Great Wall of Rivett

Dating back to 2nd year in UG. Like i had mentioned, we were 5 of us in our group - some duffers chose to call us famous five. Im sure our department faculty called us 'notorious five'. My take - we did not need to be branded, Thank you! So back to 2nd year. Needless to say we were back benchers. We had 3 others with us, who were equally crazy. The last row was reserved for us. I dont think anyone even wanted to sit there :). Nah we were nice fun people.

Sathya was the shortest among the 5 of us. And we've taken her trip no end thru the years. She had and still has a wild tongue and 9 out of 10 times, would land her in trouble. We had a free hour and the general gossip, discussions were going on. Needless to say, Sathya had to make it a point to comment on something and this time it was on some statement of Rajul's.

Rajul and I go way back to 6th grade. We were even punished together during Biology Class. Our friendship was both in class and of course on the Basketball Court - for 10 long years!!! Rajul being the tomboy that she was (then/now married with a kid - OMG!) would obviously not allow Sathya to get away with her mean comment. Sathya was sitting on the floor, Rajul in a deft move picked up Sathya's slippers and threw it on the sunshade, on the other side of the wall.

We had 10 mins for the hour to end and had to walk to another dept for General English, which obviously meant Sathya needed her slippers. I still admire Sathya's valiant attempt - here are the details.

With eyes set on getting her slippers, Sathya rose from her meditating pose. She just had to get it. Had she been a little taller, she could have bent over the wall and would have just been able to reach those slippers. Unfortunately Ms Lilliput tried, and what ensued was a sight - of a person dressed in black jeans and a grey tshirt, dangling on either side of the wall, legs one side, arms on the other. Her feet wouldnt touch the ground, neither would her hands reach the slippers. Peals of laughter, not just from the back benchers, but by now the whole class was rolling. I still admire Sathya's confidence :)

We obviously couldnt allow Sathya to remain dangling. We had to sort of pull her back to get her feet back on the floor. Rajul's revenge was done - withut further delay she quickly got Sathya's slippers back. Needless to say there was a chase after that!

Lesson - remember if the wall is 3/4th your height, acrobatics on it, across it...errr is not a 'wise' decision.

Oh what a fall there was....

Was sifting thru GD's blog and found a post on theatre accidents. Since I was anyways on this spree of writing about personal experiences from long back thought i would write about one of mine.

WCC had this tradition of having an annual College Play. The play was normally directed by a famous Director or Theatre Group from Chennai. In the final year we planned to do this play 'Necessary Targets' by Eve Ensler. The play was to be directed by Dr. Rajani from Madras University. He earlier worked with Madras Christian College after which he held the Tagore Chair for Literature in the University of Madras.

We were 7 of us in the play and practice sessions were gruelling. There was a scene, when all 7 actors were on stage and was a discussion about their lives. We were all seated on the floor in the form of a horse shoe. I was the first, which meant i was sitting at the edge of the stage. I had and still have this reputation of being accident prone.

This was the first time we were rehearsing this scene. My co actors, knowing my accident prone tendencies, warned me as i was precariously perched on the edge of the stage with my knee half outside. I reassured that i was fine. The scene was going well. The emotions, dialogues were perfect.

My lines were coming up. I was reacting perfectly to what the others were saying. THUD!!! My lines obviously would not come out - I was sprawled on the floor in some contorted position. The Thud was obviously followed by a bunch of 'Oh My God's' and bursts of laughter. It took awhile to disentangle myself and get up.

I stood up, dusted myself and quietly resumed by position on stage. One side of my body was numb and i could have screamed in pain. Silence - i looked around. All eyes were on me. I didn't quite know what to say. I just stared innocently.

A burst of raucous never ending laughter and practice for that day was over!!

Lesson : People who know you watch out for you. When they warn you - Listen!

Candy Grin!

Thought I would divert a bit from the serious bunch of posts. Will start with penning down some incidents in 'individual posts' (dont even think of making me put all in one, it would be a book), incidents that i could recall from my school and college days.

In UG, we had general English classes, which were mandatory. Apart from Language classes, General English was one of the few sessions, where students from across departments came together. We were split into batches based on proficiency. The same batch continued throughout though our professors would change.

For one semester, we had our HOD, Mrs. RJC as we fondly refer to her as our professor for General English. Needless to say as a person and a professor, she was wonderful and every single person in WCC would vouch for that. Her tenure as the HOD of our Department and as the Principal of the college, was but fitting for her stature. Her English was so beautiful and perfect, that we normally felt terribly incompetent and illiterate. Even as i write this post i think of the words she used, which of course were like Greek and Latin to me.

During General English, normally Z and I used to sit together. The rest of our gang was in a different batch. In college, we used to get these packets of liquid chocolate - sort of like a paste. Choco sticks!! It was just a thin pack with some chocolate paste. I had bought a few during lunch time, to have later on. General English was immediately after lunch. We were assigned some writing work. I was done and was generally whiling away time pulling Z and not allowing her to write. She had to admonish me of course telling me to find something worthwhile to do like eat chocolate.

My thought process - ' Aha - Bingo! I have chocolate! But RJC is there. Hmmm but i just have to eat one, just one. Ok, since I'm in the last row, i will bend low and quickly eat it. She surely wont notice'. Slightly bent down, quickly had the choco stick. Sheer Bliss!!

I looked up innocently as though absolutely nothing had happened. I looked at RJC, she was writing something, but somehow at that time, looked up and simply smiled at me. I gave her one broad grin, with a sense of accomplishment. She looked a bit quizzical, as though she had seen something odd. Her face broke into a broad grin and she continued her work.

Now it was my turn to look puzzled. I nudged Z and asked if something was wrong with my face. She was puzzled too. I grinned at her saying i successfully wiped out the chocolate. Z was in splits. MY TEETH WERE COATED WITH CHOCOLATE!!! I had grinned at RJC showing off a bunch of Brown chocolate coated teeth. Z was terribly tickled and could just not stop and I of course could do nothing except pretend like I did not exist.

The class was over. I wanted to wait till everyone left and then leave. Z and i walked out. Bang - RJC was standing a few feet away from me talking to some students. Much to my embarrassment, she made it a point to look at me and gave me this 'i know what you were upto smile' with a twinkle in her eyes. I sheepishly smiled (without showing my teeth) and walked back to my department.

Lesson - never eat dark chocolate or any chocolate thats any colour other than white, when you're not supposed to!

And if you do - DONT GRIN!

Big differences come in small packages

There is this orphanage where my friend worked, which ive visited a couple of times. Its called Ebenezer Home for Social Outreach and its one of those orphanages which actually took care of its wards really well. The shelter, clothing, food, sanitary, medical facilities were pretty good and when one went in, you felt you were at home. Through this friend of mine, i took my dept students in PG for a visit and later on made a friend of mine celebrate her birthday there. No, i'm no saint, but i've done some good things in life.

During my first visit there, we were shown around the various dorms where the kids stayed. Needless to say some kids especially the boys were excited we were there and were hell bent on showing off their talents. The girls were shy, yet once we started interacting there was no stopping them. They even danced to our tunes :).

In one such dorm, which housed the younger children, while the slightly older ones were busy tugging at us to get our attention, i noticed a tiny kid sitting in the corner playing by herself. She was far too small to walk and was in a world of her own. I asked one of the kids about her, he immediately ran to pick her up and brought her to me. Saying she was cute was an understatement.

Her looks made it obvious that she was from the north eastern part of the country. I held her and she was comfortable with not an inkling of fear. She must have been less than 2 years old. Curious eyes, gurgling sounds, fair skin, straight hair and pierced nose - this was Vandana for you. She was named at the orphanage. Her parents had left her when she was a baby and she was taken care of at the orphanage. Thru the day, she sort of clung onto me, not sure why. Honestly, i did not want to put her down. When i left, tears welled up in my eyes, cant quite explain why.

We came back again to celebrate D's bday. I had told her, instead of spending a bomb on treating friends, why not sponsor one meal for these kids. We did just that. Vandana was still there, though we went almost a year later. She was walking now and did not have to be picked up. The instant recognition on her face, made my day. She clung on to me again all day and when i left, she tugged at me, as though telling me to stay. I had to leave, and i left. It was harder than the previous time.

Meeting Vandana was an awakening. We woke up to the fact that we had so much, yet we crib and crib about not having enough. We yell at our parents for simple things, here was a kid with no parents at all. We waste food, we complain on what we eat, what is there never suffices, here was a child, who had to eat what was given. We were fed as children, Vandana ate by herself. When she was smaller, the other kids fed her. I adored her.

Im not sure how much of a difference I've made in anyone's life. However, i can surely say that the 2 days i spent with this kid, sure did make a huge difference in mine.

We realise the abundance in our lives - but what are we doing about it? I'll leave you to think on that.