Update before the holidays

Remember those days in childhood, when you had to learn poetry and recite it? You would have actually learnt a few lines. After those few lines, you’d look up to the ceiling, roll your eyeballs and act as if you are trying to recall. Sometimes, it worked and the teacher would make you sit and go to the next student.

I wish I could be that child who would atleast be allowed to take that chance. Been very busy and this is where the thought came from. As an employee, we cannot afford to roll eyeballs and look up in status-update meetings. We have been having hazaar calls, and web conferences. Sometimes, all we do is come together from different time zones and glorify a coma or a fullstop. It is part of the protocol and we do it. Sometimes, I join unwillingly, sometimes; I add my point strongly,” the full stop should be visible enough for people to know that it is a full stop” period.

I am in a mood to talk school and childhood friends today. When we were in school, if there was a holiday on a weekday, Rita (a notorious friend presently in Delhi) would start passing chits to the gang saying, “let us meet up.” We would take our bicycles and meet up; mostly at my place (cos my house was at the centre and sis would make good food for us, pakoras, chowmien, khitchri). If somebody was late, we would go cycling and pick her up again. It was so much fun as we were not allowed to take bicycles to school otherwise. This was my gang.

In the 9th standard, our class had acquired the reputation of being the naughtiest and hence, was placed next to the staff room. Even a part-time teacher could come and scold us for making noise. One day we did not make noise at all but suddenly, the teachers’ sensitive olfactory sensed a strong scent from our class. They came to check and found that someone had got Velocity, the hair perming liquid and all of us were busy passing it around and perming hair. Another day, all of us started cat-walking in the class one by one, while others clapped and cheered. The wannabe Cindy Crawfords had to halt their infant steps in the modeling world when the headmistress arrived in the form of the designer, the designer of punishments in all forms and types! Someone brought in some sticky wild fruits that get stuck in the hair and everybody in the class and school started throwing it at each other. We danced at the golden chance and targeted our seniors. This dance of fortune lasted for 3 days and it was banned in the school after that. I am still proud of my class. We were tough to handle because we were very united unlike other classes, where there was a lot of groupism. We got the highest no. of state ranks too when we passed out.
This was high school.

After the 12 board exams, somebody in the gang had a crush on a boy. We met up again in one of the houses, this time in Kinetic Hondas and Scootys and went to the guy’s house. We did not enter but took a turn in front of his gate and came back. We felt cool and were quite thrilled flocking in front of a guy’s house.

R’s wedding is coming up. R, Ju and I planned to get married at the same time but it didn’t work out (so much for planning through roof-hitting phone bills.) Infact, we planned it so well that Ju’s and mine were fixed a few days apart and couldn’t attend each other’s wedding. I gave her some flexi dates as I was engaged earlier. When the time to really discuss came, her phone went kaput and she vanished. On top of that, her reception was in Delhi as she was marrying a Delhite. Poor R had to fly up and down to please both her school mates. R couldn’t marry but she got engaged during that break.

I am going home to get my face whitewashed for the wedding and wear our bling- bling traditional dress. The wedding is in December and winter would be at its peak, but that is not going to stop us from wearing low-cut blouses and transparent chaddars (shawls). Mrs Ju is also back from Amreeka for a long vacation. Leen would also be back for sometime. 4 of us from the gang would be together.

To conclude this long and directionless post, I had mentioned earlier about Ju and Leen that they are doctors. We wished at least one of them would be a gynaec, but both ended up being pathologists. Both claims that it is not very hectic and there is lot of money.

Between all this fun and plans of catching up with my schoolmates, mom suddenly asked me, “Will you be allowed to come and stay with us?” and the thought suddenly struck me that since I am married, I have to seek permission to stay with my parents or catch up with friends.

You can expect some mother-in-law posts after my holidays.