Sonal's B'day!!!

“You say it best….When you say nothing at all!!” Ronan Keating’s voice filled the room as the alarm of my phone set off exactly at midnight. As if on cue, the huge clock on the wall also let out the defeaning song of ‘Gongs’ as it struck twelve.

“HAPPY B’DAY TO UUUUUUU!” We yelled and hugged Sonal on turning seventeen. Sakshi took out two crackers from her bag and as we pulled their strings, they burst with a loud bang filling the air with colourful strings and tiny pieces of sparkling paper .  Sonal twirled and danced with glee, her smile stretching frm ear to ear!

The three of us took our respective presents out of the bags and  thrust them in the bday girl’s hands. I had bought her a teddy bear frm ‘Archies’. I smiled when she squealed with joy on opening my gift and cuddled the bear for a full ten seconds. Sakshi had bought her a very trendy and colourful t - shirt whereas Pratishtha had got her a lovely summery fragrance. As we began clearing the bed of strewn wrapping paper and messy strings, the intercom buzzed.

“Come on!” Sonal exclaimed, jumping off the bed and putting on her slippers. “Mum and Dad are calling!”

As we made our way down the stairs, we saw Uncle, Aunty and Saurabh bhaiya (Who was holding a bouquet and a huge greeting card in his hand!) waiting for us. All three of them hugged and kissed Sonal a happy b’day. A groggy eyed servant came out of the kitchen and place two square shaped cakes on the dining table. One was chocolate and the other one was of  black-forest flavor. All of us crowded around the b’day girl and sang the b’ day song as she blew out the candles and cut the first piece. We skipped our favourite line of the song- “Many many boy-friends to uuu!” in the presence of  Sonal’s beaming parents. After smearing a lot of cream on Sonal’s face and eating three pieces of cake each, we wished Uncle and Aunty  a goodnight and made our way back to the room. We spent the next couple of hours chatting and clicking our pictures in funny poses. Our favourite one turned out to be the one of Pratishtha, Sakshi and myself in various ‘Shivji’ poses. We had fondly nicknamed a junior teacher at school- ‘Shivji’ because of her unusual hairstyle and dedicated this photo to her.

At around quarter past three, we all admitted to being hungry and tip-toed out of the room to, once again, descend the stairs and go to the kitchen. The silent house was completely immersed in a coat of darkness and we had to be careful not to touch the windows and the doors lest the alarm got activated and filled the house with ear-splitting sounds of the siren. Keeping our hands on each others’ shoulders, we walked slowly down the stairs in single file. Pratishtha’s free hand was covering my mouth to block out the sound of my giggling and by the time we reached the foot of the steps, she was pinching me on the arm, out of fury.

“MAAAALUU!” she said, exasperatedly, as we finally entered the kitchen and Sonal switched on the lights. “What is so funny?”

“Nothing!” I said, grinning, “just visualising how we must be looking, walking like that!”

Shaking their heads, the three of them spread out in the kitchen. Sonal started preparing maggi, Pratishtha was already pouring chilled ‘Frooti’ in four glasses and Sakshi was raiding the huge fridge for the leftovers from  dinner. I was,as usual, sitting cross-legged on the platform, yawning.

“Maaaaalu!” Sonal hissed, pulling me upright for the second time, “if u accidently brush the window behind u and the alarm goes off, you will be the one answerable to Dad!”

“Uhh alarm-smalarm!” I replied, stretching widely, “You worry too much mumma !”

Once their arms were full of merchandise, I jumped onto the floor and started towards the door.

“Not so soon madam!” Pratishtha said, grabbing the back of my top and pulling me back.

“Whaaat?” I asked, turning to face her.

“You are so lazy Maalu! I am tired of your laziness!”  she answered, giving me a stern look.

“Heyyyy!” I said , keeping a hand on my heart and my voice full of mock pain. “I am so hurt!”

“Good!” Pratishtha said, taking everything but the tray of Maggi and Frooti out of Sonal’s and Sakshi’s hands and shoving them in mine. “From now on, you can do some work too while we enjoy stretching occasionaly. You take most of this stuff upstairs. Now come on…after you!!!!”

Sulking and with my head high, I passed her outstretched hand and marched outside the kitchen,  making a grand show of my anger. Once inside the room, I dumped two bags of wafers, half empty bottle of Frooti, a pack of cookies and and air-tight bowl containing heated pasta onto the bed and sat with my back towards the door.

“Now that Maalu is not interested in eating or talking or ‘helping’,” I heard Sakshi’s loud  voice as the three of them entered the room, “we can sit here and enjoy ourselves!”

“Noooooo!” I shrieked,jumping onto the floor and helping them with the trays laden with food. “I’ll help!”

 They roared with laughter and I made a face at them, realising that they had anticipated my exact reaction.

We dug into the food and chatted about what to do next.

“Wanna watch a movie?” Sonal asked, twirling Maggi around her fork.

“Borrrrrring!” Sakshi replied.

“Shall we curl our hair?” Sonal offered.

“Eeuuuuww!” I groaned in reply, pretending to throw up in my glass of Frooti.

“I know!!!!” Sakshi said, rising to stand slowly and dramatically. “Lets…” she reached out behind her to slowly sieze something, “PILLOW-FIGHT!!”

The thing she had grabbed from behind  was a big white pillow and in an instant, we all were on our feet, attacking each other fiercely with pillows of our own. I had just managed to place my glasses on the side-table to keep them out of harm’s way when I was roughly pulled by a leg and next moment, I was lying on my back on the bed, being hit by all three of my friends. I quickly managed to grab Sonal’s leg and yanked it hard. As a result she heavily fell down on the bed and sitting up, I hit her everywhere with my yellow, sun-shaped pillow. “HAPPPY B’DAYY GIRLIE!” I yelled, as  she shielded her face, giggling and trying to fight back.

Meanwhile, Sakshi was chasing Pratishtha around the room hitting her hard on the back of her head with the largest pillow in the room.

At around five am, we finally collapsed on the floor and lay against each other, panting and catching our breath. What fun we had had! We even took a picture to capture the fun-filled moment!

“You know what!” Sonal said, “I can’t believe that after a few months we will leave school and…well, we will all go our different ways, right?”

“Noo!” I replied, lying  down on her outstretched legs, “Its upto us, isnt it? We will make sure that even if we go to different colleges, we will keep in touch and keep meeting for outings and nightstays just as we do now.”

“Yeah! Lets do that!” she said, holding out her hand, “ Sounds corny, but…We wont let our friendship fade out …ever! …. PROMISE????”

“PROMISE!!!!” the three of us yelled, putting our own hands on top of hers.

“Come on now!” Pratishtha said, getting up, “I am in no mood to get sentimental and besides, we have a monster called ‘Board Exams’ to defeat, before worrying about our teary-eyed moment of farewell. Tell you what! Let’s click a picture of four of us sitting in the bath-tub..it will be fun! We can laugh about it together when we get really old and lose our teeth!”

“Yeeeeeah!” Sakshi said, jumping and running towards the bathroom. “The last one to reach the bath-tub has to eat all of our cabbage covered pizzas when Captain Shekhawat serves them next!”

The food incharge at school- Captain Shekhawat, had recently invented a new dish, which consisted of small,round  cakes made of  refined flour i.e ‘maida’, covered with pieces of capsicum, tomato and lots and lots of cabbage!! When it had been served for the first time for breakfast, Aniket had asked the passing Captain Shekhawat, what the new dish was supposed to be.  The Latter had looked at him in surprise,  blinking!

“But It’s a Pizzaaaaaaa!” he finally said, bowing low and holding out his hands as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Aniket!” Avtar said,in mock outrage, “It’s a pizzaaaaaa! How could you not knowww???”

At this Captain Shekhawat had beamed at Avtar and had shaken  his head at Aniket’s lack of judgement before walking off.

 Now, we all screamed and ran towards the bathroom, grabbing each other’s arms to pull back and trying to beat the others to the bathroom. None of us wanted to eat more of those ‘Pizzas’  than we had to! 

"THE NIGHT-STAY!"

“MAAAALUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!”

I ran to my balcony on hearing Pratishtha’s voice. I saw Sonal’s red Swift reversing , then taking a U-turn and eventually coming to a halt  right outside my Multi-story’s main gate . Pratishtha was nearly  fully leaning out of the car’s window as she shouted for me to come downstairs. Running back inside the house, I grabbed my small runsack and hugged both my mother and sister before rushing towards the front door of our house.

“I’ll be home by tomorrow afternoon Mom!” I said.

“All right beta! Enjoy yourselves and don’t create a  havoc there for Sonal’s mother!” she said, with a knowing look in her twinkling eyes.

“Don’t check her now Ma!” my sister said, rolling her eyes “Let them have fun!”

After kissing each of them goodbye, I ran down the stairs to the ground-floor  and reaching the car, yanked open the backdoor of the car. Sonal was sitting in the passenger seat at the front, with her family’s driver  behind the wheel at the driver’s seat. At the back, Sakshi and Pratishtha shifted to make room for me. They both had bags of their own on their laps and we greeted each other with loud shouts and laughter. We were super excited!

“Hey  look! There’s Aunty! And Manna Di too!” Sonal pointed towards the balcony of our first floor apartment.

 ‘Manna’ is my sister’s nickname. She is named after our paternal grandmother whose name was- ‘Manorama’. Both Sonal and Pratishtha  leaned out of their respective windows to wave at them and I had to retrieve my glasses as Sakshi incidently knocked them aside ,while leaning across me to shout her greetings as well! 

“Be good, Children!” Mom said, waving back “Enjoy your stay!”

All three thanked Mom as the driver turned the key into  ignition and the engine purred to life. We all chatted  nineteen to a dozen as the car sped towards Sonal’s house.   

Sonal belonged to a strict, business-class  ‘Jaini’ house-hold! Hers was a nuclear family consisting of her parents and an elder brother. Her dad did not allow her to spend the night outside the house so we always had night-stays at her place. She lived in a handsome, white bunglow situated in a locality named-‘Janki-Nagar’. Most of the residents living here belonged to the Jain community and the whole area was neat, green and beautiful, with magnificent mansions lining the streets!

As the car entered the main gate of Sonal’s house, her mother opened the front door and stood smiling warmly to welcome us. All three of us greeted and  hugged her as we reached the doorway, our bags slung over our shoulders.  Sonal’s mother was a thin, ever-smiling simple lady who was always dressed in a  saree .She was an excellent house-wife and their house was always buzzing with a couple of servants who kept everything sparkling clean under Aunty’s careful supervision. Sonal was also equally proficient at all the household chores and this was the reason we called her “Mumma”.

“Children!” Sonal’s mom said, leading us inside the house, “ I will send the servant with the snacks while you all put your things in Sonal’s room and make yourselves comfortable. Sonal has arranged today’s dinner keeping in mind all the special requests by her  friends.”

Both Sonal and her Mom were fabulous cooks and we usually started making special requests to her a few days prior to our slumber parties. Thanking Aunty, we started up gleaming black marble stairs, which led to the first floor, where Sonal’s room was located. As soon as we entered Sonal’s room, we immediately felt at ease. She had a huge room with countless posters of bollywood and Hollywood celebrities pasted on the cream-coloured walls and plenty of soft-toys crowding the glass shelves.  There was a small changing room accompanied by a  lavish washroom and also a huge terrace was attached to the other side of room from where Sonal had once upturned a bucketful of water on us as we had entered her house.  We had had many night-stays in this place and that was why it was home away from home.  

The stereo was already on and a soft English song by Enrique Iglesias was playing in the room. Sonal switched on the AC as we threw our bags on the floor and flopped onto her low bed.  

“AAAhhhhhhhhh!” I sighed, lying on my back and closing my eyes. Sakshi immediately kicked me hard on my knee.

“You are so  lazy Maalu!” she said, lying next to me flat on her stomach,  with annoying expression on her face “if you fall asleep early today and spoil the fun, then I am going to strangle you with my bare hands!”

“Don’t you worry,  Missy!” I said, yawning widely and stretching “I haven’t forgotten the kind remarks you all showered upon me when I fell asleep ‘early’, pardon me… at 4:30 am during our last nite-stay. Today, I will be the last one to hit the sack. We will chat and chat and chat!” I promised, crossing my heart.

The knock on the door immediately made us sit upright with sensible expressions on our faces. Pratishtha who was closest to the door, opened it. The servant, a young boy of seventeen or eighteen entered , carrying a tray laden with four bowls of steaming, hot soup and mini pizzas, all crowned with melted grilled cheese. Setting down the tray carefully on the side-table, he left, asking Sonal to summon him using the inter-com  if we would need anything else.  We all began to devour the delicious lemon coriander soup and pizzas which Sonal had  prepared herself.

“Sonal you are so lucky!” Sakshi said, taking a bite of the pizza “you won’t have to learn anything before you get married. You are already fully trained!”

“So are your Sakshi!” Pratishtha said, keeping a straight face “Didn’t we congratulate you last month when you finally succeeded in lightning the gas stove with a lighter without any mishaps?”

We roared with laughter as Sakshi threw Sonal’s bulky teddy bear (which we had christened ‘Salma’ , a couple of years back, after seeing a commercial of a flop B-grade bollywood movie- ‘Salma pe dil aa gaya’!)  at Pratishtha.

 Sakshi’s family consisted of her parents, a brother who was ten years older to her and a bubbly and chirpy bhabhi, whom we called ‘Dolly didi’. Sakshi was the baby of the family and had never made as much as a cup of tea in her home, about which we constantly teased her. 

As the evening proceeded, the four of us lazed around and chatted about school, board exams and our favourite topic- Boys!  We went downstairs for dinner at around eight pm and greeted Sonal’s father and brother, both of whom had just arrived home from their office. Her dad was a shy and a polite person who always asked all of us about our families, studies and health. Sonal’s brother ,Saurabh Bhaiya was also an introvert person to whom we usually just said ‘Hello Bhaiya!’ to which he warmly responded with a smile.   

Sonal’s family was strictly vegetarian but as always, the supper was delicious! There was Pasta  in red sauce, Chilly paneer with just the right amount of gravy, Fried rice, a typical ‘Jaini Sabzi’ consisting of various veggies like cauliflower, potatoes,beans, peas and egg-plant ( which to our surprise, we all loved!) accompanied with ghee-smeared Rotis and for dessert- Custard with both ice-cream and home-made strawberry jelly! The three of us enjoyed the dinner immensely which having a pleasant conversation with Uncle and Aunty (Saurabh bhaiya was having dinner in his room). We shyly nodded and allowed the servant to serve the second helping of everything on our plates but grinned  at each other knowingly as we refused, one after the other, for the third helpings, knowing well that each of us longed for more. Pratishtha  leaned towards me on the pretext of reaching out for water jug and whispered in my ear- “The Mid-Night Feast! Don’t Worry!”

After having our Dinner, we returned to the room and changed into our night-wears. I was wearing a brand new night-suit which consisted of a long white t-shirt with a picture of an apple on it, paired with half pajamas also printed with red apples all over. My new purchase fetched me many compliments today from my friends! Sonal was dressed in an elegant,full navy blue satin night-suit which suited her to perfection  whereas Pratishtha, in her tom-boyish manner, had opted for a white-collared dark- blue  t-shirt and full, light-blue and pink printed lowers. Sakshi, as usual had decided to stand out. She announced that she would be sleeping in her jeans  as “she didn’t look good in pajamas” but switched her sleeveless red top with a comfortable and a loose haldi-yellow coloured one instead.

“So whatdo we do next??” Sonal asked, smirking and wiggling her eyes-brows.

“FORTUNE!!” the three of us yelled ,jumping onto the bed.

Fortune was a silly card game for which the boys of our class would have rather opted to jump in a lake than to agreeing to play it with us, but we absolutely  loved it!

 This game is played with two deck of cards. One deck is distributed equally amongst the players while the other is kept in a heap in the middle of the players’ ring. As the game starts, the first player asks a question for example- “Who will score maximum marks in tomorrow’s  Math test?”.  He/She then picks up a card from the deck kept in the middle. Who ever amongst the players  has the same matching card from the other deck which was distributed, wins the question! Then the game proceeds in a clockwise manner with each player posing a question before picking up a card. We knew this game was childish and foolish but we always ended up having a ball while playing it. Our today’s chosen topic for ‘Fortune’ was- ‘Our Future Husbands!’ .

“Okay, I’ll start!  Whose husband would be the most romantic of all?  ” Sakshi said, having distributed the cards amongst us and the second deck kept carefully in the middle of the bed,around which we sat in a ring.

Picking up the topmost card and looking at it, she said- “Ace of Diamonds!”

We all scanned our respective cards eagerly till…..

“Meeeeeeeeee!” Sonal gushed, taking a bow.

We threw envious glances at her as this game was really going to decide our fate.

“Okay, my turn!” I said, hardly able to supress the laughter thinking about my coming question, “Whose husband would beat his wife up?” I reached out and picked up a card from the middle- “Three of clubs!”

“UUUrrrgghh!” Pratishtha moaned as she extracted the card from her set and threw it aside “Disgusting person!”

We laughted as Pratishtha herself asked the next question.

“Whose husband would be most jolly natured one amongst all?” she said “Eight of Spades”.

“That would be meeeee!” I said, grinning.

“If he’ll be as jolly as you,” Sakshi said “then the world will come to an end before your honeymoon!”

I stuck out my tongue at her as Sonal asked “Who, amongst us ,will get the most dominating husband? ….Two of spades!”  

“Noooooooo!” I said , grimacing and throwing aside my offending card.

“Whose husband would shower his wife with presents?...Queen of hearts!” Sakshi said.

“Yaaaaaaaaay!! Finally my kinda guy!” Sakshi squealed herself, jiggling her hands in a funny dance.

“Most charming husband”- Sonal

“Most miser husband”- Pratishtha

“Mosr daring husband”- Sakshi

“Most Shy”- Pratishtha

“Most snobbish”- Pratishtha

“Most short-tempered”- Pratishtha

“WHAT THE HELL!” Pratishtha bellowed, as we howled with laughter at Pratishtha’s bad luck tonight, “THIS GAME IS HELL BENT ON GIVING ME A LOSER FOR A HUSBAND! STUPID GAME!”

As usual, we had a great time playing ‘Fortune’ for the next three hours. Our questions proceeded to get naughty and then to being downright sleazy, which would have given our respective mothers, a mild stroke each in the  least. We finally wound up the game and went to the terrace to get some fresh air and to stretch our limbs, which had gotten stiff because of our sitting for such a long time. I glanced at my watch to see the time- 11:46 PM. It was almost midnight! Sonal would be turning seventeen in just another fourteen minutes!

                                               

                         

"Mrs. Bhan's Birthday!"

The next day, 9th of August was Mrs. Bhan’s birthday. As I had witnessed in my first year at P.E, this day was a joyous occasion, each year, for all of us!  Everyone, be it teachers, students, helpers or maids, hovered around the foyer waiting for Mrs. Bhan’s car to arrive. Back in Eighth standard, I had prepared a small card for Mrs. Bhan on her b’day. It was a picture of a bouquet of flowers which I had  painted in water-colours. I remember how I had coyly handed it to her and wished her a happy b’day as I fiercely blushed - the colour of a beetroot. I had been over the moon the next day when my mom, on returning from school, had told me that Mrs. Bhan had told her how she greatly appreciated my card. This she did  while on her daily rounds of the junior school. She had asked my mother whether I had drawn and coloured the card myself as she complimented me to my mother and said it was a beautiful card. I still remember wondering  to myself in awe,  how  anybody could specially remember a tiny card, amongst hundreds of huge ones. But such was Mrs. Bhan! She was not just our headmistress; but she was also our fairy god-mother who instantly put a smile on our faces with her magic wand that was her love and affection .  She was our mother-hen who noticed and appreciated us for every tiny little thing and also checked us whenever we put a toe out of line. Today four years later, I smiled to myself at the sweet memory and looked down at the different greeting card which I now held in my hand. It had taken me three days to prepare it and I knew that Mrs. Bhan would go over each of her cards separately and would appreciate our efforts. So I had worked as hard as everybody else had , each of us wanting our respective cards to be the best for our head-mistress.

As the past four years had passed and we had all entered adoloscence, Mrs. Bhan had become more of a friend to us than our principal. We could share each and every worry with her and she often took sessions for us senior girls consisting of sex-education and woes of teenagers!!. But today we were as excited as eleven year olds to wish her a happy b’day.  Around me, Sonal,Sakshi, Khushboo and Pratishtha were holding flowers and cards in their hands . We all shared a moment thinking that this would be the last year we would be celebrating Mrs. Bhan’s bday as students at P.E. We promised  ourselves that we would come to wish her the following year too. We suddenly stopped speaking on hearing the sound of a car screeching to a halt. We stepped down the couple of stairs at the entrance of the main building just as  Mrs. Bhan stepped out of her silver Ford Icon. Today she was dressed in  a maroon cotton saree and a slightly different jewellery from what she wore everyday, but that too was of silver.  Her arms were laden with numerous greeting cards and flowers which she must have received at Dhar Kothi. She smiled lovingly as everybody surrounded her at once. She thanked each and every person carefully, specially the bunch of little fifth-graders who were jumping around the crowd to give her the flowers they had brought. They blushed deeply as Mrs. Bhan addressed each of them by their names, accepting their flowers. I patiently waited for my turn and finally presented my greeting card to her. “Wish you a very happy bday Mrs. Bhan!” I said. She was smiling radiantly at everyone and as usual her eyes were sparkling with emotion. “Thank you Mallika!” she replied, hugging me, “That’s a lovely one” she added, looking over the greeting card.

“Mrs. Bhan gets cards from everyone!” a voice said from behind my back. Dr. Bhan was striding towards us. “No-one makes me any card. Not even you Harry!” he said. He had started addressing  me by this name ever since he had come to know about my craze for the Harry Potter books. When we were younger, we had been terrified of Dr. Bhan but today he joked around with us and particularly liked to pull my leg.

 “I’ll make you one this year Dr. Bhan.” I  promised, smiling at him. He frowned and asked “You will? Tell me when’s my b’day.”

 I looked at Mrs. Bhan for help as Dr. bhan’s face remained impassive. Mrs. Bhan looked at her husband and said “Dr. Bhan is just feeling a bit jealous today, aren’t you? Okaay bye byee Dr. Bhan. See youuu!”

 Dr. bhan gave me one of his mock glares, with a frown and his lips pursed, and took off in another direction. Mrs Bhan laughed and went into her office. Both of them always teased each other and made us laugh. I set off towards my class just as Gopal bhaiya went into Mrs Bhan’s office with a single rose in his hand, his warm and respectful smile intact .

Mr. Gajendra too shared his b’day with Mrs Bhan and he shyly bowed and accepted everyone’s wishes as we all headed outside for the assembly. After the hymn, we all sang the b’day song “Happy B’day To You!” for Mrs. Bhan and Mr. Gajendra while both of them pointed to each other with their hands at “Yoouuu!” which made the children laugh in delight. That day snacks were accompanied with a slab of vanilla  ice-cream and a  “Cadbury Chocki”,the recently launched liquid chocolaty candy, for each student. The  last class of the day,our  library period , saw the Four of us huddled in the corner of the room as Ms. Sanghi kept a careful eye on us from behind her thick book! We were deciding what we were going to do during the slumber-party we had planned for the weekend. Three days to go!! We knew it was going to be an amazing night!               

"Geeta-Bhavan ke Samose!"

We entered the month of August with a striking realisation of how quickly the last month had flown! As the final  session of our schooling proceeded, quite a few things changed. First of all, the pressure and work-load of studies increased at an unbelievable pace. All the teachers now expected A high level of hard-work from us and their respective classes consisted of  non-stop assignments, tests,warnings and strict instructions. Speaking about myself, my worst fear had come true. Mrs. Bandi, though very sweet and warm as a person, was an extremely professional and  ‘no-nonsense’ type of a teacher. She constantly encouraged us to ask her any doubts that we might  have during the lesson and took forward her subject at a fast pace in accordance with the syllabus. I was seriously lagging behind in the subject due to my lack of interest and carelessness. Instead of gathering up the courage to dive into the subject and try to understand it, I chose to pretend, expertly, that I was following, by nodding my head and copying from Sakshi’s notebook. I knew that one day, I was going to end up in a soup when it would be time for us to appear in the board exams but the little red devil perched on my right shoulder reminded me again and again that the session had just started and I could always “pull up my socks” after a couple of months.  Even Mrs David, who was usually very easy going and lenient with us was constantly pushing us to take Economics seriously. Mrs Rubina had started giving us tests twice a week and we had admitted amongst ourselves that it was indeed helping us cover the syllabus quickly. Mrs Ghosh decided upon giving us essay-type questions and report writing as assignments as she said it WOULD help us increase our speed and we would be able to write long answers in a limited time as a practice for exams. 

The second change was a far more pleasant one for me than the previous one! Eventually, after many bus-rides, back and forth between  school and home, I had begun to find a close friend in Vyankatesh. Ever since I had joined Progressive, I had always hung out with my girl-friends and nothing felt amiss. But as Venky (I had started calling him by the same name everyone else called him by!) and I spent more and more time together, we ended up having a gala time. I was marvelled at how much fun we had in the bus. We always sat on the same seat, one right IN the middle of the bus which had a raised platform at the bottom. He saved me a seat everyday and moved aside to let me sit by the window. Venky was witty, outspoken and so funny! I suppose he also found me humorous as, shaking his head, he claimed that my booming laughter was not for faint-hearts to hear!

 Today, Venky and I were having an arm-wrestling match in the bus on our way to the school while the bunch of little fifth graders looked on with wide eyes and cheered EACH TIME THERE WAS any development.  Venky conceiled a yawn behind his free hand as I grunted and applied my full stregth with my arm. After getting exhausted of all my energy, I kicked him hard on his leg. He immediately pretended to give a loud ‘UUFFFF!’ and let me win. Our young audience –all of them boys- fell into a stunned silence.  One of them managed to squeak aloud his thoughts  to us. “Ladki se haar gae!!( lost to a girl!)”, he whispered as though this was the end of the world. My “win” was the topic of discussion till we entered the gates of the school. “Ha!” Venky guffawed, as we made our way to the main building, “As if I can ever lose to a girl!”.

 “Yeah Yeah!”, I replied, “at least you have hit an all time low with our young friends on the bus!”

 “I don’t care!”, he said, “ Am I their friend or yours?! See I am so sweet naa?” he flashed all his teeth at me as I made a  face. Just then, Sonal came rushing towards us and even before any of us could say  ‘hi’, she faced me and demanded, “Did u ask aunty, Maalu??”

 “Yes, I did and she said ‘YES’ !!”I yelled out the last word and we hugged each other with joy!.

 “Said yes to what? Sending both of you to Bareilly’s Mental hospital for a summer camp? Shrieking early in the morning like crazy!”.

“No you idiot!” Sonal said, “four of us are having a slumber-party at my place on twelfth night to celebrate my b’day, which is on the 13th by the way. We will celebrate it at midnight and have lots of fun!!!” 

“Night-stay haan? “ Avtar’s voice said from behind. We turned to see him and Amitayu walking towards us.

 “So am I invited too???” he asked, slyly.

 “Yaaa…you wish!!” Sonal and I chorused and burst out laughing.

 “I wont go there if somebody pays me to.”, Amitayu said as we made our way towards the class. “They’ll giggle like idiots the whole night and go gaga over Shahid Kapoor and some guy at the coffee house. Ladkiyaan bewakoof hoti hain.”, he added as if that ended the matter.

 “How do you know so much about slumber-parties amidaaa?” I poked him on the arm and teased him till he gave me a deadly look which sombered me at once.

Soon, Sakshi, Pratishtha , Sonal and I were sitting together, planning things for our slumber party. “Hey!”, Sonal said, “Shall we catch a movie on 12th evening with my family after I pick three of you from your homes?’ Parineeta,’  got released yesterday and I think it’s sort of an adult movie. So we can have fun commenting. What say?”.

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” , Pratishtha  shouted so loudly that three of us winced. “I am never going to watch any censored movie with family again.” She said, grimacing, “its so goddamn embarassing. I went to watch ‘Page-3’ with my grandparents once. You know that film is full of adult dialogues and swear words.  It was horrible! Dada-Daadi made me sit in between with each of them on either side and Dadaji, short of hearing as he is, kept on asking me after every dialogue – “Hain, kya bol raha hai”, ye kya boli?” They were the worst three hours of my life.”

I wiped away the tears which had slid down my cheeks due to laughing so hard. It took me another ten minutes of cajoling and hitting (by Pratishtha) to calm down. As we made our way towards the cubicle for Economics, we heard Mrs. Bandi’s voice calling us from behind. She hurried towards us and shoved a silver tiffin box in Pratishtha’s hands. “Here!”, she said, “The pudding that you had brought me that day was delicious Pratishtha. My kids enjoyed it the most. I did not get time to make you something though to fill your tiffin with. So I brought hot samosas for you from ‘Samosewala’ of my neighbourhood. He was making a fresh batch.” Mrs. Bandi stayed in a locality named Geetabhavan. Samose of that particular samosewala are famous throughout Indore. After Pratishtha thanked her,  Mrs Bandi rushed towards the left corridoor to take her class as we started up  the steps.  Pratishtha opEned the tiffin box and A delicious aroma filled our nostrils. “MMMmmmm!” I swooned as we crossed the library.

 “They’ll get cold soon.When do we eat them? “ Sakshi asked with a longing look, as Sonal nodded fiercely. Pratishtha turned to face THE three of us with an amused look.

 “When did I even say that I will share these with you three anyway?”. We pinched her and tickled her till till she screamed. “Okay Okaayyyy…I was just kidding!! You know what,” she said, “ Mrs. David always comes a bit late for her class in the morning. Let’s eat these samosas right now but we have to be quick and let’s sit on THE floor so that no one else can see us.” We all agreed and began to shift our chairs to make space for us to sit on the floor. The doors of all the classes were opaque from THE middle to THE bottom whereas THEY  had transparent glass on the upper-half. So as we sat comfortably on the floor with our legs crossed, we were sure that no one would be able to see us eating. Four of us were so excited about samosas that one would think we were going to eat them for the first time in our lives. But AN unexpected samosa feast in school was as unlikely for us as Mrs. Bandi taking a one week leave. I laughed loudly as Pratishtha, sitting opposite me, who unwound in a circular motion, the thread binding the green chutney packet, with a silly grin on her face. Sakshi covered my mouth with her hands and said “Ye Maalu ki wajah se hee marenge hum chaaron ek din.(we are going to die because of Maalu one day)”. Pratishtha handed us a samosa each  and kept the last one for Mrs David. The samosas were just delicious! The crust was crispy and hot and the potato filling just melted in our mouths. I felt depressed when mine was finished and hoped there wERE more. I looked longingly at Sonal’s last bite, which , noticing me looking, she immediately popped  in her mouth, smirking.

 “I say,”, Sakshi said as we stood up and dusted ourselves clean, “ it’s been almost fifteen minutes now and Mrs. David isnt here yet. She is present for sure as I saw her in the morning. Lets go and find her. She is never this late.” We all agreed and hiding the last samosa  in my bag, stepped out of the cubiclE to find our teacher. We spotted her midway on the stairs and she looked very angry. “Just where were you girls?”, she demanded as soon as we reached her, “I have been looking all around the building for all of u. I came to the cubiclE and didn’t see u there when I peeked inside. The chairs were empty.”  We all broke into explanation at once and Mrs. David probably could not understand any of it as she silenced US with her hand held up and looked at us with a sad expression on her face. “I thought that by being friendly with you all, learning would be more fun”, she said, “I always thought that even though you girls are a little playful, you would never ever think of taking advantage of me. You have started lYing to me as well. How can I not see you if you were in THE cubiclE.”

We started to speak again at once but she wouldn’t listen. “I don’t feel like teaching today girls,” she said , “Enjoy your free period all of you,” she added, walking away from us. We all looked at each other and sat down inside the small room.

 “I feel lousy!” SonAl said in a tiny voice, “What should we do?”

Ten minutes later, we were all standing outside the Staff-room. “Ms. Payal!!” I called out to the teacher sitting nearest to the door. She was a young teacher, in her mid-twenties, with short hair and a smiling face. She took English in the junior classes. She looked up and glanced inquiringly at us. “Ma’am could you call Mrs. David for us for just a minute?” I said. She nodded and called out to Mrs. David . “She is coming.”, Ms Payal said, “She is looking sad though. Did you girls do anything bad to annoy her?” She looked at us sternly. We were just about to answer her when Mrs David herself emerged from the staff-room, looking grave.

 “Mrs. David,”, Pratishtha stepped up and spoke before Mrs. David could say anything, “Please at least hear us out once. After that if you tell us to leave, we will not come here again, but please listen to us once. It’s a misunderstanding.” Encouraged BY Mrs. David’s silence, she went on speaking and started telling her everything about Pratishtha’s tiffin-box, Mrs. Bandi’s samosas and our decision to  sit on the floor to eat them and that’s how she could not see us from outside. “This is what happened Mrs. David. Really!!” Pratishtha said, after telling Mrs. David the whole story. “We just want you to believe that whatever we do, we would never lie to you. And we would never ever take advantage of you. Really ma’am! See we even left you a samosa! ” She pointed at me and I held out the  last samosa which I was untill now holding in my hand behind my back. “SORRY  Mrs. David!” the four of us held our ears and chorused, the samosa still in my hand.  We looked at Mrs. David’s face to see whether she believed us or not.  Mrs. David looked at each of us and then at the samosa dangling near my right ear and burst out laughing. “You girls are so silly!!”, she exclaimed, stretching out her arms and pulling all four of us in a tight hug. “I knew you girls would never hurt me on purpose. Though you are the silly and naughty and full of mischief, I always told my husband that these girls have got their hearts in the right place. Today I was hurt to think that you would take me for granted and bunk my class. I am so relieved now.” She patted each of us on THE cheek fondly and said, “Now there’s no sense going back to the lesson. THE bell is about to ring in five minutes. TomoRrow I want all of you in time in for our economics class, ON YOUR CHAIRS!! And give me my samosa!”. We laughed as we headed towards the main building. How we adored Mrs. David! We were glad we could lift up her mood and clear the little misunderstanding which had arisen. We would never ever hurt any teachers of ours on purpose. We headed towards our next class, giggling and blaming each other for the samosa  fiasco which we knew none of us would ever forget!                     

"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…………..

"Our new accounts teacher!"

Our new Accounts teacher turned out to be a thin, middle-aged, fair and delicate looking Maharashtrian lady with curly hair. She was standing near the green sofa in the reception area and seemed to be searching for us with a thick book in her hand.  As we went closer to her, I took in notice her neatly pinned-up grey and yellow chiffon saree and her square-shaped rimless spectacles. My first silly thought which popped-up at her first sight was that her face looked like that of an innocent sparrow, with small, pouted lips and tiny, almond-shaped eyes. As we greeted her, she smiled nervously and led us towards the empty classroom at the corner of the west corridoor whose occupants were probably at the field for their sports period. “Hello!”, she started once we all were comfortably seated. “My name is Supriya Bandi and I will be taking your accounts classes. In this class, I thought we would just get to know each other well and we can start the subject in the second class after the recess!” For the rest of the class we kept on chatting and we all immediately bonded well with Mrs. Bandi. We came to know that she has not joined as a full-time teacher but as a visiting faculty.  In her second class after the recess,she taught us the basics of the journal entry and we cud see that she was really a very experienced and learned teacher. By the time the bell rang, we had spent a lot of time with our new ma’am and decided that she was ‘cool ’!

 “Khushboo and I have a Literature class with Mrs. Bhan now.” I said, extracting the navy blue text-book from my bag after our commerce class with Mrs Rubina, who was also a new faculty member and was very friendly and chirpy. “You guys cannot have Fashion-designing, right? Because Khushboo takes it too!” “Thats right Maaluuu!!” Sakshi said while jumping around the class and bumping into Amitayu, who scowled at her in return, “We have a free-period. These are meant for us to revise our lessons as exams get near but as the session has almost just started, it is a total fuuuuuuuun timeee!” I pretended to hit her with my text-book and made my way, with Khushboo, to Mrs. Bhan’s office where she took our classes. “So, moti!” I said, calling her by the hindi nick- name I had long since given her, “where had our dear Mr. Seth reached during the last lesson?” “I think,” she replied, opening her book, “last read, he was complaining about the man sitting behing him in the bus eating very,smelly goat-meat on their way to resort-cottages at the Heaven’s Lake. “Yeah!” I said, screwing up my nose, “now I remember!” we waited outside Mrs. Bhan’s office as she finished a conversation on her office phone and ushered us in, while searching for her own blue colored book before sitting down besides us on the only empty yellow  plastic chair by the window. We were studieng  an Indian novel called – ‘From Heaven lake- Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet.’ By- Mr. Vikram Seth, the author of the famous book- ‘A Suitable boy.’  “So girls!,” Mrs. Bhan started, opening her book, “ Where were we? I think Mr. Seth had arrived at the cottages and was happily surveying his surroundings and thick, quilted beds after having a tiring bus journey.” We nodded and I started reading further lines on Mrs. Bhan’s instructions-

“The lake is an intense blue, surrounded on all sides by green mountain walls, dotted with distant sheep. At the head of the lake, beyong the delta of the in-flowing stream, is a massive snow capped peak which dominates the vista; it is a part of a series of peaks that culminate, a little out of view, in Mount Bogda itself...”

Though Mr. Seth’s story of his  journey was in first person format as in a tale, it was endowed with many difficult synonyms and metaphors. As Khushboo and I took turns reading the chapter, Mrs. Bhan kept on explaining its gist and meanings. As always, as we read, she made us underline the confusing and unknown words with pencil for us to look them up in the dictionary later and tell her their meaning in the next class.  we had finished two long chapters (having marked the last read page by inserting a bookmark as Mrs. Bhan strongly disapproved of folding the corner of the pages) just as the bell at the end of the second Literature class rang." Tuesdays were good in this session’s timetable",i thought as we stepped out of Mrs Bhan's office- double economics, double accounts with a new nice teacher who doesn’t seem to be strict,1 commerce class , literature with mrs bhan,  and double english language with mrs ghosh after the lunch break!!!

Returning to the class for keeping our books before heading for the dining hall for lunch, we waited outside the class-room till the boys get finished with their Physics lesson with Mrs. Awasthi. After latter had left and we all walked towards the terrace, we discussed how nicer the place looked now after having being converted into an eating- mess. It looked like a roof-top restaurent and on cloudy, breezy days, it was a pure delight eating there.

We started ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens with Mrs. Ghosh in the last class of the day and immersed in the heavily narrated tale of Pip and his sister Joe Gargery, who had, by the way, married a blacksmith.We had heard that Mrs. Bhan and Mrs. Ghosh  had seen the Bollywood movie- Bride and Prejudice, which had recently been released in the theatres to see how much it was similar to the classic they had read. We didn’t know if it was a rumour or not, but if it really  was true, I was sure they would not have related to it at all. on my way back home, I again sat with Venkatesh in the bus…..

" Beloved Mrs Ghosh and Mrs David!!"

“Goodmorning class!”, Mrs Ghosh greeted us as she opened the attendance register and started calling out our names one by one. Being one of the seniormost teachers of the school, she had been assigned as the class-teacher of the seniormost class i.e  us! Being such an old teacher she knew each of us well !  She spoke only in English or Bengali and just for fun, we enjoyed speaking to her deliberately in the Hindi language as she was not very fluent at either understanding it or speaking it. We absolutely adored her ! Today the boys had decided to answer to their roll-call in Sanskrit. So whenever their names were being called out, they were answering it by saying –“Asti! Or Upasthit ” (both of which mean present!) .

Mrs. Ghosh adjusted her spectacles on her tiny nose and glared through her square shaped glasses, saying- “Now come on! Stop being silly all of you. We are getting late for the assembly! What is this ‘aasti-aasti’ business! Answer properly.” she had just closed the register and was about to say something when Khushboo came hurrieng to the door. She was a chubby girl with a booming laughter and a sensitive temper like amitayu’s. She was the only one who had opted for the arts stream after our board year but we all shared  a common class of English language with her, which was compulsary for students of every stream. I, however also had an additional subject of English Literature with her for which only both of us had opted. It was taken by Mrs. Bhan and we studied the classic literary works in this class, analysing the character-sketches and doing thesis on the writing style of the different authors. Sonal, Sakshi and Pratishtha had opted for fashion designing instead!   “Sorry Mrs Ghosh!” Khushboo said, catching up her breath, “I missed my bus and thats why I had to come with Mrs bhan in her car after she had taken the assembly of the junior school!”  After Mrs Ghosh had allowed her in and had marked her present, she took a new pile of dark green thick books from the classroom cupboard and distributed them to each one of us. “Children, We have a double English class today after lunch. So, we would be starting with ‘Great Expectations’ from Charles Dickens now and we would also be continuing with ‘The Tempest’ simontaniously.”  “Thats a relief!” a voice whispered “ we need a break from thee, thy and thou now or we will soon start speaking that way amongst ourselves too!”  I think...” Mrs Ghosh remanded, looking straight at Avtar, having heard his comment, “that on the contrary, Mr. Shakespeare is the one who needs a break from all of you! You murder his dialogues sometimes. Anyway, I also have to inform you four girls of the commerce stream”, she said gesturing towards us, “ that your new Accounts teacher would be taking your classes from today. Mrs. Bhan has found a very nice and talented person finally for the subject.” The four of us groaned, as we got up to form a line for the assembly, as till now we were getting all the accounts classes as free periods because of the absence of the teacher for it and in that time we enjoyed long sessions of frolicking and chatting. I was most depressed as I knew that I, in particular, would come out to be the lousiest at the subject. It was afterall, a close cousin of Mathematics!

After the assembly, where after the hymn, Mrs Bhan had warned the chidren to behave properly in the bus while coming to the school as she was getting a lot of complaints from the teachers, we four girls took our books and made our way to the first floor for our first lesson of the day- the Economics class. Boys’ classes were held in our main classroom and we only spent a little time there before the assembly and during the English lessons. We had been assigned a small cubicle near the staffroom for all our classes which had initially seemed to be very small and stuffy but with the passage of time, we had come to love it and now treated it as our privately owned domain. We crossed the library and entered the door of the staffroom, immediately on the left of which was our cubicle. There was room for exactly four small-sized blue chairs for each of us and a plain, roomier chair for the faculty in our room. Our places had long since mutually been fixed amongst ourselves and lifting aside the joint panel attached to the hands of our chairs for keeping the books, we took our seats. Economics class was taken by our very dear Christian teacher in her fifties- Mrs. Barbara David. She kept her hair short in the boy-cut style and was fitter than many younger people in the school. Previously, she had been incharge of the whole junior school but she had been transferred here, to the senior school  for taking our commerce and economics classes as she had majored in these subjects in college and also took excellent coaching classes for them at her home in the evenings. Even though Mrs. David was much older than all of us, we shared a great rapport with her and she was always there to favour us and  to eagerly discuss all types of our academic as well as personal matters openly. Today, she strode in ten minutes late and immediately commanded us to open up our text-books to page 38. “I was talking to Mrs. Bhan about a student and did not hear the bell at all!” she said in a wheezy and huffy voice by having rushed to the class in such a hurry, “I bet you girls must have been elated thinking that Mrs. David is not going to turn up for the lesson!” “No ma’am!”, Pratishtha said, “We would never do that! We loooooooooove  eco classes.” “ Young ladies!” Mrs. David said, raising her right eyebrow and smiling, “I am not that old yet that you could butter me up and I would not understand it. Whenever I take reading lessons, you all are asleep halfway through the class. I think you don’t take me seriously enough. I should be more strict with you girls, you know! Other teachers say that I have spoiled all of you rotten. And I think they are right. Now come-on! Toooooo the next chapter.” She loudly exclaimed over our defensive replies and mock outbursts. We never took Mrs. David seriously but loved her a loot!   Turn by turn, we read the chapter about the monopolistic market conditions and its effects. During the second-half of the class, Mrs. David dictated us some important points regarding the topic and the answers of the commonly asked questions. Sometimes, when only a last few minutes of the class would be left and we Mrs. David would see that we all are tired, she would let us off early. But today, even after our pleas and requests, she made sure that we keep on writing the matter.  Sonal, who was eventhough sitting nearest to Mrs. David kept asking her to repeat the ‘last sentence’ and finally, latter retorted in an irritated manner “Arreee, this one! Sonal, are you short of hearing or what!”   rest three of us burst out laughing and kept repeating to Sonal in unison- “short of hearing or what!” for the rest of the lesson. “That’s enough girls!” Mrs. David said, closing her register and putting the cap back on her pen. “and by the way, I keep telling you that the jeans you wear are far tighter than the ones which would be appropriate according to the school and you all don’t listen. The girls of junior classes even more so than you. Now I have heard that if this continues then your uniform might get changed to something more suitable and comfortable.” “Noooooooooo!”, we all exclaimed together. We absolutely loved our uniform. It was so much cooler and trendier and smarter. The idea of wearing something else to the school was frightening and appalling! “ I said its a possibility! So mend your ways girls and tell your friends and juniors to do the same too.” Just on cue, the bell rang, announcing the end of the lesson and Mrs. David left for her next class. While coming out of the cubicle to search for our new Accounts teacher for our double  period, the possibily of changing our beloved dress-code was the only topic of discussion between us and we looked over each other if they really were as “inappropriate”  as they said, for wearing them at school!