hIgh school hIstory - Episode 6 - Benzyl Peroxide

If i start narrating the entire 2 year high school life day by day, it will be boring. So for this episode i'll just explain about an incident involving our Chemistry Sir and one of our friend.

Flashback(2002-2004):

Every staff in our school was a different personality and interesting(at least now when we think about them) in their own way, good or bad. One of the unique character was our Chemistry staff Mahesh. Our 12th syllabus was started within 3 months of our 11th standard and since the first day of his class itself, he made a lasting impression i.e he is a terror to be reckoned with. Our school had one unwritten rule which is "you have to write in paper, only what is in book". Every staff had to follow this. So most of the staffs, when they are teaching, would read the lines in book and then explain and if they come across any definition, they will repeat them multiple times and make us repeat multiple times, so we'll memorize them there itself.

But Mahesh was very different from others. He won't waste time in reading every line in the book or the definitions etc. He would actually explain the concept of an entire chapter in just 15 minutes and let us study for the rest of the hour. "Mugging up is your headache, i'm not taking any part in that", he used to say. And when i said he would 'let us' study for the rest of the hour, it's not as easy as it sounds. He used a method called 'Stand-study-sit', which is explained below.

Stand-study-sit:

Once he is done with explaining the concepts, he would say, "Chapter over now. Read the definition. Stand-Study-Sit." We should all stand up immediately and start memorizing that definition. Once we're done memorizing, we can sit down. Again, not as easy as it sounds. As I've mentioned before, we were all students who scored 85% in 10th. We were all toppers in our respective schools before this, so initially we all had that enthusiasm, to get good names with Teachers, to finish the home work early, to complete Math sum in interval etc. In that enthusiasm and to get good name with Mahesh or to impress him, some used to memorize fast and sit down, only to be asked by Mahesh to recite the definition immediately. 

While reciting, you can't stammer, you can't think or hesitate even for a second. If you do, he'll immediately tell you to stand and read again. Some tried asking for 2nd chance, to start from the beginning again only to be insulted like "Yeah, yeah you can have your 2nd chance tomorrow". And you should listen him say that, in a totally condescending, ball-busting tone. Our enthusiasm, Our eagerness to impress a teacher, Our desire to showcase ourselves as a smart student in front of our class mates, everything was shattered in that one condescending reply and we ended up instead embarrassed in front of our friends. Because everyone would know our friends are going to tease us after the class for sitting down first.

So after few days, no one in 'stand-study-sit' session, would dare to sit down even if he/she memorized the definitions completely, to avoid any insult or embarrassment. Only if someone who is very very sure, he mugged up word-by-word then they will sit down and others will get some confident to sit down. Sometimes, Mahesh himself would ask us to sit down after few minutes or the class time will be over. While we do the 'stand-study-sit' routine, he won't just sit and do time pass. He is anything but lazy. He used to correct our previous-day home test papers while walking around in class room, and commenting on each student's mistakes in that paper if any, commenting on their hand writings which are also one insult after the other. Some times he'll just simply chit chat about some chemicals or some incidents etc and say "Don't think i'm passing time talking about all these, this is our last chapter in the book. I just completed half of them". 

It was 3 months, since we joined that high school, so the hostel food, our irregular sleeping hours, every thing started getting to us. One by one, slowly we started sleeping in class rooms during lessons. Some staffs scolded us , or beat gently to wake us up. Some even said, "if you feel sleepy, go and wash your face, or just stand up for few minutes, you don't even need to ask us permissions". One of my friend mistakenly, started following that in Mahesh's class. He suddenly stood up in the middle of the class and Mahesh asked, "why are you standing up, do you have any doubts?". My friend replied, "I'm sleepy, so please let me stand up for few mins until i'm sober". Mahesh totally lost it. He replied angrily, "how dare you get sleep in my class? if your concentration is in class, how the hell would you get sleep?". 

So we realized, nothing satisfies this guy, we can't impress him, we can't get any sympathy or encouragement..nothing. We just had to be careful not to give him any chance to insult or embarrass us.

Curious Student:

We had one interesting friend in our class. I remember the first day i met him and when i started taking to him, he sounded very intelligent with a curious mind to learn. I was in awe of him initially. Though I ended up teasing and mocking him later for the most of the 2 years. 

All the mocking and teasing started when he started asking weird questions to our teachers. He once asked our Physics teacher, "Sir, if the earth is revolving all the time, and if a flight flies from India to USA, does it really flies or it just goes up and wait for earth to revolve enough so the USA comes to that place and then it lands directly under?". It was mind boggling in a hilarious way to see how someone thinks like this. Even our Physics teacher was amused and simply waved off his question. Once he asked our Zoology Sir, "Sir, is it true that when we eat food with our hands an enzyme secretes in our hand  which gets mixed with food and is very healthy?". 

Benzyl Peroxide:

Now to the incident, which i would like to call "Benzyl Peroxide" incident.

It was the early chapters in Organic Chemistry and just the previous day, Mahesh had taught the basic formula "Ch3Cl + NaOH = Ch3OH + NaCl" i.e Methyl Chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives Methyl Alcohol(Ch3OH).

Next day, with his usual teaching mixed with chit chatting, he told us a story (again just to embarrass some one i guess) about a fool who says, "look there are 5 donkeys", pointing to 4 horses and says, "they are walking in 3 legs", simultaneously explaining visually by showing 2 fingers. It was just about a fool who don't even know numbers and can't differentiate horses from donkeys.

Then he randomly pointed to a student at the last bench and asked, "What is Benzyl chloride + Sodium hydroxide?". I thought the answer is easy. It's Benzyl alcohol. He just taught us yesterday with Methyl chloride, on how we should replace Cl with OH from NaOH to get Methyl alcohol. Today it's just that another alcohol with same formula. But surprisingly, that student from last bench didn't answer. He just stood. Maybe he knew, but was afraid to say to avoid any embarrassment if he got it wrong. Then Mahesh called the guy who sat next to him and he also stood simply without answering anything. Maybe that guy was thinking, 'if the previous guy can't answer a simple question maybe the answer is tricky'. Mahesh kept calling next, and whole 2 last bench was standing. Now i'm starting to doubt myself. 'Maybe it's not Benzyl alcohol. May be the bonding work differently for Benzene.' Now the 2nd last bench also stood up without answering. Now it came to first bench in boys section ( Girls sat before us, refer 1st episode). I'm on the right side 1st bench, 2nd place. I'm eagerly watching everyone in the first bench from other side. 1st person stands and nothing, 2nd person stands and nothing, 3rd person stands. 

Now this was that curious student I told you all about above. Maybe he also thought the answer was Benzyl alcohol, but as no one answered, started thinking out of the box. He doesn't simply stand, he stood and  took his note book immediately and stared writing the formulas to work it out. Breaking the carbon/hydrogen/oxygen bonds and rearranging them etc. But Mahesh as usual, doesn't give a damn about all that. If the answer doesn't come immediately, he calls 'Next'. Next stood up and same. Now it came to my bench. My friend who sat in the first place, i was sure will answer it. But to my surprise, even he stood just like that. Now i have made up mind to say 'Benzyl alcohol', no matter what. But Mahesh doesn't say 'Next'. He stopped. 

He looked at the whole class and said, "What's wrong with all of you? it's such a simple question". Then he looked at my friend who is standing next to me and asked, "Methyl chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Methyl alcohol Sir", came the reply. He asked again, "Ethyl chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Ethyl alcohol Sir", came the reply. He asked again, "Subbaiah chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Subbaiah alcohol Sir", came the reply with a weak smile. Meanwhile that curious student is still vehemently working out the formula in his notebook to find the answer. Then Mahesh asked,"Ok. Now answer this. Benzyl Chloride plus Sodium hydroxide gives what?". "Benzyl alcohol Sir". 

Mahesh was finally relieved and said, "I don't know why you all were struggling to answer a simple question. Sit down everyone". And right now, at this exact moment where he told us to sit down and everyone standing were sitting down, our Curious friend finished working out the formula and quite dramatically stood up and pointed to Mahesh and yelled, "Sir!!!! Benzyl peroxide!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The whole room erupted in laughter and Mahesh simply expanded his hand and showed 5 fingers and slowly kept folding one finger each to remind us all about the story he told at the staring of the class.


P.S: If that curious friend reads this and tells me he doesn't remember this incident, I'm gonna kill him then the next time I see him. Because this is the most talked about story between our high school friends whenever we meet and its burned in my brain.



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 5 - Judgement Day

It has been 4 months since my marriage and I've been postponing the writing of the next blog. But it's so boring today, that i have decided to write the next episode in hIgh school hIstory. Many of you might have been expecting a story about my marriage. Sorry to disappoint you, I will get to that later sometime. Here is the follow-up episode to 'Samosa Challenge'.

Flashback(2002-2004): Judgement Day

After my Samosa victory, the Judgement day came. Here is the little background on the Judgement day:

Every time we write an exam and the papers are scored and distributed back, the school Principal will check our marks and give his judgment. As I've mentioned in Episode 1, our 11th std had 24 sections of 50 students each and was formed based on our 10th marks. The Judgement will be based on the sections. For example, A1, A2 which are top sections because students of this class had scored had scored more than 85% in 10th Matric, needs to score at least 140 out of 150. Anyone who scores less than 140 will be punished(beaten). Amount of beatings will be proportional to amount of marks scored less than the set limit. The limit will be reduced for sections A3, A4 and then further to A5,A6 etc. Then it will start again from top at A7(top section based on 10th stateboard marks). Then same way it will go to Tamil medium sections, computer science and commerce sections etc. On an average in each class, only 10-20% of the students would have scored higher than the limit set to them. So out of 1200 students in 11th, around 900-1000 students will definitely get beaten, in a single day, by a single person.

Beating process:

   Now to the beating process. To beat 1000 people in a single day even with a stick, one would definitely get tired right? To make his job easier, specially made bamboo sticks will be arranged. His assistant would carry 4-5 bamboo sticks which would be taller than us i.e at least 6 feet in length. When the Principal is carrying out his punishments with one stick, his assistant will sit in the corner and apply oil to the remaining bamboo sticks, so that it bends properly. The more it bends, the less force he needs to apply. He would just move his wrist few millimeters and the bamboo will bend like Ram's bow and make a mark on our hands like the lines on the back of squirrel. The red lines on our hands would be visible at least for the next 2-3 days.


Now this was our first Judgement day, as it was the first time the exams were conducted for 150 marks for 11th. The Principal was in an empty class room and each class students were going in one by one to show the paper and get the punishments accordingly. Waiting outside in line was the hellish part. Students outside started discussing what would be our cut-off marks, how many beatings each one would get, will it hurt a lot? etc. One guy says "maybe this is the first time, so he'll go easy on us", and that is when we hear a screaming sound coming from that room and he finishes with "or maybe not".

After the screaming sound we heard, everyone's eyes were on the entrance of that room to see the person coming out and how much he is crying. Surprisingly, he came out with a blank expression, neither crying nor smiling. One guy said, "maybe he just screamed to avoid more beatings".  Next we heard only the sound of bamboo stick wheezing and out came a guy with face reddish and tears all over, crying like a baby. Next we heard the sound of bamboo wheezing then the guy wheezing alternatively. After listening to many different sounds and many different expressions in the students coming out, we didn't know what to make of it.

All sorts of theories started circulating in those few minutes. "Hey, most people, due to fear bring the hands down while getting beating, but that only ends up in more pain. The secret is, exactly when the stick comes towards you, you should raise the hand which will reduce the pain". That sounded easy to hear, but no way possible to do. One person was saying, "hey, after you get the beatings, don't ever shake your hands in the air, that will make the pain more". One more guy was denying this and arguing that its the vice-versa.

While everyone was discussing the theories while waiting in line to get beaten, my mind went to flashback, which is below:

Flashback inside Flashback:

10th public results came. Me and my Dad were discussing about which school to join for higher secondary. One guy from my village had recently completed 12th and got a medical seat on merit. My father said, "let's go and meet the guy and his family and ask him details about the school in which he studied". Then we went and met the guy and he said all good things about the school, but said its very strict and they'll beat if you get low marks and food will be average only. But i didn't care about all those things. Daily i was fantasizing about getting state 1st, getting medical seat, making my Dad proud etc. So i told my Dad that i'm OK with joining that school. SO we finalized on this school, went in person and got the admission immediately(proud moment for my Dad). I heard later from a relative that my Dad cried after we got the admission.

When my Dad started broadcasting to friends and relatives that we got admission in that school, everybody warned him that the students would be beaten severely if they score low marks in that school and told him to think twice before finalizing that school. So after few days, he started panicking and had second thoughts about this school's admission. Some of his friends suggested some other schools who also had a good record of 12th standard public results. 

So one day, when me and my Dad were just chit chatting in our home, he told me, "Listen, everybody is saying that school is very strict and they beat the students severely and all, so i'm starting get little concerned. So we paid advance, no big deal. We can still check out other schools and then take final decision. What do you say?". I replied nonchalantly, "No need Dad, they will beat only if you don't study properly right?". The concern and fear in my Dad's face immediately disappeared and now fully beaming with pride, he called my Mom who was in kitchen and said, "Hey!!! Did you you hear what my son just said? 'They will beat only if you don't study properly right? If you study well, why would they beat you?'". He turned towards me and touched my shoulders and said, "That's it son, that's it!!!!! Super. That's the spirit".

Back to Judgement day:

As i ran through that flashback in my head, i started scolding myself, "you idiot!!! Like a frog which gets ruined due its mouth, you and your stupid mouth, and your good-boy-act, see where you're now". As mentioned in my previous episode, you must have known my mark was 139.5. And i was just hearing rumors that the cut off mark to escape beating is 140 for A1 and A2 Classes. On the contrary to what i argued with my friend yesterday to get the Samosa i.e i've scored less than 140 and 139.5 is not rounded to 140, that day i was telling myself, "139.5 is rounded off to 140, so i shouldn't get beaten. Principal should clearly knows that. Damn!!, Why this Physics teacher didn't round it off to 140?. Please!! Please!! God, i'm 140, i've touched the cut off mark, i shouldn't get any beatings".

Finally our class students started entering the room to get the Judgement/Punishment and when my turn came, i showed my paper and Principal looked at it and said, "can do better, show your hand". And the bamboo stick bent a lot it almost touched the wall behind him and then sprung forward and the next second i was hissing and shaking my fingers, as it left a red straight line mark in my palm which remained for the next 2 days. I came out, still shaking my fingers and looked at the mark in my palm and thought to myself, "well, at least now i'm 100% sure, i deserved that Samosa".

And this was just the beginning of the infinite beatings, pinching, verbal and mental abuses that followed for the rest of the high school years. More to follow....


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

Episode 1