 when it was a great deal to graduate from a plastic pencil box to a Camlin box with its protractor and compass?? Like how we used to take the pointy compass and scribble our name on the inside of the box so others wont steal it??  and we all used to be jealous if one of our friends’ firang relatives would give them that soft vinyl / plastic box with a magnetic closing strip!! Specially if the damn thing was double sided??!!

 Read on!!




 When books were bound with brown paper with a newspaper backup on the inside, taped and labeled – all before school started? And no matter how nicely it was done, the whole thing would tear to shreds by the end of the first month?? And we were “suitably” reprimanded?? ;-)

 When nice black Bata shoes at the beginning of the year would no longer be black within a month, but the underlying leather would be showing due to the extremely entertaining “stone kicking “ activity we so used to enjoy??

 When Guavas and kulfis were 25 paise each and tasted like crap but we ate them anyways?? Not to mention that we rarely got sick from eating them!!

 When we played barefoot football with tennis balls ofcourse, during the lunch interval and on the hockey field and though there were 20 teams playing, we would never lost track our our tennis ball?

 When we transitioned from an all boys / all girls school to a co-ed school / college, we did not “fit in” with the “in” crown for almost a year….and some none at all!!

 Oh Joy! Any more guys and gals?…..take me on your nostalgic trips will ya??

Comments from friends!

18 Comments:
Peppy said...
allrighty then! here goes:

1) remember the rumor that pencil shavings turned into erasers if put in hot water?

2)how notebook labels were innovatively placed in top right, center or for the braver, bottom right corner?

3) erasers were the essence of showoff-hood? [remember the frooti appy erasers?]

4) the worried look at anyone who took more than 1 additional paper for exam?

5) someone always cried at an exam coz they thought lesson #2 was not included?

6) Nerds who kept track of top rankers, by subject?

7) how there was always this kid in hte line for paper recorrection who thot it important to go from 97 to 99 while you evaluated techniques to go from 32 to 35? [ok that was just me then]

1:05 PM
Peppy said...
oooh..and and and..those perpetually painful peepal who always said they didnt study [and thus making you relax] and end up with 95? [indicating the asses DID study their asses off but want a deplorable sense of overachievement?]

1:08 PM
De-Silva said...
ROFL@ Peps!!

And one such bastard who said he didn't study became the second ranker for the university and now lives in Boston!!

32 - 35 upgrade?? been there and done that! you are not alone my dear!

Cheers.

1:44 PM
SeaSwallowMe said...
tons more where they come from, d-s :))) ...

how about this .. making lots of fun at an interestingly-named rotund parsi kid who used to bring ham sandwiches to class & be almost the only guy to play with the girls during break time.... and then to come to know many many years later that he became a model :))

2:42 PM
FunnyCide said...
• waiting fervently to go to fourth grade to start using an ink pen instead of stubby pencil [with the ending chewed off]
• standing in line at the school tailor’s to get measurements for the next year’s uniform [but thanks to older sisters certain younger ones never got a chance to get new uniforms unless they conspire and outgrow the older in size, which in my case sadly never ever happened]
• talking about pencil boxes with magnetic closing strip, what about those that had a built in ‘piano’!!
• the crushed ice with colored sherbet at the roadside vendor, the tiny ‘lizard-eggs’ that came in tiny vertical packets with a jeera/saunf as the nucleous
• holes in the PT shoes [keds] where the thumb-nail goes, a month after purchase, much to parents chagrin and our excitement

and a lot more I can think of just this instance!
-funnycide

3:54 PM
buckwaasur said...
lol...more...

1) munching on taati chaapa (only gults will know...it's a flat, layered, slab-shaped, chewy, stretchy sweet made from some extract of the palm tree) while walking back from school in kindergarten...bought with a 5 paisa coin

2) losing my pencil in UKG only to be whacked by dad who cut a groove at the end of the pencil and used packing string to tie the pencil to my belt much like those pens at store counters...having to walk around all day with the pencil hanging from my waist...

3) gang wars between 3rd class A section and B section during the interval after second period

4) playing shuttle with exam pads and crumpled paper ball

5) playing hangman, name/place/animal/thing, countries/capitals and a bunch of other weird book games in the back bench while the teacher droned on

6) playing textbook cricket (one guy randomly keeps opening the textbook and the page # will indicate 2,4,6 or out, while the other keeps score)...it's always india vs pakistan...:-))

7) going to tuitions in the evenings (for no reason except everyone else is doing it) and hoping for a powercut so that we can have a storytelling session

8) playing eadu penkulu (which literally means seven tiles...a game with a ball and seven tiles stacked on top of each other)

9) etc...etc...etc...

5:38 PM
Reshmi said...
thanks for yanking me bak from the black-hole of non-commente !!

schoool...... sigh was the bestest time!

* throwing stones at mango trees to bring down raw mangoes to eat with salt/chilli powder.

* waiting for guava/amla/ice-gola vendor

* play endless games of dodgeball, nargol, badminton.....

* pulling pranks on unsuspecting students e.g "absent sir" for someone very much in the classroom.

* ditto for earaser mania and students haggling over 2-3 marks!!

* and we used to have this weird notion that if u keep one feather
'piccha' in your notebook - it wud start spouting 'bacche' as in mini feathers!!

* impress teacher just enuf to be picked class monitor - just so we cud get to do all the halla we wanted and never get caught!

* and later around end of high school - sit and write comments abt how boring class is - or what we wanna do after class, gen. gossip etc - in guise of taking notes :P

uff.... endless - shall stop :)

6:00 PM
cheti said...
.. the kneeling down in the sun and the standing up on bench

.. the crazy crown collection of Gold spot for the jungle book story

.. the Big fun (?) bubble gum wrapper collection for "runs" and "wickets" !

.. the gang formation and isolation

.. always get to "field" in cricket match until you start bringing your own bat and tennis ball

.. the scout (not scout of TOKAMB) salute and the butterfly clap and the camping

.. the various "houses" and sports days and annual days and science exhibitions and dramas

.. the "spying" for teacher

.. the guy who always gets the first rank even though he cribs that he didnt study well !

.. ragging, the hiding under cots to avoid frustrated seniors roaming around with hockey sticks after a bad exam !

.. the late night terrace bucket "daaru" parties

.. the baang and the holi in front of girls hostel !

.. the college festivals , the groups , the chairmen, the king makers

.. the NCC , the hikes the treks and the cycling and the coupons for free snacks !

.. the "cups" (code for arrears)

.. the placement parties

.......

11:02 PM
yet another1 said...
memories of school include dodge-ball, tamarind, stories, teachers' day, and perpetually dirty white uniforms...

11:47 PM
Nithya Swaminathan said...
...waiting for the ice-cream (in a trolley) vendor to buy the grapes, orange, mango flavored ice creams...

...and then sticking out tongues to c how red or pink it were:-) (show off hood!)

...making dolls out of cleaning sponge, jus by tying 2 rubberbands for 2 ears and one more for a neck!

...playing "country country" choosing to be a fav country and invading others!

...playing seven stones(or tiles), kings(hitting balls below ones knees), learning to play cards!

...totalling and retotalling marks in every paper and fighting with the teacher for even 1/2 a mark, textbook in hand for proof of correctness of self's answers... (yeah, i belonged to that category!)

...in college, flicking off the chalk pieces from Prof's table, to prevent him from writing anything, and being caught red handed in the act!

Buck, ROTFL @ pencil in waist! that shudv been quite some sight..:)

12:04 AM
anagha said...
...the rubbing the shoes on teh socks, in teh assembly just before checking

...rubbing chalk piece on the white canvas shoes, though poor mothers would have polished it

...waiting for birthdays in teh class so taht we get chocolates

12:05 AM
Ananth P said...
late to party ! thinking hard to write whatever not written here !

Singing 'Soo ennire sobhana ennire' ( kinda of first night song ) whenever we saw the kannada teacher ( he was newly married )

Bugging third language teacher to let us off to complete the cricket match we started during lunch break

Running to nearby friends places to watch cricket if a teacher left the class 10 mins early !

Keeping a transistor inside the bag and placing the head on that as if we are studying silently during the class !

Eating Masala dosa in city ( which was very rare ) Going to hotel itself was rare!

Trying to sit on the carrier and ride the bicycle or trying it handsfree !

so many ! nice blog there !

1:13 AM
India Whining said...
Here are cupl of my additions to that ever expanding list!!! (Gosh its growing so fast)


- Waiting for the "Half-Pant" To "Full Pant" transition.. If my memory serves me right I think it happned in 7 th or 8th standard in our school.

- Waiting with bated breath for the Post-Man to deliver the annual result..

There was an elaborate ritual which went with the opening of the result envelope.. First it went straight in front of the Hanging Photographs of deities..

The next step was bit tricky.. it involved holding the white envelope against light..to see if we can spot any of those dreaded marking with red-Pen (meaning Fail !!).. Only after making sure that there weren't any.. one cud finally muster the courage to open it :))
After reading "U have been Promoted to std- V" !!! there use to be a quick change of facial expressions from morbid fear to absolute happiness.

They say true happiness is in "sharing"... so off we went to "share" our joy with those
of our neighbours.. The real wicked reason behind this was to watch with sadistic glee the spanking (yeah baby yeah) handed out to some of the kids (Who had failed) in neighbourhood.

hehehe still get the kicks thinking about the Result Ritual.. :)

Thanx De-silva for sparking off this flashback..

1:56 AM
Beach Bum said...
I went to school a lot before most of you folks did but the memories are so similar. The compass box has been a source of joy for every generation, and we’ve all shined our shoes on our socks!

• Though I’m a guy I was handed over to the tender mercies of nuns who made me stand with my hands clasped in a ridiculous manner (keeps you out of mischief young man!) which makes you feel so stupid that you cease to think like a young male. Very effective!
• I remember how beautiful all the new books used to smell. Not for long though!
• I remember what fun it was to have a new pencil, a new sharpener and a new rubber (should have said eraser, shouldn’t I?)
• Then when we hit our teens, going and watching the girls during exercise hour so we could peek up their skirts…(I was a dirty young man before I progressed to being a dirty old man)
• Sneaking cigarettes (forbidden fruit tastes so wonderful) which have never tasted as nice since…
• Putting all the teachers’ mopeds into gear so they’d jump off the stands when kick-started

Life was fun then. It’s still fun, but that was more fun. I wish I’d known then what fun it was…

3:20 AM
inmyeye said...
Ha Ha Ha… OMG I can’t stop laughing… so many memories just came back to me…

De-Silva … And then when the camlin boxes came apart from the hinges, strategically placed rubber bands made it into a musical instrument.

Funnycide … I still love the ‘lizard-eggs’, I bet you do too.

Buckwaasur … I loved the pencil story, thank the lord I am no longer in school, else I am sure my folks would have been inspired. Right dad?

4:13 AM
dogmatix said...
LOl D'silva 'voh kagaz ki kashti voh barish ka paani'!! indeed.

dont have much to add except the religious sticking of pictures of a dozen gods and godesses on the exam pads.!1

ROFl @buck!! that must have been traumatic!

12:25 PM
De-Silva said...
hola peeps!!

WOW! I didn't expect all the DSSers to turn up for this tremendous response!

Thanks you guys....some of the things written here is stuff of legends!!

Cheers. Thanks for sharing!!

1:32 PM
Ubermensch said...
the golden commandment of indian childhood and youve missed it:(
ALWAYS TAKE A SINGLE AT THE LAST BALL OF THE OVER. ALWAYS.

7:36 AM