much on those things would simply result in activating my tear glands. It might seem childish or whatever, but the very simple reason for it being those time will never come back, and that, they were among the best.....

Memories-V

A LONG DAY

It all began at a meeting which was held in connection with an art exhibition that was supposed to take place very soon. Usually whenever we plan to conduct an exhibition, all the participants meet up, decide on the various things, such as when should it be held, the theme for the exhibition if any, the size of the canvas, whether uniform size or any size of the participants choice, number of works, the amount which might be required to be contributed by each participant, and such other things. I had participated in four group shows and in most of them I wasn't indulged in any responsible work as such, mainly coz I was very young. Yet I helped in whatever I could. So my activity in the meetings would mostly have been passive until now, but this time it was no longer so. I had got into college, so it was time i started taking on the responsibilities too.

Our sir, who helped us with most of the things said that this time, we had to do everything by ourselves, and he would just guide us whenever needed. Once most of the things were decided, it was time that we decided on invitation. We had built up a reputation of bringing out a unique invitation for each exhibition, so that was one of the most important task. Sir suggested that we would design it ourselves and would get it printed at Bangalore, coz the people in our place did the same. They would get the design and layout from us, go to blore, get it done and deliver it to us. We could save a lot on it and hence decided that we would do it that way. Now it was the question of who would do it, who would handle the responsibility. I thought this would be a right time for me to get work done by me, so I volunteered to do it. It was decided that I would be given the design and all I had to do was get it printed at a decided printers, and get it. Sounds simple, doesn't it? I thought the same when I took it up, but it turned out that it was more complicated than it initially looked.

The other arrangements began and I did whatever I could. Finally, the design was handed over to me along with the proof print or whatever its called, to show how the print looked like. It was like I was given the design today and I was supposed to leave tomorrow night, reach the next morning, get the work done, catch a bus back the same day and be back the next morning. The materials reached me, but i still didn't know where I was to be going!! Sounds ridiculous right? But that was how it was. I was told I would be given a person's no. All i had to do would be call him, and he would arrange for the work to be done. But surprise!! I get a number of a person, who is just an artist in blore, who might be knowing such people. I realized how things were, when it came to reality.I just used to sit back and see how things were done, but now when it came to me, i realized how things could really be.

I called up one of my friend who stayed at blore and asked him if he knew any printers personally. Like it was necessary coz I just couldn't walk in to some press and ask for the job to be done. He said he personally hadn't got any works printed, but he had a few friends who did and told would check on them and let me know. It was in the evening when I called him, and he told there was a possibility that they might have left too!! Man!! What was i supposed to do if they had left? But thankfully, he called me back soon saying there were two places nearby to where he worked, and his friend knew those places. I thanked him and hung up.

I have one of my uncles staying at blore and initially I hadn't wanted to disturb him, but now I thought it was best that I took his help. And guess what? he knew a person, who was working at a graphics shop, moreover his work place was situated nearby to my uncle's factory. Uuf!! I sighed relief...

I left the following night, reached the next morning as scheduled. Reached a bit late, so I only had enough time to shower, freshen. I changed into new clothes and left along with my uncle. We had breakfast at a hotel on the way. I had masala dosa, and when one is famished it really feels good to be eating ;) He had to open the factory on time, so we had to hurry, but we managed to reach in time. Once we settled down, he called up the concerned person and he said he would come in about an hour. He went about with his work, while I read the news paper. Then he took me around the factory, and it was perfectly as I remembered it from my last visit. When we went back to his office, the person had come. So it was work time. My uncle explained him about my needs, and asked for a rough price. He said he would have to check out on that and so would let us know in a little while. He took the materials to check them out. He called back in a little while saying it would cost this much. The cost was readily acceptable for us, but the problem was time. He said he could give it no earlier than in three days. Not again!! We said it was urgent and that I had come solely for that purpose. So he said if the cards would not have to be punched he would give them the following day. But again that was unacceptable, firstly coz punching those holes would be another work for us, and second, we couldn't afford to wait. But it was election time and most of the press was engaged in printing ads, so obviously there was no place for a thousand prints.

I then decided that we would check out the person whose contact no I was given and it so happened that he was out of place that day. I couldn't just help thinking if I could finish off the work in that day. But then he said we would have to go to the place and he would speak to them. Thank god :) It was in Chamarapet, and even though my uncle had an expert knowledge of the roads around, we required a little while to reach and it was twelve thirty in the noon when we reached the place, Lakshmi Mudranalaya. We were waiting outside, while I looked around the place. It seemed to be a high level press which printed and published books in large quantities.I wondered if they would accept our order. After a few minutes of wait, which seemed like hours, we were sitting in front of the owner there. We placed our requirements and agreed to it. He said he could not arrange for the cards to be punched but he could arrange it to be delivered by the evening. WOW!! I was really glad it was finally into processing. He asked me to tell everything to the designers and I did the same, and it was set. He did the calculations and it came up to 12.5k and odd.. With a few words from the no I had obtained, it was settled to 11.5k. I paid it, and we returned back to the factory. Now the thing that worried me was, whether it was possible to get it by evening. From a previous experience I knew that once printed they were required to be properly dried, or else it would simply be a mess. But I was rest assured coz, he had said we would get it by evening.

We had lunch in some hotel. I had a kulcha and some gravy. It was a peaceful lunch, with the major part of the tension got over. After lunch, went back to the factory and were just chatting. We had a tea along with another colleague of his, whom I knew very well. She suggested that in the evening once everything was done with, we go to pizza hut and have a pizza.

In the evening we went home, watched TV for a while, then as suggested by his colleague, we went to pizza hut. Had a pizza, and I even had ebony and ivory, actually the only time I had it. By then it was time to collect the invitation. We went to the place in my uncle's scooter and by the time we reached there it had already become dark. The package was there waiting for us. Now the problem suddenly came out of nowhere. How to carry it? I tried lifting it and my goodness it was so damn heavy. It weighed more than 50kg and that would be really tough to carry. We decided we would take it in the scooter itself and I carried it and all the way back home, I had it on my lap. The journey back never seemed to end at all.. My back was slowly starting to ache, but thankfully I was able to manage. My uncle's house is in the first floor and as we had a lot of time until my bus was due, we carried the package all the way up. Guess it was total madness to be doing that, but we did it. For the first time I saw the invitations, it looked good. Gave a copy to uncle, and just sat back to relax...

As we both were filled with the food we had earlier on, we skipped dinner. Again we had to take the package down. This time in addition to that, there was my bag too. I didn't know how I would manage, but I somehow did. But I really wonder how he managed. With that package it would have really been a tough ride for him. We went to some fresh juice centre and I had an orange juice. Had got a return ticket earlier in the day, so just had to wait for the bus. It was drizzling slightly. I hoped it wouldn't rain. Thankfully it didn't. But there was a little confusion with the bus. Initially we thought it would stop at one place but when it came, there was another bus and so it stopped a little ahead. He got the package loaded, while I got into the bus and bid him adieu. I really wished I could thank him profusely, but well taken into consideration my shy nature, even if I stood in front of him to do it, words wouldn't have come out. So the thought remained only as a thought, as I slowly drifted to sleep, thus ending the long tiresome day.

Times @ Maddy Kripa-IV

Year 01-02

Another year at the old building, third in fact. I had three years at the old building only. Maybe that's the reason I liked it a lot. Its a pity that its not there anymore. It is brought down to give way for a new building and the one we used to call new building has now become old..

We had Mrs. Vijayalaxmi as our class teacher for the year. We had a lesson in English titled, "The pie and the tramp". The story goes somewhat like this - It was a story of two tramps, who are going through tough times and they can't even beg to live as begging is forbidden in their place and they were already arrested a few times for begging. The play begins with them, sitting in the street, sharing their woes, when they hear a couple in a nearby house, speaking. The husband wants his wife to give the pie to a person he sends and when she asks how she would know the person who claimed the pie was genuine or not, they settle on the idea that the person coming to collect the pie has to kiss her hand. As soon as the husband goes out the two tramps who were over hearing the conversation decide to bring their hunger to an end by getting the pie. One of them goes and gets it the way the genuine person was intended to and they enjoy the pie thus fooling the couple...

We had enacted the play and I was one of the tramp. I still remember the first scene wherein I was to be looking glum but I was smiling.. I remember our teacher saying you shouldn't be smiling. Change your expression... We spent two classes one fine afternoon enacting it and I believe we did a good job. Was a very memorable moment performing in front of the class..

The Magnetic field theory:

Every morning, as we used to reach early to the school we had about an hour before classes started and so we used to chit-chat sitting on the steps outside the class or else just roaming here and there. Once it so happened that one of us had got a pair of magnet and was just playing with it when someone said there was magnetic substance in the soil. We found quite a lot of small particles and by chance one of us found some iron nail. That inspired us to search more junk and soon we were on a junk search and every morning we searched with around our class and nearby, with a magnet to see what we would find. Within about a week or so we found a plastic full of rusted nails, pieces of iron etc, etc.. We had planned to give it to the junkyard and share whatever we got from it. We had kept it in the cupboard only to forget it. During exam time we remembered it but then we decided we would take it on the result day. Again it was forgotten only to be remembered when we got to know that it was thrown out, the next year...

Yet another year passed within no time.. It was a sad moment to be leaving.. One thing was that I was leaving behind my favourite part of the school, the old building block and also our class teacher was leaving the school...But then there was a new year to look forward to, new adventures to be faced..

A cup of coffee

I donno whats got me writing this. I was reading something and all of a sudden out of no where I just felt like writing about coffee and as a result, out came this poem, a cup of coffee and its journey into me... Am not a poet so bear with the mistakes, if any.

I have a free hour, I can't wait to get going.

I am out as soon as the bell rings permitting me out.

I walk down to my favourite place,

And in a few minutes I am sitting at a cafe,

having ordered my coffee, waiting dearly for it.

After a small wait it is ready n willing to be fetched.

I lift the cup to savour the aroma it emits,

inviting me to the world of cafe which I gladly accept.

Following the aroma I enter deep down into an alley,

an alley leading to a different world.

I sip in a ml of the piping hot coffee

and it gives me a sense of eternity..

I am lost in a whole new world,

where time is outbound.

After long minutes which seemed like a few

moments, the piping hot coffee, now normal,

It holds only a little of what it once did and is

all set to get to its final destination- the bin.

I am all set for another cup of coffee,

yet another journey into eternity..

-Nocturnal poet

Times @ Maddy Kripa-III

It is really an awesome feeling to be recalling all the old memories and it just takes you deeper and deeper into it, bringing out new dimensions to the already fixed memory. I was completely blank when I started with this series but now the images are clearing...

Year 99-2000

We had Janet teacher as our class teacher. I still remember her birthday ka din, when we had all planned to wish her and give her a surprise. We had prepared a card for her and kept it on the table. But when the period started and she dint come, everything went out of way. Soon everybody in the class started shouting and it was like a market place come alive. She came about fifteen to twenty minutes late and she was all fumed up while coming as the noise created by our class could have been heard until the staff room. We could see her coming down the corridor. Seeing her temper we got scared and took back the card kept on the table, rubbed the happy birthday written on the board.. As soon as she got in everybody got a solid lecture!! We planned to surprise her.. But she gave us one... Her voice had the ability to keep anybody listening and the power to induce fear to anybody who was being shouted at. Actually even if you weren't the one being shouted at, you felt the fear going down your veins.. 

The moment every student feared in her class would be when our answer books were given back after a test was conducted. One never knew which way she attacked. Once a few days after a class test, she called a few students and got all the books brought to class from the staff room. Once she came to the class she asked everybody to stand up. We had to catch our books as she threw it from the table.. It was a moment when the student who hadn't done well just knew what he was going to face... In fact, hearing her, you would get a doubt about your performance, even if you thought you were sure about it a moment ago. But then she always appreciated those who did well. I guess that was one reason she never lost her temper at me. If you were good, she would be gentle with you, else you just had it...

We had Kannada for the first time in third and I was very fascinated to learn it. The first poem we learnt was about a kite and it was something like this- 

Annanu madida galipata

bannada haleya galipata

neeliya banali teluta sundara

balangoshiya nanna pata

Bidirina bettiya galipata

bedarada bettada galipata...

...dharava jaggi

dhooradi baggi

balangoshiya nanna pata

It was the first poem we learnt and I used to keep telling it very often. Soon our test arrived and we had to write the poem by heart and the practice was the teacher used to write the questions on the board and we wrote the answers in our answer book. Of all things, I failed to notice the question on the poem. I donno how I missed it, but I dint notice it and realised it only after I had submitted my paper. I got B+ in that particular test as I hadn't written the poem. After that incident I always watch out for the question on poem first. Its been about 9 years now, but I still remember a little of the poem as a memory of the incident...

Year 2000-01

Padmavathi teacher was our class teacher. She was a very stern teacher and just her presence kept a class under pin drop silence. She had squint eyes and that increased to her sternness coz one never knew where she was seeing. You thought she was seeing the other way but oh! no.. she was looking at you. From three years I was watchful enough to escape from her but escaping from your class teacher was going to be a tough job... Anyways there was also the gentle side of her. She had a very good practice of teaching poems. She took up Kannada and since we had to by heart poems, before starting a poem she would first tell each line and make us repeat it. Once that was done she would put in a tune for it and then repeat the process again. That way we knew the poem and wouldn't forget it easily.. Then she used to explain it.. I still remember the poem classes of hers. They were so much fun. 

The year also marked another memorable event for me when I was selected for a state level drawing competition to be held at Manglore. One fine afternoon, I was called from the class and was told about the competition. It was first of its kind for me back then and that itself was a great sense of achievement... The competition was conducted by, "The Hindu" and I was proud to be among the few, representing our school. Two were to be selected from senior group and one from junior. So that was one of the reasons to be happy about. I was also happy coz I was among the likes of Uttam Bhat and Swathi C Prabhu who were the top artists in our school, back then. I still have the participation certificate with me, serving as a witness to this memory... 

Times @ Maddy Kripa-II

Year 97-98

In my first standard I had change of class teachers quite often.. Like they changed every now and then.. Initially we had Sharada teacher and then there was a change twice before Revathi teacher came in finally. Coming into the higher primary our classes were in a different building. It was like we came into the outer section of the school.. The most wonderful thing about Madhav Kripa are the corridors. They run about the stretch of the building and i can never forget those times when we used to run along them and skid having so much of fun.. 

We once had a dictation test and just before the test my bench mate asked me whether I knew all the words which were supposed to be knowing and I said I did. He then said that he didn't know and hence had written them on a paper and he would copy from it whenever he wasn't sure. The test started and the fun was the teacher went on telling words and he dint know which was which!! He was totally confused and finally gave up seeing the sheet and just went about writing what he knew. Its funny to see the simplicity of his behaviour. He thought it was easy to copy down but didn't think he would have the difficulty of recognising what he had to write..

Our class had four rows and hence there were four leaders appointed and I was one among them. There was a chubby girl in our row and every now and then she used to pull my cheeks!! It used to irritate me so much.. I could control the entire class but for her. Couldn't stop her from pulling my cheeks.. I remember that when I would be the most irritated, I would complain to the teacher that she was disturbing me and the teacher would ask what was she doing. The first time when I said that she was pulling my cheeks, my teacher pulled my cheeks and asked like this??

Later on she just used to smile every time I complained about her. 

Year 98-99

 We had Nagaratna teacher as our class teacher.. Thank god my cheek puller had left the school!! The reason how I knew most of my classmates was that I was the class leader.. Among other things like minding the class, I was also assigned to see if others had completed their notes and I remember one particular incident where in of a few who hadn't completed their maths notes I was assigned two students to see that they completed everything and they had to sit outside the class while completing.. They were so dumb and lazy that most of the things were incomplete... Every second problem or so would be incomplete... Finally I guess I got them finish it..

Our environmental studies teacher, Uma, used to make us read out the lesson every once in a while. She used to ask a few to read a para each or so and would give us marks out of five based on our reading. It was a proud feeling to be the highest scorer.. The other thing about her was that she had a unique way of calling out one's name.. That was something I liked the most about her. Even today when I meet her she first calls in the same way as she used to do when I was her student...

We used to have a class test every month. For English we had to by heart poems and once during English test I wasn't able to recall one of the lines.. I was a little confused about it and so I was just thinking about it when the girl sitting next to me, seeing me concerned, asked what happened and I told her that I dint know a particular line of the poem and she promptly asked me if it was..... and told the line. I couldn't resist a smile when I realised that she had already seen my paper to notice the missing line.