nostalgia

As is usual when i'm desperate for a means of passing time, i was looking through people's friend lists randomly on orkut.

I was going through a page of meaningless names when something made me stop. It took me a minute to figure out what it was that had prodded my memory into action, but i did. It was the name of a girl who had once studied in my batch at St. Johns(I don't know if its ok to name names... is it??). I didn't remember speaking to her in the last few years of school and yet one memory came to mind.

I remember a sunny weekday when instead of being in class, all the senior school students were assembled in the auditorium(oh joy!!). It was the inter-house book quiz held by.... perhaps scholastic, i don't remember. I DO remember that i had been looking forward to it for weeks and for the first time in my life, was actually confident of the fact that even if i didn't emerge the winner, i would definitely not end up looking like a fool!!(remind me to tell you about the economics quiz...).

I felt strong, confidant and(justifiably) a little bit arrogant, for I knew I was one of the most well read people in that auditorium (except some of the seniors. Abhijeet and Saarang i think)! But one of the people i considered my equal was my fellow yellow-house'ian, ####(still not mentioning names...). Yup, that was her profile i'd come across. And as it turned out, i wasn't far off the mark. For needless to say, we won. For the first time, i stopped regretting all those hours spent indoors. I stopped being ashamed of the fact that i wasn't "athletic". For one, brief, shining moment i was proud of who i was. Truly proud. Of course it all ended the next day during sports hour. But hey, i'd had my 15 minutes, and they were PRETTY-DARN-GOOD!!

And when i saw ####'s profile i wondered... would she remember me?? Why should she?? After all, i was noone important. Nobody worth noticing. And she must have been through things a lot more memorable than some stupid book quiz in some god-forsaken school. Hell, even I have a lot of other things to be proud of now!! so why not her!!

If i scrapped her now, she'd probably think i was one of those weird guys who go around hitting on arbit females!! No way! i'd rather not say a thing. It's much safer that way. I don't have to wonder what she's gonna say and my feelings don't get hurt if she does...

The next thing i came across was a photo of my former clasmates in blazers. It was the student's council swearing-in ceremony of my old school. Which brought another memory vividly to mind... My mother standing in the St. Johns' principal's office trying to get my TC so that i could apply to P.S for my 11th and 12th.

They had been delaying the matter for weeks at that point and our patience had just run out. So my mom waved away the secretaries and peons and did her usual bursting-into-the-principal's-office thing that she's so good at, and demanded my certificate pronto!! At first he flat-out refused, but my mom got so furious that he actually cringed a bit and seemed to give in. Then he started talking about how all the best students were leaving(Moi happened to be a consistent topper at that time) and that in any case i was the clear choice for Head Boy in a year's time as I was the one of the best in studies, took part in other activities(plays, quizzes, etc) and was generally well known around school. I gotta admit that the guy's damned persuasive. If it had been up to me, i'd have given in and started preparing my speech!! Luckily for me, my mom kept at it and a mere half-hour later, we emerged victorious... certificates in hand!! And I never set foot in that place again!! Good riddance!!

I can't say that the transfer was entirely good. The only people i knew in P.S were the senior batch who seemed to have migrated en masse from St. Johns the previous year. But then everybody was nice and helpful and by the end of the week, i no longer felt like a stranger.

I have no doubt that i was pretty much unknown in P.S and that had i remained at St. Johns, I'd have enjoyed a lot more... um... time in the spotlight. And yet, given the choice, there isn't ONE thing i'd change about the choices i made!! They were the best two years of my life. And for that i have only my friends to thank. Akshay, Anand and Prashanth... take a bow!! :D

Thats all, folks!!