Round........Around........Round........

It was my friend's marriage and a few of us had planned to go together. We had to reach mattancherry town hall by 12:30 pm. We had planned to meet at Shenoys bus stop by 11 am and then go by the low floor bus at 11:10 am. But as a few of us were late by a minute or two, we missed the bus. Then according to the "advice" of an autorickshaw driver, we took an autorickshaw to the ernakulam bus stand. And contrary to what the "knowledgeable" uncle had said there were no buses available to either Fort cochin or to mattancherry. It was then that the Newton in us woke up and gave us an idea of taking a boat to mattancherry (it clicked when we travelled a little in the sun just like Newton got the idea when an apple fell on his head). And, we took another autorickshaw to the boat jetty and on reaching there we realized that we missed our boat by a second or two and then we had to wait for the next boat, which was at 12:15 pm. By god's grace, in spite of all these, we managed to get to the place on time. After the marriage, one of my friends and me went Kottakkal as I had to get some medicines. Then we got into a low floor from there. When we reached half way, i got a call from my sister telling me that they are going for shopping. I thought if they would leave, I would have to sit at home all alone and so I told them I'll come along. And since they were already at the bus stop, they told me that they'll get into the same bus that I am in and I agreed. It was only after got in that I realized my dad was not coming as there was painting going on in our house and it had not got over yet. And to add to it, we had to get down at the same bus stop from where I got into the bus. It meant I roamed around the city in the same bus. The conductor occassionally came to my seat and gave me look like "hey what you doing here? aren't you getting down?". Also, with every passing stop he would look if I got down as if telling me that I forgot to get down at my stop. My sister and I had a hearty laugh seeing all his expressions.

a leg breaking trip.....

This happened when I went to fantasy park, malampuzha, with my family as part of our karayogam tour. My dad, sis n I got into a ride where 3 of us had to seat ourselves in a sheet n the sheet would slide through a slope. As I was the chota bacchu I had to squeeze myself between dad n sis. As soon as we started sliding, dad, who was at the front, bent backward and my sis bent forward. I got jammed in between and it was only when finally the ride was over and we got down that I realized my chappal had broken and I couldn't walk with it. So I removed them and gave it to my mom. To add to my discomfort of walking barefoot, a lady who was sweeping at the restaurant put my footwear in the waste bin while we left it at our table side for a few seconds to wash our hands. And the result..... I had to travel back home barefoot :-(

A stupidity.....

I can't reason myself why i did certain things in my childhood days. I think i was just 4 or 5 yrs when i did this stupid act. It was the time when the mangoes in our courtyard ripened and as always i was eagerly waiting for my granny to pluck them down for me to slurp all time. I kept counting the ripe mangoes everyday and then i found that some mangoes started disappearing. I thought at first that it may have happened that they might have fallen down and as the tree was by the roadside, they might have been dead under some rude bike or harsh truck or some other vehicle. When i said so to my granny, she told me that it didn't fall but it was plucked down by someone at night when none of us were around. I got completely out of control when i imagined how somebody would be enjoying the juicy mangoes i was waiting to have. I decided not to give any more share of my mangoes to any vagabond :-/ and i found a way to stop them. The next day i was "all-ready" for my mango thieves. As it started getting dark, i kept waiting near the gate and when i saw a tall and stout guy trying to get his hands on one of my mangoes, i ran towards him with a "long" twig in my hands, hidden behind my back as i wanted to use it only if the "situation" got worse.

The first thing i did was to ask him why he was plucking down my mangoes. He smiled and replied that he was really hungry and wanted something to eat badly and as he don't have anything with him right now, he thought of having the mangoes. Then he added, "if only you allow". I was flattered. I put my "weapon" down and gave him an 'ok i permit' look. As i turned i saw my granny standing behind, her face all white as if she had just seen a ghost. As i went to her, she asked me what i was doing with those guys. I narrated the whole incident and she turned pale again. I asked her what happened and she replied that the guy with whom i just had a friendly chat was a rowdy or gangster of the area and not the poor "mango thieves" i was searching for. Now it was my turn to white. And the most dreadful thing was, whenever that guy saw me on the road after this, he always used to wave at me and i used to think "when on earth did i get that idea of talking with the mango thief?" 

Mistaken appreciation

Once, while I was in my 10th, I guess, I had to travel home alone by private bus. I was not used to travelling alone and that too in private buses as I had always traveled by our school bus. If ever I had to go by private bus, I always went with my family or friends. But this time I had to go alone. I had to take a bus from Tripunitra to Vytilla and another from Vytilla to my home. As I got into the bus from Tripunitra, I was a little scared to take an ST as I had heard how "nicely" the conductors treat students who take an ST. I didn't want to get that, at least not alone so I decided to pay the full charge. That was when a chechi, a college-goer, came and sat beside me. And the best part was that she took an ST. I didn't notice it first. But I noticed it when I heard the conductor praising me. He was telling the chechi "Are you not ashamed? Look at this girl. She is still in school and she pays full charge while you people who go to college take an ST. Hmmm...." That chechi listened with half ear and after he left, she eyed me in a way that I thought she would murder me at any moment. And for the conductor? He behaved as if I was some celebrity. Whenever he came near my seat, he would give me a broad smile as if I had given him a map to find a treasure. I myself felt that I had done something really great even though I had no intentions to do something like that. All along my way home I kept thinking of this incident.

Hasty tasting

As is the trend of the present, I too joined an entrance class in my 11th grade, TIME coaching center. The classes were during Saturday and Sunday every week, except second Saturday at Greets Academy, Matrubhumi. And as our usual classes, these too were boring and dry and the only freedom from this was the lunch break. I made a few friends right from my first day and we used to have our lunch in a hurry (not really) and go stand in a secluded area near the closed canteen of the school. One day, we noticed that our place was a bit crowded in the morning. Later we realized that the canteen was open and they had a delicious looking items on their menu. We decided to finish our lunch as soon as possible and attack the canteen with our orders. But to my amazement, or rather bewilderment I didn't know a single food name on the menu. One of my friend shared my situation. We both, the unknowns, stood there wondering for long and so the other three came to our rescue. They told us that among all the things on the menu the hot chocolate was the best. So we all decided to have it. We eagerly waited while the lady at the canteen prepared it and the moment we got it, we sipped on it as if we had remained hungry for over a decade. The next thing we knew was all of our eyes were changing into red and our tongues were burning. While we were figuring out what had happened, the bell rang announcing the end of our lunch break and we had more than half glass of the stuff remaining. We hadn't the wish to throw it off for its "monetary value" and neither could we gulp it down because of the "hot" part of it. It was then that one of my friend decided to neglect the temperature of the drink and have it in one sip and when she had completed this "dangerous" act we, the two unknowns, followed suit. The rest brainy people understood that this was not the right decision and threw their glasses into the bin. We all ran back to our class, which was about to begin and sat there fanning our poor tongue and watering it at times. To add to our misfortune, the temperature started going up and obviously now we were feeling hot inside and outside our body. Somehow, we controlled our emotions and waited for the class to get over and by the time it happened, everything was back to normal. The effect of the "hot" chocolate was lessening and we felt much relieved. From that day, we used to turn in the opposite direction if we saw somewhere a board saying "hot chocolate". The only positive result of consuming it was that none of the five of us slept in the afternoon class and were pretending to be attentive while others were lost in their dreams and afternoon naps......

The looooong leap

I don't remember when exactly this happened but I guess I was 4-5 years old. It was our karayogam's Sports day and I had to participate for the frog jump competition. I knew that I am no good at this but I agreed to do it when my parents encouraged me. I was really tensed and when I reached the starting point I was feeling as if I would faint any moment. I looked all around for my mom and dad but couldn't locate them as I had lost all my senses and found every object or person before look all the same. A whistle blew and I felt it was blown inside my ears. The competition started. First I thought of getting up and running to somewhere else but then I changed my mind. After some time, I realized that I was at the first position...... but from the last. And moreover, every other participant was way ahead of me. I thought "I won't be the last one to reach the finishing point. I have to reach at least at the third position". I took a firm decision but I knew the task was very close to impossible. I thought about it and finally reached upon a solution. Without thinking much about the practicality of my "PLAN" I sprang into action, realizing I don't have much time to waste and what more.....??? I WON!!!

But I was surprised and actually shocked that instead of awarding the trophy to me, everyone were laughing as they saw me. Few of them even gave me a look as if they wanted to say "WHAT AN IDEA SIRJI" and my uncle, who was our karayogam President at that time, came to me and said "Oh you were wonderful. I never saw such a frog jump all my life". I didn't understand why were all these people teasing me? After all, I had reached the first position from the last.... So what if I had run all the to the finishing point and jumped the last few centimeters to the finishing line? The important part was that I reached and that too first, right?