The School Gang

Saroja ma'am-part 2

2006-08-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Well I thought abt replying to Shilpa's previous blog on Saroja miss but I could write an entire epic abt her antics!! Oh she was the craziest teacher I had even seen in school....crazy but in a nice, funny and animated manner. She was absolutely adorable and never used to scold students. She taught Chemistry for us in 9th std. I think Tina knows her well too. We used to laugh like crazy in her class and promptly report to Prasanna abt her during lunchtime. Archu missed out on her classes because she went to karur. Saroja ma'am had a standard 1 liner that she used everyday for teaching Chemistry: 'This is only that'!! She used to talk abt how everything was the same....all atoms, molecules., laws etc and thereby challenged the very basics of Chemistry! We even used to wonder if she ever passed high school! Shilpa, I remember abt the atoms bombardment part too! What was funnier was her hairstyle. She had 3 inches of thin hair on that head of hers...kind of like coconut hair and she used to tie it up and adorn it with 12 inches of 'Malli poo'. She was quite a sight. Everything abt her screamed 'comic'...right from her sarees, walk, gestures, handwriting and her lessons of course! She used to write really big and fat and often the blackboard wasn't enough for her. Her writings used to continue onto the wall too sometimes! When I went to her for autograph after 12th std, my small book wasn't enough for her. She scribbled on for 2-3 pages. Well she's somebody I will never forget!! I wonder if she's still teaching...

8th std

2006-08-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hello gals! I am finally blogging. Infact I came half hr early from work today just to blog! :) u must be real proud of me. I think 8th std was when we had loads of fun. One particular 'incident' somehow stands out. It was sometime before the mid-term exams and we gals got to school pretty early. We were really vetti that day and they say an idle mind is a devil's workshop... I think Shilpa found a small dead bat in the classroom and came up with this brilliant idea of scaring somebody and guess who the 'bakra' for the day was? Well it was Suhashini! She used to sit in the front row next to Tina I think. We hid the dead bat in her desk compartment/shelf and we were all so excited abt it and eagerly waiting for Suhasini's arrival. When she came in however she did not use the shelf right away although we were hoping and praying she would. Unfortunately she left her bag in there later and when the Geography exam was in progress, she reached in to get her pencil case out and gave out a loud shriek because her hands brushed against something soft! Then she saw the dead bat and screamed even more. As luck would have it Vyjayanthi ma'am was the Geography teacher and she got really mad. Luckily for us though, Suhasini was the one who was reprimanded. I used to sit in the parallel row and remember looking back at you gals and trying not to laugh. Inspite of being the class leader, I was a silent accomplice to all your pranks!!
and it was so much fun!! :))

Outsatnding Performance

2006-08-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

this is an incident of class VIII D, third floor corner room. shilpa, archana and myself were given a encoded to decrypt by subha and prasanna during the period before lunch break. we were so engrossed that never did we realise that lunch break was over and the next teacher had come. That was Isai miss who was in place of somebody only for that day. we gave huge cry in the middle of the class not realisisng................ Then all three of us were standing out................

How I met my friends....

2006-08-06T01:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Friendship Day girls !!

We've come a long way indeed ! From tying friendship bands, writing snail mails, writing e-mails and finally blogging!

I am taking up Prasanna's tag and writing about how I met each of you ( if I can remember)...and since its all ages ago...most memories are quite hazy. Forgive me for any thing left out. In chronological order,

* Farrah - She is first person I met from our gang way back in 5th std. She was new to school and we hit it off immediately. We were classmates for many years after that. We took part in a Mahabharatha skit where she was Arjuna and I was Krishna (LOL). She is one cool person and I wish there was some way by which I could get in touch with her !

* Tina - I guess I knew Tina even before 5th std...but I don't remember. She was in my class in 5th std. Tina was always cracking jokes and a great person to be with. She has always been the tom-boy of the gang. She was the only one who could whistle loudly. She was always into sports. Tina was always different....and she continues that trend even now with her job...we are all so proud of you girl !!!

* Prasanna - The first time I met Prasanna was in the branch school bus stop towards the end of 5th std. She used to take a different bus and I din't know her all that well. In fact I think she din't even like me that time ( how things can change). I bumped into her here and there after that. Then in 7th std, we were in the same section and we started hanging out. No looking back since then ! We've always done so much mischief together...its been a riot ! We both are extremely lazy when it comes to studies and were always looking for ways to avoid it..and I think that was the basis of our ever-lasting friendship ! LOL .

* Kavitha - I met her in 6th std I think. Not very sure. She was my bus-friend. Kavitha was a fun loving person and was just like me in many ways. Our birthdays were just a day apart. Going back home in the bus was never the same without her. In 7th std, we were in the same section. She used to sit in front and I used to sit at the back - whenever the class was boring, she would sneak back and we would all have fun writing 'crazy stories' or other games. I loved the food she used to get for lunch ! Now K is busy with her own family.....sure hope to bump into her and talk about old times .

* Subha - 'Prasanna's best friend'....for a long time that was Subha's identity. I met Subha in 7th std as she was in my section too. Subha has always been the 'perfect/ideal' student. She always looked neat. She was the most studious in class. She always got the first rank !! She was the teacher's pet ! She was very calm and controlled all the time ! She was the class leader which worked like a charm for us ( no one can punish us now). She was the balancing force in a gang of crazy people. She would seem like a quiet person...but thats till you know her...then she yacks quite a bit too ! We both had a craze to goto Vitan and buy stickers, junk jewellery and other trinklets !

* Archana - She was the new girl to school/class in 7th std. She was asked to sit at the back as she was tall and thats how we became friends ! I still remember that we were playing some silly game on her first day and asked her to join in. She and I had so much in common - reading, music, ideas, bus and we both owed allegience to the same bank :) . We studied together only in 7th and 8th std. After that she left to Karur and we kept in touch through snail mails written religiously. I think we were partly responsible for Postal Service's revenue for a few years. We were in touch over the phone after we both came to US for higher studies. Its good to eat you head ever so often !

* Mani Megalai - She was the last person to join the gang. She was the new girl to class in 8th std and was sent to the back bench as she was tall. And we all hit it off at once. She was always very well behaved and sweet. Mani had one of the most beautiful handwritings and used to draw biology diagrams so neatly. She loved to talk and so the back bench was always full of chatter.She was very fun loving and fit right in ! We studied together for 2 years after which I moved to a different city. She is one nice friend to cherish !

Phew ! There ends my narration.

Here are a few things I realised while I was writing .... many ppl from the gang were 'new' to school ! Looks like 'having fun' was the basis of our friendship. 7 of us were in the same section in 7th std...and our gang was pretty much formed by the end of it. In 8th std, the 8th person joined the group; the eeki-kiki gang was in action. That was the most fun filled year of my life till date ! If I had a time machine, I would go back to that year and re-live every moment !

We've all come a long way since our crazy childhood. Without you all my life would have been very dull ! I hope our friendship continues for many years to come !!

Cheers to our friendship !!

Archu

2006-08-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Ok now that friendship day is here, as promised to Archu this is a post dedicated to her.

I have known her for 10-15 yrs now (wow! Gives me goose bumps!!!). I met Archana if I remember right in 7th std. She was this tall, thin bespectacled girl from some town unknown to me that time. Shilpa was the tallest in class till Archu’s entry – so we all sat in the last bench. Even though she was quiet in class, she gelled well with us and very soon became part of “gang of girls”. S and A had a great time bullying me. I actually enjoyed all that, it was more like I was always getting their attention. We all traveled in the same bus, had common interests and most of all loved to laugh our heads off.

It was actually 8th std when our friendship and fun was in full form. Archu was always good in studies, though will not call her studious like Subha. Her language skills were good even when she was in school and used to write great essays. I remember our English teacher calling her out specifically to read out her stories/essays aloud in class.

We were together in the same section till 10th std and then parted in different streams to pursue our interests.

One striking thing about our friendship is even though we meet once in a year, she can carry out a conversation with such ease and comfort. We met recently almost after a year in S’s wedding and perfectly tuned in.

Ok now that I have written such a nice post ;-) , will pass this on as a tag to S, A and others who have managed to get an invite to this blog. You should write about some other person in the gang or u can choose to write about all of them.

P.S. archu, did I make up for the goof up?

Bus No.5 Part 2

2006-08-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

And just to add the parts that were left,

We used to have these walking races from school to the bus stop. It was probably half a kilometer but used to be so much fun. Kavitha use to zoom, followed by shilpa and I use to Huff & Puff behind them...LOL!

Even though K and S could take another route, they always preffered to take Bus No.5 and I always missed 19M and would make up stories that it was crowded to join them in 5.

Bus No. 5

2006-08-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

No story from school days can be complete without mentioning our dear old PTC Bus...or watever it is called these days.

Its quite a coincidence too think that all of us ( except Tina, Mani and Subha) used to live on the route of the same bus - Number 5. I can still recall waiting for hours for that stupid bus. Mornings used to be fun, many times all of us would board the same bus at different stops, starting with Prasanna from the bus depot to Kavitha in SIT colony. And ofcourse we always made a big racket in the bus.

Returning home used to be awful. The buses would be so crowded and we had to board them with our heavy school bags. Some lucky days, the back seat of the bus would be empty.

Sometimes, while on one bus we would spot another emptier one behind and would make a run for it...do u guys remember ? This was true when that rare 4C made its appearance.

Here is a funny incident from the bus ( must hv occured sometime in 1992). The conductors used to be quite chalu and would not give back the change. Once, all of us had boarded the bus as usual and had bought our tickets. For some reason, the conductor did not give back Prasanna's change. She got very annoyed and asked him to give the amount. He was being a smartass and started arguing,
(Translated from Tamil)

P: Give me my change ( which was like 25 paisa)
Cond: Why are you arguing for such a small amount ?
P: You are supposed to return the money.
Cond: What will I do with that amount ? I cannot even buy a cup of tea !
P: U cannot buy tea but u can surely buy kadalai urundai !! ( donno its english eqv)
Cond: Dumbstruck ... gives the money to P.

Everybody in the bus started LOL.

Ribbons

2006-07-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

One of the favorite pranks we used to play during the eight standard was "hide the ribbon". Ribbons used to be a part of our school uniform and not having them on could result in a fine. Hence pulling it off someone's hair when they were not watching was a sport. Shilpa and I could practise this sport with great impunity as both of us had short cropped hair - which meant neither of us had to wear ribbons - which meant we had nothing to lose!

Poor Prasanna, who used to wear two pig-tails, often used to be the victim. Shilpa and I used to be towards the end of the line of students of our class during assembly as we both were tall compared to most of our other classmates (I think I was tallest in class, I don't remember exactly). Prasanna, though shorter, used to pretend to be otherwise so that we could all stand together and yack :-)! She mostly used to stand just in front of Shilpa and taking away the ribbon was a piece of cake.

So one day, after doing the usual ribbon-snatching, Shilpa and I came up with the brilliant idea that I should tie the ribbon to the nail at the top of the window when Prasanna was not watching. So, during the lunch break, I climbed onto the desk (yes, it was not possible to reach the nail otherwise) and tied it to the nail. Then S and I sat down again and waited for P.

Sure enough, P discovered the loss of her ribbons and demanded where they was. By then, the Chemistry class after lunch had already commenced. Both S and I said innocently swore that we did we did not have it with us. Obviously, P was skeptical and prodded us some more. Finally, we both burst into silent giggles and pointed towards the nail with its ribbons!

Now, P was in a mad mood that day for some reason and wanted her ribbons back immediately. Before we could blink, she had marched up to the Chemistry teacher and asked her whether she could get her ribbons. The teacher who was checking something in the book absently said yes.

So Prasanna, returned to the back of the class and before our amazed eyes, climbed onto the desk and started reaching for the ribbons. Which was when the chemistry teacher looked up. And practically shouted "Why on earth are you standing on that desk?"

P coolly said "You said I could retrieve my ribbons".

So the Chemistry teacher went "Yesssss...but I did not say you could climb desks".

P reasonably said "But I can't get my ribbons without climbing the desk" and pointed to the ribbons hanging on the nail.

S and I knew what the next question would be. Sure enough, it came from the Chem teacher "Who on earth put those ribbons there?". Our throats went dry as S and I waited with bated breath.

Gathering up the most innocent and artless of all expressions on her face, P said meekly, "I don't know ma'am. But I recognized them as my ribbons."

Beaten, the Chemistry teacher said "Fine. But you can't climb the desk now to get them. Get them later."

Haven't I mentioned before? S, P and me were (and still are) good friends! And good friends don't tell tales :-)!

P did retrieve them later - I still can't believe she actually clambered onto a desk in the middle of a class. I can recall the image in my head still :-))!

Weird Teachers 2 - Saroja Miss ?

2006-05-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

Name : Saroja ( not sure actually...guys help me out)

Subject : Chemistry

Standard : Hmm I think she taught in 6th and then 9th std ( I don't remember)

Saroja Miss was an old teacher. I am very bad with names. So pls confirm her name !

She was a hyper-active lady, always running late. She seemed to scurry all the time. She used to miss classes often. She had grey hair. Was she the one who used to put henna ? She had a funny way to teach and pronounce.

Here is what I remember, once while explaining some experiment where particles are bombarded, she called two girls and promplty banged their heads ! ROFL !!! She wanted to show how collisions take place ! LOL !!
Obviously, no one ever voluntereed again.

Once while I was half asleep taking notes, she was suddenly talking about ' elephants' being bomarded. I woke up puzzled. Hmm am I in the wrong class ? Elephants in Chemistry ? I peeped into the neighbors book and realised that it was ' elements' being bombarded. LOL.

She was one crack-pot !

Weird Teachers I - Radha Miss

2006-05-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Per Shilpa's idea in the comments of the previous post, here is my first entry.

Name: Radha (don't know last name)

Subject taught: Geography

Class: Eight standard

Description: Well, I remember that the other teacher (Vyjayanthi ma'am?) went on maternity leave and Radha miss was our subsitute. I do not remember too much about her teaching skills. But I DO remember her wonderful dressing sense.

Radha miss had the most amazing collection of salwar kameez suits. One day you could spot her wearing a green kameez, red salwar and a yellow dupatta . The next day you could spot her wearing a pink kameez, orange salwar and a white dupatta. Basically, everyday she would look like a riot of color.

Since the clothes would have coordinated a whole lot better if only she had laid out all her clothes and then picked out what to wear, speculation was rife among the students that she had three huge pots - one filled with kameezes, one filled with salwars and the third filled with dupattas. And that she just pulled out one piece of clothing from each pot at random every morning.

I think we used to torment poor Radha miss the most in eight standard. She was one of those silly and giggly kind of teachers - and hence a perfect prey for us. Yeah, I know, we were mean ;-)!

Hullo Gang!

2006-05-02T01:05:00.000-07:00

Me atlast writing for the school gang blog, thanks to shilpa for sending me the invite again...She never ever gives up on me ;0)

Today when I was adding comments to Shilpa's blog got reminded of Sampathkumari ma'm - Archu, I am not quite sure u remember her. She was this kutti, thin teacher who used to just squeak like a mouse all the time. It use to be sooo funny....

I just cannot forget the board incident...She was teaching 6th class maths, the black board use to be just behind her seat. This board was unfortunately not plastered to the wall, but was tied to the window using steel kambis. One breezy day when she was happily sitting on her chair and squeeking away to glory, paattaaaallll the steel kambis gave way and the board fell on her head thud!

I was the only one in the class to laugh sooo loudly like what I am doing right now....the rest is histoy...got sent out of the class :)

Long long ago ...

2005-11-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

Long long ago, so long ago, how long ago, that long ago, that nobody knew how long ago, as long as can be.

This was how we used to remind people of something that had been said to them earlier and about which they had forgotten!

E.g.
Other person: Really? When did you say that?
Us: Long long ago, so long ago, how long ago, that long ago, that nobody knew how long ago, as long as can be.

Initially, it used to only be long long ago, so long ago. The other phrases got added as the year went by!

The Marching Band

2005-11-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

School Band....I guess everyone in our gang was in the band except Subha. The band was fun; all of us did so much masti. We all joined in 8th std. The band gave us an oppurtunity to miss classes, hehehe, and most of us utilized it :-)

The band master, was an old man. I don't remember his name. He was pretty happy with the way Prasanna and I played. But there were days when he used to get mad at everyone and just keep screaming. I also remember he used to tease us by saying that we'll cackle like hens. Prasanna and I used to play the ufornium ( I don't know how it is pronounced, it was the biggest instrument, shown in the pics). Though it was a big instrument, it was relatively easy to play compared to the trumpet. Kavita used to play the trumpet. Farrah and Tina used to play the small roll drums. What are they called ? Archu ofcourse was the symbalist.

We always used to practise in the YMCA grounds near school; in the hot sun and get burnt. We used to tie-up all our water bottles and call them " knot-knot-ka-bandan". Does anyone remember why we used to do that ?

Being in the band always gave us special previlages; we used to get to travel in the school bus while other students walked to the YMCA grounds. And ofcourse we used to get food from the canteen while others got nothing. And because we were the best band among all Adarsh Schools, we were always treated like stars. It was fun !

There were many crazy people in the band, we used to see a lot of girls throw tantrums. There was one girl who used to play the tromborne and is now a famous star. Heheheh.

"Don't worry, Be Happy "

2005-11-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Do you remember this used to be one of our favourite songs ? We used to sing it quite often and whistle the tune frequently. The video was also extremely funny.

We tried imitating the funny dance steps from the video in class once. We made a long chain and danced with one foot up in the air. It was soo funny; I think we fell down after that.

Do u remember ?

Dictionary

2005-10-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

We coined quite a few words to describe various scenarios:

One was "gene-ass" - basically it referred to a person who thought of himself/herself as a genius but wasnt anywhere near it.

One more was "dumbo" - I know that's not a new word. But our word-root is slightly different. It is a shortened form of "dumb-bell" but still was used to describe a stupid person.

And of course, "eekikiki", our famous shod-duck :-)!

Shilpa, can you think of anymore?

Deafening silence!

2005-10-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

Yooohoo, where ARE the other members of the eekikiki gang??? Come on girls, speak up!

Punishment

2005-10-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Din't we always get punished ( I mean the whole class) ? I think our class was extremely noisy; or was it because Subha was the class leader :-) Did Subha ever complain about us to the teacher ? Does anyone remember ? I think, we used to drive her nuts with all our chattering. And poor thing could not even do anything about it, after all we're her friends :-)
Subha, what are your thoughts on this ? Did you curse me everyday ?
But then again, I don't think I used to talk so much in class. Or, did I ?

Eekikiki the origin

2005-10-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I do remember that it was the full-length, side profile of a duck wearing shoes and socks. When I was in Karur, our landlady used to sometime collect my letters. The first few times she thought those mails were prank mails because all of them contained some nonsensical word at the back :-))!

Yup, we had special eekikiki laughter too..I think Kavitha used to laugh it the best. Shilpa do you remember how we used to show our disapproval of sth?? We used to pretend to dig our nose and ears and pretend to collect our findings into the palms of our hands, and then pretend to throw up into the collection and finally toss the pretend collection towards the source of annoyance. Pretty gross, huh? But it used to crack us all up every time we did it :-))!

"Eeki - kiki "....its origin ?

2005-10-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been thinking about how the name came up and as far as I can recollect, it was sometime in 8th std ( could have been in 7th std too...don't remember). Anyway, coming back to the story, we were in a phase of drawing cartoons and comics. I came up with a drawing of a funny looking duck ( I think it was a duck) which wore shoes. I have no clue as to how I came up with the name called " eeki -kiki" for the duck ! Anyway, I did and the name was so funny that it stuck. It became our "code" . I think we used to have a special laugh which sounded like "eeki- kiki". Whenever, we used to laugh or make fun of each other, there was always special consideration for the codeword laugh. Any document that was created by us always bore a signature by the duck. ROFL.

The tradition continued in all correspondence between the members of the gang. When Archu moved to Karur in 9th std, all the letters always had the word " eeki-kiki" at the back of the envelope. This tradition continued for many years ( even when we're in Engg).

Can anyone else throw some light on this issue ?

It works !

2005-10-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Yipee !! I cleared the cache and then logged in. Phew. Now we can blog !

2005-10-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

I agree abt the IM...but archu...i can still see the old template only ! and i can see that u added a title...but i m not able to do it :-( and y is this thing asking for word verification everytime ..its a pain !

New IM

2005-10-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

I think we have discovered a new way of IMs and vetti emails ;-)!

2005-10-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hey ,

chk now...i just activated u as the admin again !

btw...why am i not able to post a title for the blogs ?

2005-10-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

waaah it is not letting me change the template..am I an admin too???

2005-10-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I just chose some template at random ! Wat do u want to choose ?
U r also the admin :-)

2005-10-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

I say we should change the template...dark green is too dull for our colorful antics...

2005-10-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

Hello......is there anyone out there ?