Friday 2 May 2008

You will not be condemned for your yesterday's acts provided you act correctly today

Hi There!
Life has never been unjust, it has offered us all, the state in which we are , are the result of the choice that we had taken.. and ultimately, we say -" Destiny" Ain't though we draft our destiny with our deeds...!
Oh.. I just wish not to get to dragging... I am little stuck with my reliving my worst.. nightmare situations in my life,.. hence though.. to make it slightly humorous.. I wish to relate my school incidents, wishing to lighten my thoughts!!!
I suppose you all remember my schoolmates, - Zubair, Vishy, Bala, Bhaskar, Giriraj, Karthikeyan, Govardhan... and not to miss others, M.C. Sridhar, Jayanthi, Meera, Usha Kumari, Meena Kumari, Nina Ajmani, Meenakshi, Shantini, Creela, Dexter, Mahendranath, Latha, Jayashree, VijayKumar, Balasubramaniyan, Basavaraj, Sreedhar,Mehajabeen, Manimekalai, Uthara.. we all were birds from different schools having completed our High School, joined the Railway mixed Higher Secondary School at Perambur. The pattern of Higher secondary that is 10+2+3 in academic term pattern was new and we were the third batch in the state.. the exam pattern, the syllabus all was unique and new..
Well our teachers...!! it is still fresh in our memories.. Mrs. Jayamma Paul our Biology teacher, Mr. Adithavarneshwaran - Physics teacher, who had joined the school new I had never seen him bring any books or reference to the class.. he is present just with a chalk and a duster,his approach to teach us was very practical and amazing , where by involving us he would, derive the formulae for the viscosity, surface tension, or be any such think, he made thinks look so simple and silly- as team for the Science group, Ms. Suchetha our Chemistry teacher who had done her M.Sc. M.Phil.Chemistry - She was so obsessed with the subject, such that if any one of us ( 31 students) did not fair well in the test she gives she break into tears!!!, Our Maths teacher.. Mr. Amarnath..this person had been not to very instrumental, or contributive as he always been non authoritative and meak which in a way made us look for tutioning , ( Which I had never underwent in my academic career.. and I yet regret), Mr. Venugopal our English teacher, incidentally he was the uncle of my class mate from Trichy Srivatsan who is a dentist now!!.. Then Mr. Sylvester Jacob our French Teacher..actually he was a English Literature Graduate, and in those days there were paucity of French lecturers, who later migrated to Australia.. what he did was, get the literal translation of the lessons, made us write it word to word , we were then asked to memorize it and prepare for the exam.. ( You know.. I was and still have a fancy for this language as my cousin Muru- who has devoted his life and career to this language, who has earned his doctorate in Linguistics, he has done researches and wrote books by which, if you can read and write TAMIL then you can learn French.!! and even he has compiled a dictionary Tamil - French - Tamil.. that is yet to be published..! He is one of the role model for me to look up and learn things in life..!!).
Our strength was just 31 and but the class room was huge.. typical British building which was a chapel and a horse stable during the British period later, it became our school under the Southern Railway Management.. with huge doors with teak wood doors that had slats and on each side of the wall there used to be huge windows that were 3/4th the size of the door and the floor of the black stones. with high roofs ( about 20 feet) with huge ceiling fans with long stem running down from the top of the ceiling that were of baked tiles.. if you switch it to the full speed it will be dangling and swaying and fortunately that never fell during those two years, we studied..There was an open area with gravels and patches of grass just across and beyond that was the railing fence that had a small door where the main door to the campus was little further down..We all during the lunch break would play all games like football, cricket, hockey,badminton, depending on the season..Our school within the compound of the Railway Institute and the Railway cricket Stadium that used to be the venue for the league matches that did have a decent stadium.. and the tracks were so beautiful with slush green and nets for practicing cricket.. we always used have tussle with the grounds man- Govinda for he would not let us go near the center cricket pitch.. but if we bribe him with Rs. 50.00 and a bottle of liquor, he would even keep scores on the score board for us..!!!The adjoining fence was the common compound to another school: Presentation Convent School for Girls.. then one can imagine the scene, with every Romeo & Juliet and Leila & Majnu and it used to be hilarious during the sports day and any cultural events that would happen..
Well on our first term.. being students of Science group, we had practicals where we had lab attenders.. and once a new attendant was appointed for Chemistry her name was Ms. Amithakani.. and as our Chemistry teacher, was on leave she was asked to handle our class.. Bala, as such he is a naughty guy.. and in the class while she came on her first day.. we weren't briefed but she walked in and introduced herself and asked us to do so.. and for a change she said, " Please start from the last row from the boys..!" Incidentally as Zubair being a 6 footer, and Dexter the spoiled brat.. suddenly, some think did strike them.. Dexter obviously did say his name and Zubair did so.. then starting from Baskar, Giri, Govardhan each gave a name of the Pakistani cricket player.. and it was a surprise to all of us, and the girls were giggling listening to this.. and after that all were quite as she proceeded with the lessons.. Bala came late and as the Instructor was facing the black board he sneaked into the class through the huge windows and suddenly the whole class that was quite started murmuring .. Bala was quite cool.. for a while the instructor did not identify the the new person in the class meanwhile, Bhaskar briefed him about the cricketers name .. Ms. Amithakani was little agitated seeing this guy had been rude enough to come without excusing himself, she asked for his name he too mentioned his name: IMRAN KHAN..! by then bell rang and the period got over.. and that afternoon we had practicals hence we had to go to the the lab.. none of us remembered that comedy of the names .. as we entered we all were surprised to see Ms. Sucheta in the lab as she was on leave and above that she called name of the Pakistani cricket players as a Roll call..! and the whole lab burst into wild laughter and all of us went and apologised to Ms. Amithakani...! Then Ms. Suchetha said, that Ms. Amithakani had come after the class and inquired in the lab to others staff in surprise that ," How come we have so many Islamic Students.. " All of them were bewildered stating that there were only one boy - Zubair and one girl - Mehajabeen.. but Amithakani insisted it was not so as the students were mentioning their names.. likewise.. meanwhile.. Ms. Jayamma, sensed the naughtiness and enlightened them the facts..
It was always too easy for Bala for not doing the things in the correct way.. we had to bring our " Observation Note Book" for our practical class and later, we had to copy those readings to our " Record Note Book" There had not been one single occasion Bala had brought his notebook, he always used to take a sheet of paper, do his observation, at the end of the first term,,! we were asked to submit our Observation note book with the Record.. as it carried "Internal Marks" we were quite serious in being meticulous and neat.. but, that day Bala was little disturbed.. He had no "Observation Note Book.. then later he very casually came out of the lab after submitting the note books.. we were all applauding him for having met the deadline ..After the weekend.. while we entered the class after the prayer, there was a call for Bala to come to the lab..! we were a bit surprised, because, he did not come to class after that,, for the whole forenoon session.. during the lunch break while we went around in search of Bala, he was squatting under a Neem tree and writing all his observation in a fresh Observation Notebook! , he was cursing the Lab Instructor Mrs. Kamala Narashiman, who was our Physics Lab instructor.. in his hand he had a sheaf of paper, that was wrapped in a brown sheet that was strapped with ball pins to one side with a note " PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE" and next to that in red ink it was written in bold letters " DO YOUR CALCULATIONS WITH CARE"...- Bala had collected his observation sheets as he hadn't brought his notebook, compiled that as a notebook with a temporary binding with the ball pins and with a note of caution as he had it pinned with ball pins..Unfortunately he had his observations all wrong in most of his practicals, like Simple Pendulum, Finding Focal Length, Magnetic Field almost all..!but Ms. Kamala made him sit on the open sun, giving him a fresh observation note book and made him do all the practicals and document the observations.. and we all boys & Girls watched him sweating and doing it on the open, scorching sun..
Once it was our English period, we had two Non Details.. 1- Three Men In A Boat and other was David Coper Field.. Mr. Venugopal who had two class a week instructed us that once a week he would take Non Detail and all Odd numbered week it would David Coper Field and on the even numbered week it would Three Men In a Boat.. Well with our excitement, with new classmates, and new environment.. the schedule skipped our mind and incidentally the whole class had the wrong book.. and we all were panicking.. As Mr. Venugopal came asked us for the dissertation of the previous class ,on the Non Detail Three Men In a boat.. Non of us had brought it.. without raising his head on the pitch of his voice he commanded, All those who had not got , Please get out of the class..!!!" We all 32 stood and Bala alone with a look of pride sat, was grimacing and mocking at us. He went up and submitted his dissertation.. Mr. Venugopal was appalled but he was proud at least one student was sincere to listen to him and have the work done..,He made Bala stand next to him holding him close to him, and said," I am proud of this student, Sridhar, Sekar, you two, is, not fair being toppers in High School, have become like this.. is it not shameful for you students.. !! Try to be like Balakrishnan..!" He for the rest of the period made all of us stand outside the class and with just Bala alone in the class, finished the days syllabus and said that he would give us time till next class to submit the pending work.. we all with a heavy heart.. went inside the class for having got punished like that..! Bala in front of all raised his collar.. and with a cunning smile went around that day..
The subsequent week Mr. Venugopal, even before entering the class, he said," Where is that devil- Bala..!, I should caution you students, Do not go along with this criminal minded guy,I apologise for what all I had said on my last class, I would caution you not to get involved with Balakrishnan, He cheated me by giving the wrong dissertation, above that he has copied the text and had not written the dissertation.. Balakrishna, Never ever I want to see you in my class until you finish it and submit it.." Turning to us he very regretfully and startlingly mentioned that how Bala had behaved that day and made a fool of him...! We all were quite.. and at the end of the period we all burst into a roaring laughter.. enjoying his act..!

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