1997.... RANDOM MEMORIES....

Important disclaimer:
The post below is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person alive or dead, or to any place existing in Nagaland, or to any school named KV Dimapur, is just coincidental.

Second half of 1997 and a quarter of 1998, or rather my class 11 as I remember it, is one of the most memorable periods of my life. Memorable because, I did a lot many first times, had few of my most unconventionally enjoyable times, made a few friends which made a huge difference in my life and for a lot many more reasons. Below are some of them which I remember... (though the order is random).

1. This was the year, when for the first time in my life, I seriously had a crush on someone (I had one more crush prior to this, I will talk about it later), though the crush and the relationship materialized a couple of years later. This is one of the most important relationships I had (yes had) outside my family. Some of you might be aware of it, and since I haven't mentioned the name, request you to abstain from doing the same.
2. This is the period, when I coined (for myself), the phrase, "I am always Right". Tough it was only a few years later during my college, that Ayn Rand made me realize the real meaning of the phrase. I still believe in it, but this time it has a meaning attached to it, rather than just a means of satisfying my ego.
3. The period which got me hooked to cricket. Probably, as the preceding year 1996, was a WC year.
4. The year which saw my best performance in a cricket match, batting. It was, after some miscreants of my class had sent a greeting card to a girl in the same class proposing her, under my name, from my side. The poor girl according to her understanding had blasted me off, which shot my temper till Neptune and the runs in the match after this incident were the returning back of my ‘temper shuttle’. This was probably because I saw the ball as something I could take my revenge on, or for some other stupid reason. In the same match I also broke the nose of a kid of class 5, and then scolded him for playing near to the grounds where we were playing.
5. This was the year which started of with our class getting suspended for half of the day, ya, on the first day. We were made to stand outside the class in the badminton court. No I won't let your imaginations give you that wicked pleasure. We were not kneeling, just standing.
6. This was the year when we broke at least three sides of the walls of our class, obviously not at the same time, but in different incidents when the effect of the earlier incident used to die down. For this we were suspended for a few days in two of the cases and for just 1 week in one of the cases. Let me also mention that the teachers had a tough time catching us, as I was the class monitor and their first action would be to ask me, who did this; also as I and my other close friends (our group) used to be the initiators in such incidents and we also somehow happened to be good in studies.
7. This was the year when I and my friends had ragged a student for the first time in life. Though it was not a typical ragging but more of a bit of 'pareshan karna'. Let me mention one incident related to this. There was this lining of 'bora' (jute sacks) between the roof of our class and the actual class room. The lining was torn at one corner of the room and we used to throw broken pieces of desk or benches on top through that opening. The broken pieces were obviously used by us to play cricket in the class before they were rendered beyond use and were thrown there. Now the place where these things landed was just on top of the table of the teacher in the class. The day when we sort of ragged the new guy in our class, my class teacher called the class monitor, that’s me, and asked in his unique style, 'Rohit, ye aaj kal class mein kya ho raha hai?' I was confused as to what’s happening that the class teacher is asking about and what are the things that I can afford to say to the teacher. Finally I decided to tell about the ragging, thinking at the back of my mind to give that new comer a good lesson in obedience if he had complained. But shockingly the teacher replied, 'Main kuch aur pooch raha hoon', which got me even more perplexed. Finally he vented out saying, 'Mujhe pata chala hai ki tum log teachers ke khilaaf saazish kar rahe ho, woh teacher table ke upar tum log pathar phekte ho jaise woh hamare upar gire.' Somehow I convinced that those were not stones but pieces of wood which some people used for playing cricket in the class, also assuring that I will tell the names of those miscreants who do that, in future, if I got to know something about it.
8. This was the year when I and a few of my friends broke into the examination room of our school in broad day light, when the school was running. This was also the room where our examination in charge used to sit. This guy was a Hindi teacher and was a lot too serious about his belief on Gandhiji. He was also proud of the fact that he like Gandhiji had four children. Now we had broken in the examination room to make some changes in the answer paper of the kid brother of one of our friends. Unfortunately, the in charge came over there the very moment we were getting out of the room after completing our 'mission'. At this point Gandhiji came to our rescue. Being a Gandhi bhakth, he decided of not punishing us directly, but asked us to get our parents to the school the next day, which we obviously didn't do. Nothing happened after that as he had already seen a lot more of us during the earlier year, i.e. class 10, when we had hardly attended 50-60% of his Hindi classes. In the remaining 40-50% of his classes we used to play cricket while he used to take his class with remaining students. Once in class 10 we were a few minutes late in entering his class as we were returning after playing cricket. He scolded us and asked us to go and play the 'Angrezon ka khel', and rather than asking sorry we left and started playing again. After this whenever he caught us doing anything wrong he just used to scold us or ask to bring our parents and did nothing else when we gave no response.
9. This was the year when I got divorced from my once favorite subject, Mathematics. I was good in mathematics and contrary to my expectations in the class 10 board exams where I was expecting to score the highest marks in the class after the exams; I got pretty bad marks, 67 if I remember correctly. After this I never had any affinity left towards maths.
10. This was the year, when I last saw and met the first crush of my life. There was nothing serious about it, I guess so ;) . It was more like, she was a friend of mine in my earlier school and after I changed my school, I realized that she is gone now, I won't be meeting her everyday and now I have a crush on her. But that was the year I last met her.

Disclaimer (again):

:)

The above post is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person alive or dead, or to any place existing in Nagaland, or to any school named KV Dimapur, is just coincidental.