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A big day. Corress was back from her travel and back in the office. It meant that today would be the judgement hearing for the case of public transport mockery Raj and I were accused of. A case that never really existed. When I woke up, I was feeling the heat. Clearly the pressure was on. I was feeling very uneasy, hardly able to utter a word – my throat was feeling that sore. There was a sharp headache. Oh, and if all this was not enough, I had a running nose. For people who knew back then would tell you that my nose would beat all the others’ in a race – it run that fast and had regular training for doing so. A few minutes later I realised what the reason was for the weird feeling – I was running high temperature / fever. Now, there have been many instances when I have attended school with fever. But this time, it was a lil too sickening to do that – I might end up spreading this to the others. There was also a strategic cause: If I was not present for the hearing, Corress will have to postpone the trial. This might mean that she will cool down a little and perhaps see how ridiculous it was to charge students for using public transport when her own school buses were at fault. So, I decided to bunk school. Smart decision, right ? Wrong !

I was in deep sleep under the medication when Mum woke me up. Its never good news when that happens.

Mum: Corress in on the phone. She wants to talk to you.

Ah, she cant stay away from me for one day, can she !

Corress: I am here with Raj in my office room and I have a question for you.

Sounds like Amitabh Bachchan from KBC.

Corress: Raj here says you took the public transport because the school bus was very late the previous day.

Me: Yes mam, thats right.

Corress: So why dont you take the town bus everyday and stop using the school bus ?

Me: But, mam, the school bus is not late everyday.

Corress: Dont back-answer me.

What ? She asked me a question. I answered it. And anyway, what is ‘back’-answering ? Is it even possible to front-answer ? Its called ‘answer’ when it is at the back of a question. Jeez you ppl !

Corress: Raj and yourself have broken a school rule that says that the student should not leave the school premises or use other means of transport without prior permission.

Me: But what about those people who left with their family in their private vehicles ? Weren’t they breaking the rule too ?

Corress: That is none of your business…..

Errr ????

Corress: …
and to make sure the others dont use this as an example, I am going to suspend you and your friend here. You have already been given a warning when I did not suspend you. But this time, I have to take this step. You dont have to come to school tomo. You can come in next Monday.

Me: Ma, that is not fair. You still havent considered what happened with the school bus the previous day.

Corress: No, I dont have to justify my decision. No more arguments on this. <hangs up>

What did she mean she didnt have to justify it ? Ofcos she has to ! This is fkin autocracy and fundamentalism. Raj came home later that evening.

Raj: How are you feeling now ?

Me: Seriously ?

Raj: Ok. Wrong question. What now ?

Me: What do you think ?

Raj: I think by you not being there, you made a mistake. She got to close the argument on the phone. If you were there, you could have held your case. Poor move.

Lesson learnt !

Raj: Screw this, let her suspend us if she wants to. Who cares.

Me: No. Not that we care, but the person looking at your conduct certificate might care. A suspension blackmark will not look good. Especially, when you have done nothing wrong.

Raj: Well, she has the power and she is mis-using it. Our parents are never going to understand this. So what can we possibly do ?

Me: Lets go to school tomo.

Raj: And piss her off further and get suspended longer ? What are you exactly planning to do ?

Me: No, lets challenge this. By staying at home, we wld hv accepted it. By going there, we might risk a longer suspension. But at least, we can try revoking it.

Raj: I cant come to school in any case. I have a match tomo.

Ofcos. Raj was the star sportsman – Athletics, Cricket, Basketball – you name it. And good at each one of them too. Yes, a rarity. Everyone could see the talent in him except… the Corresspondent and a few others.

The next day, I went in with some real determination. I didnt want my thoughts to scatter out. So I went straight to the Corress’ office. There was no Corress. She was coming in after an hour. What an anti-climax. However, an hour later she was there and so was I. The princie also happened to be in her room when I went in.

Corress: Sorry, I thought I asked you not to come in today.

Me: Yes mam, you did. I came to find out why.

Corress: Arjun, I dont want to start this all over again. I am doing this for your good.

Ya right !

Arjun: How is suspending me for my good, mam ?

Corress: That will make you not to repeat the mistakes.

Arjun: Mistake of taking a public bus ?

Corress: Mistake of breaking the school rule.

Arjun: If that was the rule, so many others did it as well.

Corress: They were with their parents.

Arjun: Well, how do you know for sure that they were with their parents ? And my parents were not there. So, I used public transport. Is there something here other than breaking the rule, mam ?

Corress: Yes, as I said, its for your good. I want you to understand what is good and bad.

Arjun: But, mam, perception of good and bad is a personal choice.

Corress: The role of a school is to go beyond teaching books and getting your personality right. Do you want me to correct you as a person ?

I was so glad she asked that question.

Arjun: No mam.

The princie looked a little stunned. For the first time, she took her head out of the papers and looked up at me.

Arjun: I dont want you to affect me as a person in anyway. I think my personal affairs should be left to me… and as far as this issue is concerned, I dont think I have done anything wrong by taking a bus home. No one even knows about it. So, I dont think anyone is going to follow my example.

Corress paused for a while. She probably didnt expect me to react that way. She probably has never had anyone reacting to her that way before.

Corress: Fine. I will not interfere in your personal affairs since you insist. I will not suspend you this time. But, the next time I catch you flouting a rule, I will expel you. Not suspend, expel you.

The moment of reckoning was there. She gave me the option as if had I not agreed, she would change her mind. But I respected her for considering my plea.

Arjun: Yes mam. Any time you catch me ACTUALLY breaking a rule, you can expel me. Agreed.

It was a huge decision to make in a few seconds – something that could affect the rest of my life. It was all a rush of blood. I knew I had to take the offer to live today and fight later. This way, at least I was not getting suspended. And future action rested in my control. If I had a glimpse of what was to come in the future, I would have re-considered those words. From that day, it was not a Corress-student relationship  anymore. It was a lot personal than that. But that minute, I walked out happy.

One of the characters in the movie Sarkar says that you should not fail to look at the long-term gains to solve short-term trouble. I wish I knew that back then. Its a bit like what is happening in the global economy at the moment.

It was the language class. Tamil for me. The tamil class was always one filled with fun and stress-free nuicanse. I still hadn’t recovered from the exchanges with the Corress. JD more than compensated. It all started with silence.. like a Scorcese movie. JD was sitting all quiet when Tamil mam noticed and reasoned it.

JD got up and answered with a very serious face (translated to English for the benefit of the neutral reader).

JD: I want to say something. But I dont know how to say it…. but I cant stay without saying it either…But I dont know how to say it…. but I cant stay without saying it either…

..And it went on and on in a chain. It took everyone a while to realise that he was being funny and there was ntn serious abt it. Mam asked him to sit down. But JD wouldnt.

JD: Come on mam, hear me out. I cant stay without saying it.

Mam: Ok. Say it fast.

JD: But I dont know how to say it.

Ahhhhhhhh. It was a funny irritation to hear him keep saying that. The whole class burst out into a laughter and appreciated the cunning verbal chain of expression JD had created. You couldnt break it. Trust me, you didnt even wanna try. I came back to my class to my One.

One: Corress came to my house today.

Oh yes. The triangular series between One’s house, Corress and Me continues.

Me: For dinner ?

One: No. To tell my Mum that she was suspending you. Why do you keep doing all this ?

Me: Err ? What did I even do ? Took a bus home. Is it that wrong ?

One: I dont know. My mum was then asking me, “Why does Arjun keep doing these things ?”

Me: Well, did she say what exactly she was suspending me for ?

One: She said you were breaking the school rules continuously.

Me: Oh wow. Very convenient. Well, as you can see and I have not been suspended. You can tell your mum that.

One shrugged and walked away. I couldnt believe One would talk to me like that. Of all people, I expected her to understand what this was.

That evening, the gang met up at the snooker place. Snooker/pool fever had recently caught up with the gang and thats where we would be all evening. One of A.R.Rahman’s new albums – the soundtracks of the ‘Boys’ movie was playing and was an instant hit among the youngsters.

Panky: She came for your hair. But you gave her the option of taking your head the next time.

Me: I dont like losing my hair. So, I would rather have that trade.

Yats: Screw all that. From here on, be very careful in everything you do.

JD: Especially when you re dealing with girls.

Experience speaks.

Yats: Anyways, we have to arrange for the school to be taken for a movie, being interact club members.

Kumar: Yes. Yats and I have decided that it should be ‘Boys’.

Me: But we dont even know how good the movie is.

Yats: Thats the whole point. It will be fresh. We will go first weekend. So no one would have watched it. The movie has a very young feel to it. So, hopefully, everyone will like it. We already know that everyone loves the music.

Everyone agreed to the idea. Panky pocketed the last shot and we decided to plan the movie arrangement the next day in class.

Like Yats said years later, it was a touch – like the Midas touch, this was a Maverick touch. We managed to pick up a non-existing situation, convert that opportunity into a controversy and fall into trouble. A special, signature knack. There were movies with an appeal to the youth. There were porn movies. And there was Boys. A gang of boys would always mean trouble. We, of all, should have known it. Sa re ga me till next week.

As a special surprise attachment to this week’s issue, I have an audio link for JD’s golden words of chain expression from the man himself. For all the beauty lost in translation, here is the original piece. A big thank you to JD for this. Let me know what you think.  (Don’t worry, its spam free !)

http://www.zshare.net/download/947842468212871d/

PS: A very happy birthday to Divya Kadir and Paulomi Desai. Belated birthday wishes to Raghuvaran, Yatin B Shah, Karan Shah, Vishesh Arora and Yaser Ali.

Fly high till next week ~