The Lizard Incident - An anecdote on Friendship day

 "I don't know if you remember the card. But I haven't forgotten. I have it with me. All the best with your life."
These lines in my autograph book still trigger a memory of an incident that occurred when I was in class IX, referred to by our gang for years to come as the "Palli (Lizard)  incident." .That this incident was the first in a series of similar mid-adventures , is a topic for a different blog post , may be on another friendship day.  It was an afternoon full of boring lessons. There were six of us and a rubber lizard. Combining the rubber reptile with a surprise element , we had been trying to scare our classmates with varying degree of success. Then one of us had a brilliant idea. To try it on our Maths teacher who was a very friendly soul and liked all of us a lot. We decided on the last period of the day. As soon as she came in , we went to her desk with some questions regarding examination portions and as she was patiently explaining, out jumped the lizard , making her jump out of her skin.
The act went according to plan , but needless to say , we were at the receiving end of scoldings for better part of the next fifteen minutes. In some stupid fool's paradise, we had expected her to take it as a joke (!).

"I never expected such behavior from you, girls of all people."  She said with sadness in her voice and walked out.

We were upset that we had saddened our favorite teacher. We were scared that we'd be taken to the Principal or Vice Principal for disruptive behavior. We waited for her to come back and resume her lesson, but she did not return. None of us got much sleep that night with nightmarish images of getting expelled from school, on top of our thoughts. The next day, we decided to make a hand made card and place it on her desk. This was our way of telling her how sorry we were. With inputs from all , the card was designed , It had 6 :( in a row , each having some identifiable characteristic of one of the offenders and just one word inside it "SORRY". We placed it at her desk.

She never acknowledged that she got it , but we were were sure she had , because Math lessons from then on became the same as the ones in the "pre- Lizard Era". We were too scared to play any tricks in any class for the whole year and were so grateful that we worked extra hard in her classes to
become her best students.

Though I've had a lot of friends and fun in college and at various work places, when ever I think of friendship , my school life comes to mind first. ROFL and LOL were not invented back then , but anything and everything could make us laugh as if there was no tomorrow. Dedicating this post to my fellow conspirators in this incident, whom I haven't met or talked to for years now. When I look back , I can honestly say  " Those were the best days of my life. "

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda


Thank you BlogaAdda for choosing this as a WOW post. Made my day!.

Bubbles

[http://www.flickriver.com/photos/dineanddish/popular-interesting]

To blow a bubble
Into the deep blue sky
To see it rest perkily
On the yellow green grass
For a moment, reflecting
The colors of your rainbow smile
Before it dissolves away
Softly in the lazy summer sun





To see the excitement
Of every bubble blown
Dancing in the air around
your laughing eyes
To catch them in my  palms
For you, before the Magic stops
To build castles in the air
Of rainbow bubbles
And bask in its momentary glow.
To share the joy of your childhood
And be a child again..

When I made my Daddy Happy

I was playing with my Thomas and Friends train set when I saw Daddy reading that book. I was immediately interested. It had a picture of a laptop on it . I loved laptops . Ever since I could remember which wasn't really much, since I had been born only 3 years ago. But I had been fascinated enough by it to take out keys, try feed it corn flakes and even pull out a CD drive . Now I know it is something that needs to be handled with care. I can watch you tube videos all by myself. (swells with pride).

Source

That book looked like it is full of laptop pictures. I decided to employ my usual methods of coercion to wheedle the book out of his hands. I wailed and I howled . Daddy just walked away into a different room to read. I decided to pester him until I got what I wanted. Little babies like me always had their way. "I wanna book....". I wailed again. Mama came and lifted me off my feet. I wailed louder. "I wanna book". Finally Dad got tired of it and kept the book with a bang in front of me and walked away in a huff. I got what I wanted. I quickly grabbed the book. But suddenly ,it wasn't fun anymore. I looked around hoping to flash my victorious smile , but Daddy had gone off somewhere.

I went to look for him. I found him in the bedroom lying down on the bed . Realization struck me. I understood. I lie down on the bed by myself when I'm sad . I had made Daddy sad by taking the book all for myself . I felt sad too. I wanted that book badly , but I wanted Daddy to be happy too. I looked at the book and then at Daddy. Then I made my decision. I quietly kept the book near Daddy and walked back looking for Mama. I ran into her arms and wept my heart out. Then I felt a kiss on my tear stained cheek, and the rugged feel of an unshaven face .I out stretched my arms and jumped to hug my Daddy. He was smiling at me and telling Mama how proud he was of me. That I had given up something I really really wanted to make some one else I cared about happy. That I would grow up a fine man.

The world was alright again as Daddy placed me on his lap and we looked at the laptop pictures in the book together.

P.S : Giving is not an art. It comes straight from your heart. This story would be my son's take on the topic :)

Way of the World

Known faces , with expressions so strange
I wish I knew, why people just change,
Not long back , it was all smiles
A time when we thought no guiles
All play and games and friendship too
The tiny sweet stuff, together we grew,

We were children then , we had no sense
But in our tall tales , there was inncence
The small fights we had , forgotten so quick
To play the next game in the mud so thick

Growing up is ever so tough
Understanding why people think such stuff

Inferiority and superiority, jelousy and greed
Where did these come from in our necklace of beads

For petty things we fight and hide
Tiny issues , we can't take in our stride.

Walking beside in smiles , but with open daggers in hands
Watching for a misstep to stab from behind

Looking now at our children play,
Smiles and wonder and small fights gay

Understanding not , that soon one day,
They too would learn the world's harsh way..