Skip to main content

The False Sense of Achievement

Firstly: Yeah, you can read this blog entry because it is not as serious as the title sounds.
Having said that, lets get down to business. 

Achievement is something which brings a smile to one's face, no matter in what form it comes.
So, i think the incident i describe below will rhyme with the title, as it still brings a smile
to my face whenever i remember it. Here it goes.

The time when you're about to leave school is quite a special time, as you tend to do the things
which you'd never do with a sane mind anytime before. At that time classmates bond in an unusual 
sort of way, as in two persons who would normally be disgusted by the site of each other in class
would be as courteous to each other as Tony Blair to George.W.Bush . My classmates were no 
different. The school was about to be closed for the 10th and 12th grades as they had Pre-Board 
examinations in January followed by the much hyped CBSE boards in March.Now, when a school closes 
for pre-boards, it never opens between January and April, so as to give students time to prepare
for "the big boards". That means for a 12th grade guy like me, this was the last academic month
of school. What made it more special was that i had gone to the same school for the whole of my
academic life: Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan's Vidyashram,Jaipur. All guys and gals in my class were in 
a similar state of nostalgia. Before i go any further, i must introduce Mrs. Renu Uppal to those
who do not know her. She was our english teacher, had been our class teacher in 11th, so she knew
the class in and out. Now, there are two things you need to know about her. Number one, she was
a true professional, a perfectionist in what she taught, so the class adored her (this feeling
was helped by the fact that she had saved our butts quite a few times in 11th grade from the 
principal, due to which she was not appointed our class teacher in 12th). Number two, because she
was a perfectionist she could not tolerate the slightest indiscipline (you would know the meaning 
of intolerence when you chatted in her class, as she would stand you up and fire you in the best 
British english i've ever heard coming out of an Indian's mouth and would thus dessimate you in
seconds), due to which the whole school feared her. Having acquainted you with Mrs.Uppal i now 
proceed further. So, i was talking about the part where school was about to get over and all students 
in 12th grade were feeling nostalgic. Along came on the second last Friday of december that year, our
games period. Now, we all enjoyed games period, but doing different things. Girls would play a game they
called leg cricket (with footballs, i know it sounds bizzare, but it existed) or simply chat,
boys would be divided into different groups, some idling around, some playing cricket. My group,
i.e. Me, Sumit, Shanatanu, Arpit, Sambhav would usually play basketball (half court, since we were only 5).
On that particular day, God decided to play his hand in our class-bonding. The footballs were missing.
So, the whole class decided to play basketball with the exception of girls since they were outnumbered 
heavily by the boys. Now, the basketball court was on the part of the playing fields which was 
farthest from the main academic building. So, the bells which signalled the end of periods couldn't be 
heard there. So, usually our physical education teacher signalled the end of period by blowing his whistle.
So we started playing Basketball (full court of course, what do you expect with 10-player-a-side!).
We played and played anl played, but didn't hear the whistle which we were expecting. So one of us 
checked the watch and said,"Guys! We are late for Uppal ma'am's period by 10 min! Lets rush back!"
Everybody stopped playing. We had done it, committed the act of indiscipline which was not going to
go down well with Uppal ma'am. "We're going to have it from her this time!", said another victim-to-be amongst
us. "Guys, just think, it's our last games period in school, let's make it special, ,let's do something
which nobody in the history of BVBV has done before... let us bunk Uppal ma'am's period!!", i said.
The guys thought over it, some of them did not look convinced about the idea at all. "Yeah, i like the idea..",said Gitansh Nayyar, Mr.Popular of our class. "We've wasted 15 mins of the period anyway, in any case she's going to fire us, so we might as well have it for the real thing", i said in my support. The guys nodded and looked towards the gals on the other end of the field. They had also noticed the time, and were also looking at us, none of them budging from her place. Arvind took this as a cue and tossed the ball on the court again, and we went back to playing basketball. The next day morning all of us were gleeing in class, and we had a right to glee, we'd achieved something that none had, in the 20 years-odd history of our school. So, we waited for Uppal ma'am's period, waiting for what was due, knowing that it was worth the thrill.
The customary bell signalled the end of our first period (Chemistry). There it was written in chalk on the board:
"Period 2: English". The excitement and murmur in the class grew as our Chemistry teacher left the class. After a minute or two our beloved Uppal ma'am entered. We all stood up to greet her "Good Morning". She acknowldeged it,but her face expression told us that we were going to go through hell in precisely two minutes. Finally, ending the suspense, she spoke to everybody in general: "Oh god, this headache is killing me! Must be the side effect of the medicine i took yesterday for my fever. I'm sorry, i did not come to school yesterday due to the same reason.So we'll finish whatever formats we're left with today and call it a day..." This statement from her, left the whole class dumbstruck for a few seconds and then we all broke into smiles at the the same instant, looking at each other's 
faces. "What happened? Did i just crack a joke or what?", asked the headache-plagued Mrs.Uppal. 

"Nothing ma'am.... just a sign that we accept your apologies", someone in the third row remarked. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In Love with my Life!

Its official now, travelling in Goa just puts some wonderful things into my head. So here I am, sharing one more of mt experiences with you all. I dropped an year after school to prepare for Engineering entrance exams. Now, during that period, there was an intense pressure on me, not created by anybody else, but my own mind. The only thing on my mind was getting into a good engineering college. Those days, my friends who had already got into college after school, used to visit me during their holidays.  One of them was Sambhav Karnawat who had gotten into IIT-Kanpur, one of the premiere institutes of engineering not only in India, but the world as well. As aspirants, me and those preparing with me used to dream about getting there or any one of the seven IITs which existed at that time. I remember getting t stressed by all the work it took, and I also remember asking Smabhav once , “Hey yaar…. Is it all worth IT?” And he answered, “It sure is.” That and things similar to it used t...

Beauty

As a lovely Sunday fades into the night, I realize how beautiful life can be, I see the beauty that lies around me, and feel the beauty that is out of sight. The beauty of a simple smile, The beauty of a good morning wish, The beauty in a conversation  which can disarm me completely for a while. The beauty when a tree waves at me, The beauty of the clouds as they gather, The beauty of the leaves that rustle, And the beauty of the breeze that sets them free. The beauty of a lovely present, The beauty weaved into past memories, The beauty of a future which awaits me, with open arms without any resent. The beauty in visualizing dreams, The beauty in waiting for them to get fulfilled, The beauty lies in life itself, maybe not in full, but in parts it seems. 

The Year Gone By: 2010

It started, with the memories of loss of a person who i thought would never say bye. Then it went a bit further, in a pretty lousy manner it was really hard seeing my hopes of success almost die. Along came the summer, brought me back home was introduced to a 'professional' world where new people said hi. I got back to college, rains washed away my fears,my tears hope began to glisten again and i was ready to look into the sky. By the year end, things had improved quite a bit found a new friend to talk to to whom I just couldn't lie. Staring into the new year, I feel my goals are a bit more clear i can do a lot more than to look back and just cry.