When the bowl overflows..

My cousins have come down here for a visit.. From london.. And they happen to have this idea that I'm many timing guys..

Every guy who happens to call me up or texts me is my boyfriend.. Apparently I have 16 guys as of now.. Don't misunderstand.. 16 guys as of now means 16 guys now at the same time..

My cousins are just 7 and 13.. Big effing difference that makes.. The 13 year old git sent a text to my friend asking if he'd go out with me.. The 7 year old terror yells into my mobile, everytime someone calls up, irrespective of the sex of the person, "Are you Gayathri akka's boyfriend?"

Those two read my messages even before I get to read them.. And they reply too !!! The situation is somewhat under control now, only because my mobile is currently under password protect.. Sigh..

It's a pain to explain it all to all of my friends.. The girls don't mind of course, the guys are just plain taken aback.. And since the number of guys I know to the girls I know ratio is whopping, it's hard to warn those guys before my cousins get to them.. Since the 13 yr old genius name is Kaushik, and I happen to have a friend named Kaushik, The 7 year old made me call my friend up to make sure the both the Kaushik's are not the same..

I'm loud in my decision.. Those two ought to be spanked.. My friends are univocal and loud about their decisions too.. "Your cousins are sooo cute !!!!"

So much for trying to warn them beforehand

Maverick and Mildcube III

At last this series is going to be complete.. Starting where I left off..

9th grade sucked except for our new found love for scribbling away.. Enter 10th grade. Not very memorable, I can't remember a darn thing.. Except for one thing.. We discovered that we were the only kids who knew the existence of the word sexy, so we figured that our intelligence was above than the usual average, hence the confidence that we were potential CIA candidates..This pretty much sucked too (board exams, what did ya expect? )

And then enter 11th grade. I took bio.. Hated that subject completely.. But changed when i listened to my first ever proper bio class.. Mrs. Hema breathed life into that subject.. Anyways she got me to love something that I despised... She saw me as some potential Mendel I guess.. who knows who cares..

The same thing continued into 12th.. Board exam pressure, peer pressure.. The only ppl free from that crap was me and priyanka.. We whiled away our free time chatting together.. Teachers advised us to spend that time studying.. It fell on empty ears.. My bio teach still credits priyanka with my 'downfall' (I didn't score a centum in her subject in boards).. Her potential Mendel was being ruined by chatting !!! Of course the final straw came with a class test..

As usual, it was break time and we were chatting away.. Gossipping, bitching.. And the rest of the class was huddled inside the class, as usual cramming for yet another test.. I don't think they would have noticed if there was a sudden alien invasion.. My bio teach always gave away prizes to those who scored the top 3 marks in one of her surprise tests.. for motivation, the point of which was lost since the top 3 was always the same..

Anyways, one bloody day, she'd come to the class to give away the prizes for one of her tests. Since the entire class was huddled indoors, she took it for granted that everyone was indoors.. Of cource, honorable me was outside.. So when she called out the second place, I was ahem.. not responsive for the simple fact that I was outside.. I hadn't even noticed that she was in the class, much less she was calling for me.. So she sent someone to call me inside..

Monisha : Oi !! Miss calling you

Me : For what di?

Mon : 2nd place

Me : In what?

Mon : yesterday's bio test

Me : Now ah?

Mon : Yes. Stop asking questions.

Me : I'll go later

Mon : Idiot !! she's waiting for you inside the class

Me : Fuck !!

So I go in and get the prize.. She is so not pleased..

Of course, this was always complicated by the fact that the more she subtly pointed out I was wasting my time chatting, the more me and priyanka hung out together.. This ultimately ended up in her hating priyanka, who she believes, is the reason I didn't score a centum in her subject..

Anyway, We had our farewell.. a funny one it was too.. Instead of juniors waiting on us, we had the teachers themselves waiting on us.. Engulfed in hugs from teachers, we were thankful that school was over.. For me, because it meant I was no longer under the rigid control of my dad once I was in college, and the escape from that town.. For her, because she never really liked the school except for a few ppl in it.. I went back to visit once.. I like it for some of the values it gave me, that place has memories- some nice, the rest lousy..

Well, we still keep in touch regularly though we met only twice since school, once at her place, once in chennai.. We call regularly, bitching abt stuff, time pass, Discussions, suggestions on books to read, and yes, reminiscing.. All that is missing is the almond tree..

Ken's post here

Maverick and Mildcube II

Enter 9th grade.. We were fools. Period. I'd much rather skate over this part but I've had too many a laugh reminiscing about this part of of my life.. So I figured that anything that affords a few laughs can't be all that bad..

Enter E.T.. Some female she was. Priyanka and me were pretty good at english and this was one female who appreciated it.. Graceful, not easily taken in, who was pretty much horrified if we didn't score over 95% in her subject.. We were good and She knew it. Acknowledged it. Of course it went to our heads... Btw E.T = English teacher.

Both of us had always been pets to english teachers throughout school..

I guess that was what made us carry that fascination too far.. I guess we sort of expected her to dance to our tune.. And she did too, for the first half of that academic year.. Where else do you find teenage girls reading Wuthering Heights and loving every bit of it?? We made the rules in english class. We dictated the lessons to be taught for that hour.. And she encouraged it too.. It was always Gayathri this, Priyanka that.. Our absences at her class initiated her enquiries into our well being and crap

Well, in the end she got tired of us I expect.. I don't blame her really.. Two girls who ruled the english class, evoking smirks in the staff room.. She would have hated it, knowing she was the laughing stock of the staff room because of the attention she poured over us . The rest of the class was fascinated by her as well and it didn't sit well with them that we were her favorites.. From the most adored teacher, she dropped to the 'most partial'.. I would have hated that label.. My guess is she did too, and she turned nasty..

From pouring attention on us, she switched gears to ignoring us.. She went out of her way to ignore us.. Lol.. She was suddenly pouring attention on another girl.. And that didn't sit well with us.. Let's just say we snapped out of it. Our pride got hit and we didn't like that either.

It all did us a bit of good.. Of course, we had been fools completely and we were embarassed by the whole thing. From then on, no matter how much a teacher poured attention on us, it never went to our heads. We were constantly tied for first place in english and the staff room talked about it.. It hardly mattered to us.

During the 8th-9th grade transistion, our love for english grew.. We seriously considered writing for a living .. Lol.. We wasted our time thinking up names, plots, dead bodies ( yeah, we were aiming for thrillers, surprise) It was mark of how celebrated we were and how dumb the rest of the class was (we were the only ones reading Alistair Mclean and Arthur Hailey, the rest stuck to Enid Blyton till 12th grade) that the rest of the girls seemed to think that this was a brilliant idea..

Oh well, nothing like school to teach you lessons.. Ken's version is here

Maverick and Mildcube I

Me and Ken have been friends for quite a long while.. A feat to celebrated given that I'm extremely short tempered and real easy to irritate.. We've never, not for once, argued.. We've disagreed with each other loads of times though.. She's helped me grow and I hope I've helped her grow too..

It was quite funny actually, after the shock, to find out that she had been my classmate from LKG through 10th grade.. Of course, we split in 11th and 12th because I was in science group..

I didn't konw her pretty well back then.. Sure, she was this kid in class. So??

Noticed her in 5th grade basically.. In a totally weird way too. I can still remember our social teacher trying to explain hand grenades and Priyanka said she saw a movie in which a kid tossed the hand grenade at her family after removing the ring.. It struck a chord in my memory... Someone watched the same movie I did !!!

"Hey ! It was that movie, 'The stupids' right?"

"Yeah !! You've seen it ??"

"It's so awesome.. I watched it yesterday !!"

"Yeah. I like that scene where..."

Teacher : "Priyanka and Gayathri !!! Listen to my class. What are you two thinking, discussing movies ?? Listen or get out !!"

Got to know her in 8th grade.. What brought us closer was the fact that we were the only two who knew the question tag to "I'm right".. Besides we thought alike.. We were among the few girls who didn't have a mortal fear of guys/boys.. The only ones who didn't giggle insanely at guys from the boys high school..

She wasn't in my face. I like it. My mom's name is an intensely difficult name to pronounce. Go refer the Mahabharatha if you're interested.. Anyways.. What fascinated my classmates was the fact that both my parents are docs.. And so they wanted names... I got sick of repeating my mom's name, of pronouncing it, of teaching ppl to pronounce, of writing it down, of telling even more ppl who came to ask me.. Priyanka didn't give a damn and I was thankful.. Someone had enough sense to not bother with something that was no business of theirs..

She did get on my nerve one day though..

Her : Hey .. You don't have a bad structure u know .. You don't wear jeans ?
Me : (head held high) I know what to wear and what looks good on me

In my head : (you don't know my dad.. so get lost)

Another day while discussing music :
Her : I loooove Ricky Martin
Me : I listen to ABBA. They're really good.
In my head : Won't she leave me alone?? I don't wanna talk music..She probably thinks I don't listen to music..good..

I snubbed her every chance I got and she made fun of me every chance she got.. Dunno what stopped us from clawing each other's eyes out.. Guess inspite of everything, We figured we were the only two in class who actually thought.. But I think we eventually figured out that we complemented each other.. I was withdrawn and an introvert, she was an extrovert and way too "modern" to suit the school's views.. I isolated myself, she was isolated because of her views.. I knew I had to speak out more and she knew she had to speak out less.. She needed help, I needed help, we thought alike, we didn't give a damn about other people, we were aloof as possible, we just didn't talk to anybody, to be our friend, you had to be special...

We became friends then, though, different in every way imaginable...

Check this out for her side of the comedy....

Exam = Enjoyment

Exam times are a lot of fun.. Most of the time that is.. Way too many ppl take exams seriously. So seriously that this question was asked to me today "Did you finish studying?" and the exam today was english... What do you do with ppl like these ?? I seriously would love to know why I have to study to answer Fill in the blanks and Choose the correct answer

All my friends are online all the time.. I'm online all the time.. Me and my friends spent today taking insane photographs of ourselves.. While drinking, eating, talking, laughing, blinking, sticking the tongue out, slapping the forehead etc etc.. After drinking milk without wiping the mouth, with the "milk moush" still intact.. On Chemistry exam we are going to take photos with something I got at a new year party.. It is insanely cute because it is a Head-wear with two big red horns...

Eaves dropping during the supposed "revision hour" is fun.. Esp eaves dropping on seniors..

"Hey he proposed to me. I said no.. One big queue. I said I will love only one person and that is my husband.." It does nothing to help if you can actually see the girl saying this. It kills you to try not to laugh..I know. I've tried. "Macha, she's such a bitch da. She sent me to the HOD for texting in class da. Bitch." "Macha, periya aapu.. Onnum theriyadhu da. Konchum paper pass pannu." How my life would suck without seniors !!

Discussing the question paper after the exam is stupid.. And everyone is eager to do it..

I like the after exam discussions that have nothing to do with the exams. Like today.

"He is a really nice guy."

"Yeah right."

"He's this nice, decent, innocent guy."

"Ignorant you mean. Anyway he's not that 'innocent'. I saw him shaking his middle finger at someone two days back."

"Hey wait. Which is the middle finger? This one right?"

And hold up the finger to seek clarification.. How much more dumb and fun can this get??

Exam time also shows a marked increase in stupid sms forwards.. Like this one:

"Sri sai baba. Say this thrice. Send this to 20 ppl. Or you will fail in this exam. Do not delete. This is true."

This sort of sms does not work for me because:

1) I'm agnostic

2) I can't count

3) I don't know 20 ppl who I'd like to see fail

4) I know I won't fail in any fucking exam. That's why I study

5) I already deleted

6) I'm sceptic

Messages like these arrive in bunches.. With Jesus and Sri Krishna and Allah in a tow. All for passing an exam, extending the lifetime of your mother, to prove you love your father, to live longer, blah blah..

But the best by far was this:

"Aatha kanchi oothura. Aatha enna kapaathu. Send this to 20 ppl illa nee gaali."

The transliteration would be : "Aatha is pouring gruel. Aatha save me. Send this to 20 ppl or you will die."

Maybe if aatha was pouring free booze, the guys might be interested...