hIgh school hIstory - Episode 4 - Samosa Challenge

As expected, the High school WhatsApp group is relatively silent now, but not entirely inactive. At Least there are no unnecessary forward messages. People ping their experiences now and then and it’s nice to talk to high school friends once in a while. To keep the group more active, I’m going to contribute from my side via my blogs. So far, I haven’t mentioned any of my friend’s names in these blogs. There are many funny stories to tell, and people may not remember some and may take offense if they read now. I have a habit of talking people way down when I make fun of them. So before I start writing about others, I thought I would share an episode about an incident involving me.

Flashback(2002-2004): Samosa Challenge

Our School schedule was filled with exams. Daily we need to write tests on whatever lessons were taught on that day in all subjects. And by tests, we literally have to mug up the entire pages and vomit in the paper. We had our study masters in the hostel, to monitor that we don’t copy in those tests. Then we had weekly exams, every alternate day, Physics on Monday, Chemistry on Wednesday, Biology on Friday and Maths on Sunday(order may be different, but this is as per my memory). Then monthly exams, then quarterly and so on. Attending classes, mugging up the pages and vomiting on paper, that's our routine. In a few months, we got accustomed to this routine.

I got to say, I was pretty good at memorizing at that time. It doesn’t matter whether I understand the sentences or not. If I read the sentence a couple of times, it will stay in my mind. But this got me in trouble little bit initially. I used to sit in hostel study and chit chat with any of my friends and also read in between chats and suddenly would go off to write the test, leaving the other friend angry, because he wouldn’t read anything in that time chatting with me. So my friends got little mad at me for that. After every exam, we used to discuss how much marks we would get and every time I used to get more marks than what I would have told my friends. This got my friends madder. Until the marks were revealed, we would be chatting like how difficult the question paper was and how strictly the teacher would score our papers and whether we would be getting any beatings, etc. Once the papers were given, I would have score relatively more than them and they would look at me like a traitor. And when I meant I got more marks than my friends sometimes means, not by huge margins. Just 5-10 marks, because our whole class was sorted based on our 10th marks, so we all were in pretty much the same level. But still, those 5 marks mattered to us, that’s why we joined that prison.

One day, as usual, after our Physics monthly exam, I told my friends that I will definitely get less than 140 out of 150. They didn’t believe me and said ‘You always say like this, then you get more than that’, ‘If you have written the exam well, why don’t you just say so? Why do you have to pretend like you also didn’t write well and keep our hopes up like we have a company and finally show off when the paper comes?’. No matter how much I swore that I really won’t get 140 or more this time, they didn’t believe me. I even challenged one of my friends for a bet i.e If I get less than 140 in my Physics exam, he should buy me a Samosa from our snack bar, else vice-versa.

About our snack bar, I must have mentioned in previous blogs that they only had 3 items in there. Parle-G biscuits, Sweet bun, and Samosa. Among these, Samosa was like a fancy dish. Thus you can understand the costliness of our bet. He agreed to the bet. A couple of days later, our physics sir distributed the corrected papers and I got my paper with a lot of enthusiasm to check if I got lower than 140. And my mark was 139.5. I was so happy that I won the bet. This was our first monthly exam and I would probably get beatings from our Principal for scoring below 140(that's the target for A1 and A2 classes as we were considered bright students). But I was happy that I won the bet and thus a free samosa. I hadn’t had a samosa in our snack bar till then and was very much looking forward to it.

After the physics class was over, I went over to my friend and said “hey!! I won the bet, I got less than 140”.
He said, “No, you didn’t, if you round off 139.5, it’s 140, so you lost the bet”.

I got very angry. I thought he was trying to escape from buying me a samosa based on a technicality. I had to return to my seat for the next class so I couldn’t argue with him immediately. But the rest of the day, I didn’t pay attention to any of my classes. All my thoughts were on how am I going to get the samosa which I won. I kept thinking, ‘maybe he was kidding, when he said its rounded off to 140, he is just screwing with me, he will buy me the samosa finally’, ‘or was he being serious?, does he really thinks he won the bet?’, ‘what if he really thinks he won the bet? I’m not buying him a samosa, I never even bought it for myself till now’, ‘whatever happens, I’m gonna be clear with him and get that samosa today, he can’t escape like that’. I became obsessed with the samosa.

‘O full of Samosa is my mind’.

When the final class of the day got over, I composed myself and thought, ‘let me just talk to him rationally and explain that I won the bet fair and square, if he doesn’t listen, then I’m gonna yell at him for sure’. I walked over to his place as he was packing his bags to leave, and told. “Hey, you were kidding, right? When you said you won the bet”

He said, “Obviously not!!! Your mark is 140. You lost the bet”.

I said, “come on man, I told you clearly I would get less than 140, my mark is 139.5”.

But he kept saying the same thing again that if you round it off, it’s 140.

I got furious, and told firmly, “No way!!!. I told you specifically that I would get less than 140 and I got 139.5. If Sir wanted to round it off to 140, he would have. But see, it clearly says 139.5 and not 140. So, I won the bet.”

He said, “Ok, be that as it may. You won the bet. So what?”.

“‘So what?’? what do you mean ‘so what?’, I won the bet, so you owe me a samosa”, I yelled angrily in fear that I may not get the samosa.

He replied, “Come on, are you really taking that seriously? We were just challenging for fun. Don’t make a big deal out of it”. He even told few others nearby that I was so serious on the samosa bet and now really expecting him to buy me one, in a condescending tone.

That really riled me up. I reached the peak of my anger. I kept staring at him angrily, but he was busy keeping notebooks in his bags. I asked him finally, “Are you going to buy me a samosa or not?”.

“You really took the bet seriously, didn’t you?”, he replied.

I lost it. I started scolding and yelling at him with all the curse words I knew then. “You a*****, f*****, why didn’t you lie then? If you won’t spend the money, then why the f*** did you agree for the challenge in the first place? You ******, you ******, you ******, you go rot in hell".

He was visibly stunned. I can never forget his look. Not sure what must have gone through his mind then. Maybe, “This guy is getting so much worked out for a silly samosa, what kind of a person is he? I should just buy him his damn samosa and stay the f*** away from him” or something on the lines of these.

He finally said, “Ok da. Do you want the samosa? I will get you your samosa. Come with me, I will buy for you on the way to canteen for tea”.

“That’s good then”, I finally had a smile on my face. I was satisfied. Satisfied, that I’m getting my samosa and more than that, I was satisfied that I fought for what was rightfully mine and got it. (Sadly, I think that’s the only thing in my life which I ever fought for, let alone won)

From school to hostel and from hostel to the snack bar, I didn’t stay away from him at all. I stayed close to him and when we changed our dress and started for the canteen for tea, we went to the snack bar. He again asked me, “you really sure you want the samosa?”, in the last hope that I would change my mind and give up. But I was like, “Of course, you still have any doubts?”. Then he ordered, ‘one samosa’. I asked, “are you not ordering for yourself too?”. He said, “No, I don’t want it. You just have”. Ideally, at least at this point, I should have backed out and said, “ok I don’t want it”. But I went to too much mental anguish to get this samosa, so I’m not going to give it up. So I got my samosa and when I held it in my hand, I felt victory(also shameless).

And I had that samosa alone too, I didn’t even share it with him:). Looking back it sounds so funny to think how shameless I was. More stories will come like this about my friends. Lookout for it.

And yeah, he is still friends with me :)


Links to all hIgh school hIstory blogs:
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1

hIgh school hIstory - Episode 3 - Messy Mess

Last week I told about the formation of our WhatsApp group. Few guys joined initially and everyone was giving updates on where they are, what they’re up to etc. Some mentioned that we should try and invite girls also in the group. If it was like 10 years ago I would have teased them for that. But now I know most of them must have got married and settled, so I thought ‘it’s ok we can invite them too’. If you are wondering why I would have teased them about inviting girls if it was ~10 years ago, that’s how my high school made me. My high school made me(and most guys) immune to the urge of talking to the opposite sex, even if they are around me. Even if I see them every day for years, I still wouldn’t talk to them unless it’s necessary for my work. Most of my female colleagues never heard my voice other than in meetings(so kinda never). I can write a whole series of blogs about my shyness to talk to women. 

Anyway, back to our WhatsApp group, guys kept telling to invite girls but no one had any of their contacts. One guy found a girl’s contact but wasn’t sure if she was still reachable in that number. Then we were again arguing who to reach out to her and tell her about this group. As typical to our high school guys, we were pointing fingers at each other and telling ‘you ping her, please’, ‘please da, you’re the admin’, ‘I don’t even know if she would recognize me’, etc etc. I felt like none of us grew up from that school. Finally, I pinged her and told about the group and gave her the link to join if she is interested. And that's how it started and slowly around 10 girls joined the group.

The interesting thing here is, boys and girls never talked in that school and after that, we all went our ways. So, guys don’t remember all the girls and they don’t remember all the boys, not even all the names. So when anyone joined the group, others welcomed but not sure about who she/he is.  Then we asked everyone to give an intro and update the latest pic of theirs. Some remembered some with their names, some with their pics, some after explaining their seating positions, some after explaining some embarrassing moments like gotten scolded or insulted by staff, etc. For some people, it felt like getting socializing with a stranger no matter how much they tried to remember the other person. But still, I could see that everybody was excited about the group. Within boys and within girls, it was a reunion. Between boys and girls, it's actually just union.

When everyone shared their current pics, with their families, spouse, kids it felt good to see everyone. You can wonder, how can you get excited to see pictures of someone or chat with someone who you barely remember and never even talked to once before. It’s all due to one thing. That High School. That prisonesque-incarcerated-unhygienic-nightmarish-hectic high school life. We had that in common to everyone. That’s why when we saw other's pictures, the feeling was like ‘wowww... another person survived from that hell-hole, and leading a good life now’.

Even if I meet someone who studied in that school at a different time, we still would end up talking at least for an hour about that school. Here we are all from the same class and we have lots of things we can discuss from those times. So for the first few days, the chats never ended. Whenever you see there would be a notification for 400 msgs. I never got bored or irritated with all those messages. I read everyone’s chats with the most excitement. However badly I described our high school(all were true though), one thing is sure. It gave us tonnes of moments to reminisce, to think about, to laugh about. Stealing happy moments within hectic lives always find a permanent place in everyone’s hearts. Maybe that’s why they say “It’s the small things that matter the most”. And from the chats, I realized it was the same for the girls too. They were discussing their memories and incidents from their hostels too. They even discussed their crushes on our staffs. Sadly all our staffs were male, so we had nothing on that topic. And to know on which staffs they had a crush on, it was a little surprising. Well, guys can never understand ladies' taste right?.

After the crazy first week, the excitement diluted down slowly and that’s when I decided I should continue my blogging about our high school to dig up our memories so we can reminisce about our high school life regularly.

Flashback(2002-2004): Messy Mess

As mentioned in the previous blogs, our hostel mess was a twin four-wall building with a roof. No tables, no chairs nothing. We have to bring our own plates and tumblers. It has to accommodate 5000 students, so it also won’t be cleaned between two batches. Whenever the bell rang for dinner, we used to run from the hostel. It would be like the climax war scene from Virumandi. Like all the inmates in uniform with weapons in hand rushing towards the battlefield, we used to rush towards mess with plates in hand. And yes, we had a uniform too, separate uniform for the hostel.

After the initial few weeks, the food slowly became horrible. In the morning, when chutney was poured on top of idli, the water would go through and settle in the plate and the coconuts, curry leaves, and whatnots will form a layer on top of idli. I have seen the cooks using a hosepipe to pour water on chutneys to dilute it. Finishing the afternoon meal is another big project. All the foods were served in a cart which the servers used to push in the floor. If you miss getting the food when they pass you, then you need to get up and chase them in other lines to get what you want.

First, they serve the rice and next comes the sambhar. You try to like that sambar and finish a portion of the rice with it. But you won’t be able to after 2-3 spoonful(just for measurement, no one used spoons). Then you lose the trust in sambhar and wait for the next sour man, which is rasam. Rasam used to have curry leaves in bunches and tomatoes in full. We can’t separate the sambhar and the rice mixed with it, as you have only one round plate, so everything gets mixed with everything. So you try the rice+sambar+rasam a couple of spoons and then you won’t be able to eat that either. Now you wait for the final item which is the only thing which tastes different on every day of the week. That’s the buttermilk. I guess they make the buttermilk only once a week. So they taste good on the first day, not bad on the 2nd day, a little sour on 3rd, sour on 4th and by the 7th day you can’t even dip your tongue in it. But whatever day of the week it is, that was our savior. We get a mugful of buttermilk on the already existing rice+sambar+rasam+veggies and now the whole plate is full of buttermilk with all the other things floating in it. If you look at your plate now, you can guess how it would look like. Yes. ‘கழனிதொட்டி’. The tub, in villages where we used to pour all the wastes, so at the end of the day, we can give it to the Buffalo/cow to drink. So that’s what we did. At the end of the meal, we dipped our faces in that plate like a buffalo and swallowed everything in that plate which would have become like a porridge by then. 

We cannot waste any food, as there would be a couple of staffs outside our mess to monitor that most of the time. So we had to finish everything on our plate. Mostly we won’t waste also, however bad it tastes. Because for our 4-5 hour sleep, and constant studying, reading and writing the rest of the time, we can’t afford to miss a meal. In fact, after I left home, my high school was the only place where I ate properly. 

Next week will write about some other aspects of our high school.

Links to all hIgh school hIstory blogs:
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1

hIgh school hIstory - Episode 2 - Morning Ablutions

 The first post(https://elavarasanr-ela.blogspot.com/2012/02/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html) about our High School history was published 7 years ago. When i wrote that, i wanted to continue writing it as a series of posts, as i had lot of stories to share about our high school. But as usual the laziness took over me and i never published another post about it yet.

Couple of weeks back, when i met one of my high school friend, we were talking about our high school and how we weren’t in touch with most of our classmates. We had a facebook group created for our‘A2’ class few years back when everybody was using facebook. I quit fb couple of years back, so i had no idea what others were up-to. I remained in touch with only 3 guys, two of them were my college mates too. So when we were discussing about contacting others, we thought of inviting our classmates in a watsapp group. We didn’t have everyone’s contact details, so my friend posted the watsapp invite link in the fb group and asked people to join the group. We weren’t sure how many people actually check facebook now, but still we thought even if few guys join, we can reach others through them.

The next day morning around 6 guys joined the watsapp group and through them we got few other’s contacts and added them too. In a week’s time the count increased to 24, including 8-9 girls in the group. If you had read the previous post, you would have known that we never talked to girls in our high school. I would explain in detail about how the initial chats went in the group. next week in

separate post. For now, i’m continuing my high school flashback below, because after the initial excitement, group has become silent now and i want to give them something to discuss about.

I wrote the below post long back, so i just tweaked a little and publishing now as it was almost ready. I would have to warn people though. If it’s meal time, better have meal first and then continue below, as you may not able to eat for couple of hours after reading it. Yes!!!! :) , you’re in for a wild ride.

Flashback(2002-2004): Morning ablutions

After the midnight comedy on the 1st day, i went to sleep at 12:45am and again woke up at 5AM. This time alarm didn’t wake us, our hostel tutor woke us. So, i realized how the alarm sound for our wake-up call going to sound daily henceforth. It’s the sound of bamboo stick slapped repetitively against a steel door, so hard,  you would feel like someone sticks a rod inside your ear and keep swirling until you scream the hell out. So, not even a kumbakarnan can sleep on that sound.

We woke up so fast and took our bucket,mug,soap,shampoo,toothpaste and brush etc and ran out just to escape from that horrible noise. You may wonder why we keep all our bathroom accessories in our room. That’s because the bathroom is half a mile away from our hostel building and actually there are no bathrooms, it’s just an open floor with around 100-200 water taps on a row. We just need to take bath next to each other. The taps would be so close that you don’t actually have to take bath, people taking bath next to you will apply soap and shampoo to you too.

And the toilets were on the other side opposite to bath floor. Don’t worry, it wasn’t as open as the bath floor. It had many separate rooms on a row. But the thing is, there must be around 100 toilets for a students strength of around 5000. So one cannot expect it to be that clean. And 4AM to 5AM is the time for 12th students to get ready , so already one batch has used the toilets. So we had to have a screening process to find the clean ones or u can say relatively least dirty ones.

After first few weeks, everyone got accustomed to the screening process which i have explained below.

Screening Process:

Lets say, there are four types of toilet rooms in our hostel, based on their dirtiness.

Level 1 - Well, this is the most dirty ones and you don’t even have to open the door. You could simply skip just by the smell of it.

Level 2 - This may not smell that bad, but once you open the door you would shut it faster than you  blink your eye. Hand-eye-coordination :)

Level 3 - This may not smell that bad and may not look bad either. It’s a tricky one. You would think its  clean and enter and come out the next second.

Level 4 - Clean. And by clean i mean you could go inside and after some careful examination,  can start the process.

First you take a round and if you find any vacant level 4 room, consider yourself lucky and start the day without any struggle. If not, go for another round and look for level 3 rooms and do a careful examination and take a bucket of water and clean wherever and whatever are there and start your work. If not, you need to find the level 2 rooms and close ur nose first and pour few buckets of water

 over the entire room and start your work. Level 1 rooms??. No, don’t even think about opening those, leave those for cleaning maids. If you are not ready to do the cleaning work on level 2 and 3 rooms, then you wait outside an already occupied room and hope the guy inside doesn’t have any stomach problem.

After the above struggles and hurdles, we finally get ready and come to study building which is our classroom building at 5AM. Our hostel tutor would be standing on the entrance and we would assemble in a line. Then we had to run two rounds in the ground, which is for clearing sleepiness and making us active. Once we complete that, it’s study hours until 7:30. Everyone would study very

sincerely as we were still in that initial excitement phase. Tutor would keep coming in rounds and monitoring us the whole time. Everyone were very active and  none looked like they got up at 5AM. And then break fast time from 7:30 to 8:30. I don’t want to talk about breakfast and our canteen in this  post, after all the screening process i mentioned above. Why don’t i tell you people about the canteen in another post huh??...

Links to all hIgh school hIstory blogs:
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1