If Partying's a Crime, We Are Gangsters...!

"And the champions of _______ Inter-school fest 2010 are ...."



"LOYOLA SCHOOL, TRIVANDRUM"!!!



The sweet smell of victory is something worth dying for. This is what defines us. This is what we all hold onto. Victory achieved thanks to a bunch of people who turned workaholics for weeks. Whether it be Shyam, Varghese and the rest singing it out for the group song, Gokul acting his life out on stage, Sam and Bond beating the rest in the battle of the brains, BAS sticking his fellow participants and judges to the wall in personality or our very own Loyola Dancers in Jony, Lama and Movie Star electrifying the audience and burning the floor, we Loyolites have always proved that we do it all and do it in fashion.

And the victories are not the only thing in it. We party it out as well. Park Rajadhani or Ambrosia or both on the same day. And we choose the table that attracts all the attention (Its the table, not us. Honest!). FTA's comments which make you want to beat the daylight out of him, Egghead's dares, and trying to make Shyam finally taste some Chicken Fry. Priceless. And yeah, we never forget how we grew up. The next hour is spent by transforming back into 10 year olds as we slide and swing on the slides and swings(!). Alas, the transformation is just mental, not physical for we are finally made to get down by the frustrated security.(Screw Him!) We get out and get ready to reach home and mug up something for tomorrow's early morning tuitions.(Screw them too!). Jony, jobless as always has places better than home to go to (He ruins us, I tell you). And in a sudden rush of adrenaline, we dive into autoriskhaws and in 10 minutes reach Ambrosia where we party it out once again.

They say "Life is measured not by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take our breath away". And we just happen to live through them at times like these.

Lifestyle.

Loyola School, dominating Trivandrum, in style.

HE has taken my bird and my bush.

Realisation slapped me on the face. I felt pity on my sorry face. The face which I can barely make out on the bathroom mirror. As I pour some more water over my sleepy eyes, the clock strikes 4. The hour when even the president of the country is being rocked by the cradles of sleep.

I remember people telling me that 10th was hectic. Now, my present state of affairs makes the word hectic worthy of being equated to something like a bed of roses. "Life is not a bed of roses", they say. Well all I can say is that people like BAS, FTA and Jony were defintely having more roses on their beds than me.

7 days a week. 5 of them are infected. 3 days having a tuiton each and 1 having two. The rest of the days (if they can be called days) seem to go like blurs. I feel abandoned.

Everyday I am confronted by my parents who stresses on the importance of some words like 'entrance', 'IIT', 'not studying', 'autorickshaw' etc. I reply with choicest of words and concepts that I developed after months of despair and misery. Speaking of all this, why the hell am I doing all this? Its the latest trend in town, that as soon as a child is born, his parents prepare for him, an advance admission into all the *Ks tuition centres. Jk, Kk,Pk,Ok... the list is never-ending.

I still remember my good buddy-cum-sponsor BAS inviting me to join the new Humanities stream in our school. And I...I made the biggest mistake ever. Am I destined to run after tuitions , spend sleepless nights, get into some college and live a normal, boring and effed life? No, I want to be famous. One day, I want the whole world shouting my name.

Damn all entrance coachings, damn all the .Ks , damn the alarm clock, damn everything. Take me back to my 8th standard classroom. I want to relive those magical days.
Inspire and Enlighten me O' Lord!

Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice.

That month. The month. The board exam month. All I had to think about was the things I can do during my vacations(which resulted in me screwing up my Malayalam paper). Two months. A new unlimited net connection. And nothing to do except sit at home all day. The thought gave me happiness. Yet that day seemed really far off. Finally that day came. Vacations. To my shock, I found that I was getting Internet speeds of just above 30kbps. A movie needed one and a half days to finish download. During that time, I was again jobless. Most of my friends had taken a looong trip to their native place and the others had a habit of not picking up their cell-phones. All I had to do was day dreaming.

Day dreams. Sounds boring eh? One of these, on a hot sunday afternoon took me back. Back to the Loyola I had known as a 3rd grader. The huge ground where the Indoor Stadium is right now, The old park where there were swings and see-saws(which had been shifted to the children's park). The rubber tyres that were hung from the trees that where used as swings.(I found that more fun than the usual swings). The canteen which used to sell Ice-sticks and choco-bars. And the mango tree in the park which we used to climb everyday. And the greatest change I feel is the Forest. The Forest behind the ground(the present Indoor Stadium).

The Forest was our favourite hangout in the school. Elastic, Sachu, Lama and me used to run into the Forest as soon as the bell rang. Those days were a hell lot of fun. Playing hide and seek in the forest, seeing a large worm and running to Jose uncle yelling "Paambu Paambu", making holes in the ground and covering it with leaves to make a so called 'trap'. And I vaguely remember a enclosure which some seniors made with sticks and leaves. It was called 'The Tent'. There was also the time when we fooled some of our friends saying, "We went deep into the forest and we found the place where early man lived. There are coins made of wood in there".

Memories of being taken to the principal for taking part in a 'stone throwing' game which resulted in one stone hitting Lama's head and the leaking of a lot of blood head and another time for fighting with a senior almost 4 years older to us(and winning! truly :) ) are fresh in my head.

Wet. I cried. My juniors wont get to see any of this. I dont even have a picture to see it myself. Sad. Really sad.

Give me some sunshine
Give me some rain
Give me another chance
I wanna grow up once again.


(to be continued)