How did we all click. Well to make a long,long story short, we all "back benchers" in sixth were always under the scrutiny of the teachers.We had something in common, We HATED PLAYING SPORTS(but watching it from a far, far distance), loved books-------oops story books.
We 5 of us-fought, hit, had fun & became friends. We never thought we would come this long.
Messie & I used to make magnificient sand castles & cakes, with water deligently dropped from a water bottle cap.
Marie, you had the sweet habit of scratching with ur finger nails and take a bit of flesh with it. One quick moment, leaves u with small red imprints.
You can find all bits of odd items like inland letters, cards, pieces of brown book covering paper flying, key chains & earings out of messie's school bag.
During evening hours after other girls have left, me & messie will dig our hand into it and if lucky, will find a Rs 50 note or even Rs100. Like queens, the same day it goes into canteen.
I had the sweetest temper of all, bark & fight with u girls.
We never bothered abt high scoring, scrapping was sufficient, to put a wide grin. Ofcourse, our gang too had a class topper, an exceptional case. THe heart beat a bit too fast as your name is called, but is instantly gratified with any mark. Coz we were humble & satisfied with what god gave, unlike the other girls(heeeeeeeee).
We all felt elated when Amlu used to get the profiency certificate, as if we ourselves got it. 7th & 8th Std-Sitting next to Amlu, I pretended really hard during those french classes, listening, coz the miss' attention was always on us, as she was a topper. Amlu's purse used to be loaded with suckcee, & these orange toffees(pulipumittai in tamil). Our mouth generously loaded those during those french class & put on an intent hard working look.
The countless number of Secret Seven, Five Find Outers, Famous Five, St Clares, Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes---------from there started our never ending thirst for books.
Remember how we searched our school library for the second volume of Count of Monto Cristo. It was those days, when I would come home & finish off a full novel within an evening with devoted attention, only getting up for dinner. How I tried to read "God of Small Things" by arundhati roy, you girls followed suit, but gave up half way.
Sighhh, if only we showed it in studies,we wud have been somewhere.
That cycle shed behind the canteen where we hid ourselves from PET class. Coz, If caught, u had to jog & of course play volley ball. Basket ball was different affair. You can pretend, that u play, u can dribble and not give the ball to others.
Prici had a different story altogether. If caught by PET miss, her long nails carefully nurtured & polished will be chopped off on the spot. Then where goes the different colours of bottles stacked up.
We'd liked to sit, warm beneath & chat.
How we(mary & I) used to run all the way to canteen during that 10 mins break to sip that Rs 1 COLA(a long bar of frozen,essenced water packed in a wrapper) & samosa. Those days, my papa used to give me just Rs5 or 10 every day or less, correctly counted to the decimal of each value.
I think I'm the only one who used to participate year on year in running race, until ONE DAY in 9th I came in FIFO(First in First Out) was running alone last in the race.
We were an unique breed, tall, bulky mistook for sports girls. Marie's mom used to joke, whether we formed into a gang becoz to elude away our complexes of being plumpy, "BIG AUNTIES".
Wish to write more & more------------------. Will catch up in another post-:)
