"Why are you sweating like a pig? Go and wash your face!" Ms Marie screamed. That was just the excuse Sridhar needed to get out of class. He took his time to walk to the toilet towards the end of the corridor. As he walked down the corridor, he peered through the windows of other classes and grinned at his friends. They looked just as bored- and now a tad envious that Sridhar should be freed from captivity..at least to go to the toilet!
The period after lunch- from 1:45 to 2:25 pm was the longest and the most wearisome. Time seemed to come to a standstill and just wouldn't budge. It was compounded if it was the History and Civics class. Ms Marie was a veritable "shruti box" (metronome)- her voice maintained the same pitch all the time.. with little deviation. Hitler may have conquered country after country in Europe during the Second World War. Ms Marie betrayed no excitement whatsoever. She read through those passages in the same drone which she reserved for enumerating the powers of the "Zilla Parishad". The only time she raised her voice was to send someone to the toilet!
Toilets were invariably smelly. The urinals did not flush and reeked. It was difficult to hang around the toilet for more time than it deserved- perhaps, it was by design! Sridhar though.. took his time. Even the present environs seemed a relief from the monotony of class. The wash basin tap matched his mood and squirted water..barely... in a trickle. He washed his face, scrutinised the graffiti on the wall for some time and with great reluctance trudged back to class.
There was no dramatic change in the class proceedings. The time read "2:03" by the watch. Sridhar yawned. Ms Marie had covered just one more paragraph- she had moved on to the "formation of panchayats". It didn't matter to the students. They amused themselves in their own ways. Students seated close to the windows were considered the luckiest. They looked out at Khalsa College- an imposing building on the other side of the road where college students hung around in groups. Life was colourful and "happening" across the road.
An occasional crow... perched at the window sill and jolted the students from the stupor of the class with a shrill caw. Sridhar held the opinion that crows always suffered from a sore throat gauging by the cracking nature of their voice!
The back benches boasted of students who kept themselves busy...munching- surreptitiously of course. Their front pockets bulged with a packet of "supari" which they bought from "Kaalia"- the hawker outside school. As Ms Marie briefly looked down at her book, Dinesh took a pinch of supari and stuffed it into the corner of his mouth. The rest was rather easy...he rested his hand on his chin and appeared to pay rapt attention to the class...as he worked on the supari. As Ms Marie looked down at her book again, he reached out for the next pinch...
Students made tall claims which couldn't be exactly verified- Rocky claimed that he had gobbled an entire "vada pav"- an eatmeat which could shame the hamburger in volume.... right in class! Valentino boasted that he read the latest Sportstar magazine- cover to cover.. by strategically placing it in the lower recesses of his desk, just beneath the History textbook! Mehernosh amused himself with his watch- the sunbeam reflected off his watch and made interesting patterns- which he directed either at the ceiling or at one of his friends on the far side of the class. There was one occasion when he tried to shine it at the teacher....Pandey sir, and had his ear pinched. He didn't make the same mistake again!
Sridhar was busy. It looked suspicious- after all no one worked with such focus! The electric bell rent through the air exactly at 2:25 and brought the class to a close... eventually! Everyone crowded around Sridhar's desk. Sridhar blew the wooden filings off the "divider", quietly put it away in his Camlin Compass box and glowed with pride. There was a collective gasp as we viewed Sridhar's handiwork. On the wooden desk, right under the nose of the teacher, he had carved this most exquisite bas-relief. It was a tombstone with a cross at the top- in 3D...which seemed to spring out at us! In neat calligraphic handwriting, the tombstone had these words inscribed- "In memory of all those who died in class... out of boredom! RIP!"
It said it all.
The period after lunch- from 1:45 to 2:25 pm was the longest and the most wearisome. Time seemed to come to a standstill and just wouldn't budge. It was compounded if it was the History and Civics class. Ms Marie was a veritable "shruti box" (metronome)- her voice maintained the same pitch all the time.. with little deviation. Hitler may have conquered country after country in Europe during the Second World War. Ms Marie betrayed no excitement whatsoever. She read through those passages in the same drone which she reserved for enumerating the powers of the "Zilla Parishad". The only time she raised her voice was to send someone to the toilet!
Toilets were invariably smelly. The urinals did not flush and reeked. It was difficult to hang around the toilet for more time than it deserved- perhaps, it was by design! Sridhar though.. took his time. Even the present environs seemed a relief from the monotony of class. The wash basin tap matched his mood and squirted water..barely... in a trickle. He washed his face, scrutinised the graffiti on the wall for some time and with great reluctance trudged back to class.
There was no dramatic change in the class proceedings. The time read "2:03" by the watch. Sridhar yawned. Ms Marie had covered just one more paragraph- she had moved on to the "formation of panchayats". It didn't matter to the students. They amused themselves in their own ways. Students seated close to the windows were considered the luckiest. They looked out at Khalsa College- an imposing building on the other side of the road where college students hung around in groups. Life was colourful and "happening" across the road.
An occasional crow... perched at the window sill and jolted the students from the stupor of the class with a shrill caw. Sridhar held the opinion that crows always suffered from a sore throat gauging by the cracking nature of their voice!
The back benches boasted of students who kept themselves busy...munching- surreptitiously of course. Their front pockets bulged with a packet of "supari" which they bought from "Kaalia"- the hawker outside school. As Ms Marie briefly looked down at her book, Dinesh took a pinch of supari and stuffed it into the corner of his mouth. The rest was rather easy...he rested his hand on his chin and appeared to pay rapt attention to the class...as he worked on the supari. As Ms Marie looked down at her book again, he reached out for the next pinch...
Students made tall claims which couldn't be exactly verified- Rocky claimed that he had gobbled an entire "vada pav"- an eatmeat which could shame the hamburger in volume.... right in class! Valentino boasted that he read the latest Sportstar magazine- cover to cover.. by strategically placing it in the lower recesses of his desk, just beneath the History textbook! Mehernosh amused himself with his watch- the sunbeam reflected off his watch and made interesting patterns- which he directed either at the ceiling or at one of his friends on the far side of the class. There was one occasion when he tried to shine it at the teacher....Pandey sir, and had his ear pinched. He didn't make the same mistake again!
Sridhar was busy. It looked suspicious- after all no one worked with such focus! The electric bell rent through the air exactly at 2:25 and brought the class to a close... eventually! Everyone crowded around Sridhar's desk. Sridhar blew the wooden filings off the "divider", quietly put it away in his Camlin Compass box and glowed with pride. There was a collective gasp as we viewed Sridhar's handiwork. On the wooden desk, right under the nose of the teacher, he had carved this most exquisite bas-relief. It was a tombstone with a cross at the top- in 3D...which seemed to spring out at us! In neat calligraphic handwriting, the tombstone had these words inscribed- "In memory of all those who died in class... out of boredom! RIP!"
It said it all.
Good one, Appa!
ReplyDeleteYou guys seemed to have been way more enterprising than we are in the way we spend time in our History class. We just doodle absent-mindedly in the textbook or day-dream. Life made simple! But what happened to all your goody-goody nature that you put on at times, dude? Doesn't exist in school, eh? (just kidding :), hee hee )
- Sam