"Chamatkaar!"

“That’s- the- third- time- I- have- called –you- for -dinner!”said  my mother through gritted teeth and in a slow and dangerous voice, as she  stood  at the door of my bedroom.Her hands were folded in front of her chest and eyes were red with fury. “Gotta go, gotta go, gotta gooo..” I whispered to sonal  into the cordless phone before disconnecting it and  hastily flunging it on bed. “Mom, I was just saying byee……”I stopped talking on seeing the look on mum’s face. She looked mad!! “Uh Uh!!” I thought to myself, taking in the pregnant silence and waiting with bated breath, till….. “WHAT IS THERE TO TALK SO MUCH ABOUT AND GIGGLE ENDLESSLY!!!” all the hell broke loose as my mother’s voice echoed in every corner of the house, “DON’T YOU GET TO MEET AND TALK AT SCHOOL?????? IF U PAY HALF THE ATTENTION IN YOUR STUDIES THAN THESE SILLY DISCUSSIONS,  ATLEAST YOUR MARKS WILL IMPROVE !!” and on and on it went!Thus,that day  dinner was accompanied by a delicious portion of maa’s ongoing lecture about my lack of concentration in studies and the increasing amount of the phone bill. I made a mental note of cuting our telephonic talks short or atleast start trying !

Mum had been cool towards me the following morning as well, as she dismissed me with a wave  when I said goodbye before leaving for the school next day . After the serious and lowly ongoing mood since last night, I was dieng to lift up my spirits by cracking a joke on somebody and making everyone laugh.   As I made my way towards out classroom, I smirked when I saw Mrs Ghosh already in. Though she was not “we-are-pals” kind of teacher,she usually spared a smile when we teased her.Opening the door, I barged inside the class, bellowing on top of my lungs, a line from a hindi tv commercial “ MRS. GHOSH!! MELODY  ITNI CHOCOLATY  KYUN  HOTI  HAI??” The moment the words were out of my mouth, I sensed that something was wrong, very wrong! looking at mrs ghosh’s narrowed eyes , pursed lips, and at the heads shaking all around the room, I instantly knew that she must have been in a very serious discussion with the class. “Dammit!” I thought, grimacing. I dared to look up at Mrs ghosh’s eyes and waited for the second time in last 24 hours, to hell to break loose again. “GET OUT! JUST GET OUT  OF THE CLASS  I  SAY!  YOU THINK THIS SCHOOL IS SOME KIND OF A  JOKE!!” Mrs ghosh shouted , pointing to the door, her eyes popping “ HERE I AM PLEADING ALL OF YOU TO PULL UP YOUR SOCKS AND STUDY HARD IF U WANT TO PASS OUT FROM THIS SCHOOL WITH RESPECTABLE MARKS, AND MISS FUNNY-TWO-SHOES WALKS IN WITH A SILLY PRACTICAL JOKE EARLY IN THE MORNING…. GET OUT AND STAY THERE. YOU CAN EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DID, TO MRS. BHAN WHEN  SHE COMES OUT OF HER OFFICE FOR THE ASSEMBLY AND ASKS YOU WHY YOU ARE PUNISHED SO EARLY IN THE DAY. OUT!” I  bowed my head and putting my bag inside the cubby hole of my desk, walked outside the class to stand near the door.  The junior classes were filing out of their classes for the assembly and little 6^th graders burst into laughter on seeing me standing outside the class. I stuck out my tongue at them and turned to another direction, cringing at what I saw–“MEN WASHROOM”. I turned my head again when I heard someone running towards the class. Avtar stopped dead in his tracks on seeing me. “Well! Well!” he said, his face breaking into an evil grin, “What did I miss? And so early in the morning too!! Sly!” “Yeah! Yeah!”, I  replied, making a face, “I am pretty sure you are going to join me here in the next two minutes. She is not in a mood to forgive you for loittering around in the football field when you are supposed to come straight to the class before assembly.” His smile vanished as he hurried inside the clas muttering apologies to Mrs. Ghosh. I smiled to myself in satisfaction when I saw avtar’s tall figure slouching… “SO YOU THINK YOU ARE SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO COME TO CLASS ON TIME????”     

“Give it a rest guys!” I shouted at sonal, sakshi and pratishtha as they followed me out in the foyer chanting “Melody khao, khud jaan jao!” It was recess time now. We headed towards our favoirite spot behind the main school building where the buses were stood during the daytime. It provided us the perfect hideout to plan our pranks and to gossip! “You know what?” I said,closing my eyes in determination, as we made ourselves comfortable in the deep, dry drain, “I am going to make mum, mrs. Ghosh and every teacher proud of me this year. I will study hard and get good grades so that they start taking me seriously and not just as some sort of a clown as they do. Its high time I , what did Mrs Ghosh say, yeah pull up my socks and get down to bussiness. I will study hard day and night and will finally prove myself! Yes, I - AM- GOING- TO- DO -IT!” I ended dramatically! “Do u guys think I have it in me??”  when I heard no cheering and the supportive response I was expecting to get, I opened my eyes only to see my three friends standing at some distance and laughing their heads off. I had no idea as to when I had lost them but clearly they had not heard a word of my speech. “What are you guys doin?” I inquired on joining them.  “Remember a tv seriel named ‘CHAMATKAAR’?” Sakshi said, forming an ‘L’ out of both sets of her index fingers and thumbs and sticking the latter into her ears. It gave an impression of horns sticking out of the sides  of her face. “Arree…”, she continued impatiently, looking at my blank expression, “where actor Farooq Sheikh could hear anyone’s  inner thoughts by doing this!!” She adjusted her ‘horns’ in her ears and looked around for her prey. I forgot all about my resolve of studieng harder as we watched sakshi hide behind the mulberry bush waiting. I could barely supress my laughter when I saw poor Mr. Gajendra trotting towards us. He was singing to himself in a low  voice,obviously composing some new tune. As soon as he had passed the bush, sakshi jumped from behind it, in front of him wheering and shouting “CHAMATKAAAAR!!! CHAMATKAAAAAAR…!” she was moving her horns in a way u would adjust the antenna of tv to get better network! Mr Gajendra gave a great scream of shock, “AAAAAARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHH” and fell on the ground, thankfully on a patch of grass.  We burst out laughing as Mr. gajendra dusted himself and stood up. He glared at us, though with a twinkle in his eyes. He was into his early-thirties then and was always a good sport. “Not one day passes when you girls don’t create a havok in this place! I saw my first grey hair yesterday and I strongly suspect its because of you four . and you Nayaa ladki”, he said addressing me.  ,(he had called me by this name ever since I joined the school in eighth standard, it meant ‘new girl’ ). “I had told you to come for the choir practice yesterday, didnt i?” he asked, “Why didnt you come then?” “Mr Gajendraaaaaa!” I replied, in a bored voice, “I don’t like singing! Stop pushing me please siiir!!” “Okay!” he said, starting towards the school building. I let out a huge sigh of relief! “Come for the practice tommorow at lunchtime!!” he added, grinning.  I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Try it maalu!” I heard pratishtha saying. I stuck out both my arms and imitated an airplane, wheering and running. “WHHHHEEEEEE…CHAMATKAAAA…OOPS!” I banged hard into somebody and fell heavily on their feet. “UH!OH!” I recognised these sandals. I slowly looked up to meet Mrs. Ghosh’s  narrowed eyes. Here we go agaiin…………..