of farewells and fare wells - 01
this evening presented the juniors an opportunity to bid an adieu to their beloved seniors. as the loud sound emanating from the loudspeakers echoed through the campus, and as the faculty came together to convey their wishes as well, inevitably my mind was filled with memories of the farewells that i participated in.
as is the case with most events, my first participation in my maiden farewell was an utter flop. as a student of the ninth class i took upon myself the onus of organising the ‘tambola’ as a game at the farewell. very true to my enthusiastic self, i embarked upon the task with utmost fervour. politics being a passion of mine back then, the mix of alphabets in the grid were a tribute to the prominent political personalities at that time. as my friends and i were awaiting the arrival of a bus to proceed to our school, we were requested help by a troubled truck driver whose vehicle’s engine had stalled. with hearts of stone, we refused to come to his aid, citing our apparel as the excuse. even i, with no care whatsoever for my dressing sense refused to help.
as my partly superstitious self would like to believe, the event was a thorough disaster due to my act of cruelty that morning. i do not recall much from the farewell given to us, but i do remember my envy at the winners of mr. & miss bav!
the final four years of school give us an opportunity to be part of the annual farewell. in my penultimate year of schooling, i recall reaching out for the yummy snacks long before our seniors did so. though i played no part in the same, i clearly remember the bad show that we managed to put up for them barring the exception of a couple of fine solo performances. with a croaky voice back then, i didn’t dare to even attempt a performance. when it was our turn to receive the same, i repeated the act of the previous year by grabbing the cakes asap.
apart from a long list of sermons from the administration and faculty, and a long queue to take their blessings, the highlight of the show was indeed a fashion ‘show’ that the juniors presented for us. it was rather amusing (anticipated though!) to watch the entire batch of ours rush to the first four rows of seating, and cameras flashing away, a la paparazzi. earlier during the show, i took full use of the opportunity to perform an act of total embarrassment. having ‘planned’ to dress ourselves in ‘lungis’, i brought a few of them for my friends as well. however we chickened out and decided against doing so. insistent on utilising them, i took them and swirled them in the air (with a friend thankfully taking a share of the stares) during a particular song or dance.
perhaps it was my gross lack of maturity that can be attributed to the sheer lack of any emotion whatsoever as i bid goodbye to the school that actually gave me for the first time a feeling of acceptance from the world. for nearly two years (barring the initial tough months i had there) i had actually lived through miserable academic performances and failures without actually feeling the burden of the same.
the many cricket matches played together in pitches of varying lengths & surfaces at different times of the year; the umpteen (a word that i picked up from my class teacher there) conversations that i had – some of them extending to four or five hours; vociferous arguments that amounted to nothing; the perennial struggle for survival in iit classes (which brings me back to ‘hell’); pulling one another’s legs at the slightest opportunity – all these and more remain etched – unscratched & unscathed five years down the line.
posted by raama @ 12:35:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home