The final bell on final friday before the summer vacations was always special, filled with lot of expectations, anticipations and belief that the coming six weeks would be the best time of our lives. Having finished my final sems and coming back home to enjoy the last of all summer vacations, i happened to pass through loyola on that fateful friday. As the bell rang, the school gates opened and children rushed out as if the prison walls had been broken and this being their only opportunity to escape. The entire beldih road got flooded with the boys in white shirt with occasional patches of men in blue. Panditji, as usual became busy making chuski at a rate that would even put german machinery to shame, jay chandji making dosas, putting in oil instead of butter and water instead of oil. A casual stroll past him, his initial frown that of why come in this busy hour, and then the broad smile...bhaiya aap kab aye?
Seeing those young kids of junior school, my own "half pant" days come gushing back. I remember on this last friday, i used to get rs 5 from my mother to celebrate the onset of the vacation. That would be enough for a special panditji chuski, a shared jai chand dosa or a special jhalmuri from chandanji. I wasn't allowed to travel to school on my cycle way back in junior school, so there would be a maruti van waiting. On all other days the van driver, Shravanji, would scold us to get in fast and would always be in a hurry, but on this special day he would spare us all. We would loitre on the roads, make fun, play those silly childish games and mock at the school as if we have won a battle against it and got our well deserved freedom. Only when plans of how we would spend the next six weeks, cricket matches scheduled, get together dates fixed, we would leave for our home, heart content and dreams fabricated. Though seldom we lived upto such plans, but then when in life does things go as scheduled. Little did i realize then that such a trivial day might leave a lasting effect down the road.
Retrospecting, the end of school hours bell was always special, more so in junior school. We were then ruled by tyrannical teachers who would always frighten us and would scare us with the fact that senior school was worse. We were so horrified then that we would not even dare to touch the premises of senior school. But that 1.20 bell would bring an end to all that for the day and the next day seemed distant away. I remember Samarth Mohan, he was in 5B and i myself in 5C, being my van mate and neighbours back then. He had a younger brother, Shikhar Mohan or as was nicknamed, Agarkar, for his "wicket taking machine" skills!! Along with Vipul Kesri we were the younger lot and it used to be our constant effort to trouble the seniors, Ankit bhaiya, Tinu bhaiya and Surjo bhaiya. Tinu bhaiya, or Samar Jha as the world knows him, was the then hot and hapenning guy of Loyola, just elected as the school president and we felt it an honour to be travelling with him. The very thought that the school president knows me personally would give an air of arrogancy when we walked the corridors of junior school and in those petty childhood fights which were a regular recess time affair, samarth and i wud be spared by just uttering the name Samar Jha. Ankit bhaiya, arguably, was my first guide who gave me an insight to the porn world. Those were days when household computer was distant dream and an hour of internet would cost around 30 bucks, so porn sites and digital images were something unheard of. I remember watching Titanic in the fifth standard and Kate Winslet became my instant favorite actress, for reasons apart from her acting. Ankit bhaiya used to foster those burning desires and he even brought hardcopy porn for us, hand written stories, torn pages from magazines, etc, etc. And of course how could i forget Veera Menon, the chemistry teacher who used to travel with us and definitely was the hottest in campus. Ours being an all boys school, such beauties were rarely seen. Classmates would always be jealous of me for getting the opportuniy of travelling with her, those ocassional care that she would impart, those brushing of my hair with her hand, would be recess time discussions for about a week that followed. And then of course there was Shravanji, who tried to make life hell for us. Little did we then understand that it was love, and his urge to make us reach home earliest to our waiting parents that prompted him to such acts.
Coming to think of it, those were the best days, when there was no peer pressure, no care about future, just maintaing the regular day to day schedule and going to bed every night peacefully. Life moved on fast then. not dull and slow as it does now. I remember, seeing my elder cousins and the freeom they got, i had once told Ranada that i wish i could grow up fast and start enjoying life. He looked back at me, smiled and said "Joy, khub miss korbi ei din gulo jokhun boro hoye jabi... jiboner itihas e ei din guloi swornojug hoye theke jabe..." Now that i dont have an opportunity of re-living those days, the words always ring in my ears.....
