These jottings are
from the same day, 10 August in the year 1994, (more than a quarter century
ago!), when I was doing my Higher Secondary, in MCC School, Chetpet, Chennai.
[Dear gentle reader, per chance, if you feel my
pathetic handwriting scribbles are a strain on the eye, you may please just
focus on the words I've underlined in colour) 😊
Some of the words like
‘Yummy’, ‘Goalie’, (Goal-Keeper), Tinkle, Cubicle, Football, Gym, Coffee, roll
call, bring to memory some of the glorious nostalgic moments of yore!
In fact, Yummy was our code word for our
Ice-cream vendor who set shop just adjacent to the compound wall bordering our
hostel.
Lanky and sprightly he
was, with an amazing sense of humour and love for all of us.
We could have
‘accounts’ with him, since money in a hosteler’s hand was a rarity.
Another word is Cubicle - a stony protrusion for a bed
lined up on either side in a dormitory, where we did our bedding in our own
sweet chaotic ways, with mosquito nets for that precious protection from
mosquitoes.
But again, mornings
when you woke up, you would find for sure a lizard or two inside your mosquito
net, as there were a little gang of mischievous boys who were known for these
nocturnal pranks on their unsuspecting victims.
They would go near the
bathrooms, were there was a surplus of lizards, somehow catch them with such
patience, and then on the sly, put them inside our mosquito nets.
They did these
‘pranks’ only on those guys who 'sincerely' slept soon after their study time
at 10 in the night.
Since for the mischievous
ones, their night had just begun!
So even today, when
someone utters the word Yummy or mosquito net, or cubicle, or Tinkle, or dormitory, although in different
contexts, these words brings back memories of those good ol’ days from the
past!
Tintin, Tinkle, and
Asterix in that order, were our study-time distractions on all nights!
So even today, when I
take a copy of a Tintin or a Tinkle, I recollect with nostalgia, how Shikari
Shambu the faint-hearted hunter, or Kalia the crow, or a Suppandi, Tantri the
Mantri, Nasruddin Hodja, Anwar, Raghu were our all-time favourite characters
who provided us with the bestest company ever!
Like Eliot says in his
‘Four Quartets’, ‘Footfalls echo in the memory’ when we think on these objects,
words or places!
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