School Dayz 1

Memories tend to fade with time....like brown rust, new experiences and new thoughts scrape away inch by inch until all that is left is a vague, unclear recollection that goes away altogether with time.

I have mentioned this time and again: nothing will ever come close to the fun I had in school. The last 4 years have been a long black void.... I might as well have been on an island. So....as a tribute to my schooldays and to aid my memory years down the line when a job and 'other things' start to take a toll on me, here's a new section on my blog: School days, where I'll pen all the great things we did at school.

Araku Trip: I know this will bring a wicked smile on one reader's face atleast. I admit... I don't know of another topic to start with so here I go anyway. The news started doing the rounds in early october 2004, a trip was being planned. While usually the school settled for Kinnerasani and other nearby villages, we'd somehow managed to convince our school administration for a long trip. Or maybe the credit goes to one senior whose dad was the principal then.... maybe...

The excitement was contagious.We just couldnt stop thinking about it.... at school, at tuition everywhere! On 27th of october started our journey from colony to Khammam station with Mr.K.R Rao, Mrs Sridevi, Mrs Amulya and Mrs Hebsiba escorting. My memory of the bus journey part pulls a blank...I don't recall anything at all. Maybe I slept, maybe I was lost... In tech terms, it's like they all got overwritten by useless crap.

The train came late and the journey was cool, we played antakshri until one of the passengers got pissed and threatened to lodge a complaint for nuisance! Come morning we were greeted with the sweet air of Visakapatnam at 7:00 A.M. The plan was to cover Borra caves first before heading to our prebooked accommodations, so we were given a 'food packet' on the bus itself for breakfast. The chutney stank so bad, most of the packets went out the windows. Some who gave in to hunger threw up pronto. Again, my memory's all but wiped here too. All I remember from the trip to Borra is the 'Cheliye Cheliya' playing on the speakers and some girls laughing about my green satchel(which I now admit looked funny) and yellow cap. And yeah one guy made breathing hard for the last few rows on the bus...courtesy his bad stomach.




Now the accommodation. In what proved to be the best example of inequality against boys, all girls and lady teachers got rooms complete with bedding and separate bathrooms. As we boys walked to the end of the building expecting similar lodging, we were shown into a large hall with bunk beds. The beds themselves were bare with flaking, blackened wood. Some expletives were muttered which didn't go down well with Sir. For a bathroom we had a large tank in the large open play ground and we were asked to "freshen up" right there! The toilets were ancient mud installations with no electricity. We slowly settled in.... laying newspapers and sheets on the rough bunk beds and looking for candles when Sir came in with a surprise. There was a paid guest house just alongside and he'd booked it. He'd understood. We were relieved. ...

Dinner was great, typical andhra fare with rotis and fried vegetables thrown in. A camp fire was lit in the large ground and we slowly gathered around it. Antakshri was played followed by charades. And then we danced...
Like those flashback scenes that play in movies, the round dance around the fire with Sir encouraging us still plays in my mind like it was yesterday. The starry sky, the orange light, the wicked laughs...

My Kodak KB10 was useless for night time photography, How I wish I had my dSLR and prime lenses then!

We retired for the night before starting for the city next day. Again I don't remember how the day was spent...we were at Kailasgiri hill at around 4. We had fun taking pictures at the Titanic point from where some of us went to a gaming alley. We had burgers and played board soccer(which now if I come to think of it, was a waste of time). One guy among us was a depressed soul, he had trouble getting along with us....coz...you know... he was interested elsewhere. We tried our best to contain him but he ended up getting a strong scolding from one of our teachers. We then went to the INS Kursura, a decommisioned navy class submarine. As was obvious, the boys listened intently to the guide as the girls wandered and chuckled. We all hit the sack after dinner as we were to start our return journey the next day. And we were dead tired anyway.


30th of october: On the bus from Khammam to manuguru, I think we stopped at kothagudem for breakfast. Or was it the chennai trip(Feedback welcome)? I asked around for photographs from the trip... I don't know why but even my close friends who took pictures on the trip have denied having any photographs. I just wanted a different perspective. I didn't hide my pictures now, did I?

Note: 'School Days' as a post title is already taken by a lewd, NFSW japanese cartoon series. So I've settled with the 'z' in the spelling.