Night Study

January-March, 2001.
I was doing my 10th grade then. Crucial days of my education "they say", but did I ever care? It so happened during this season, as we had to face the public examination by end of March, our school has started something called "night study" (evening study *these days*) which lasted from 5:30PM to 7:30PM. It was complete fun, I say! We were allowed to play from 4:30PM - 5:30PM and do you think we stopped after that? Staying back in school and pretending to study under the supervision of our most beloved teachers was really a wonderful experience. Well, the truth is, it really helped our final exams to a very great extent

We were given a perfect study plan. It had selected portions from each subject stretching for two days respectively. We had evaluation tests too at regular intervals. Our Principal always stayed back with us supervising, helping, mentoring, and yes, big time scolding. Mervin Earnest, my best pal right from KG used to share the bench with me. The other guy who joined us was Albert Ravish. If ever our principal happened to see all three of us sitting in the same bench, she'll throw us to different corners of the classroom. I always had the gift of acting on perfection, pretending to be completely immersed into my book all the time when my Principal walks over. Sometimes this works out well as she'll think not to disturb us by changing places. Whew! OSCARS.

Our class ends at 7:30PM sharp. Girls were to evacuate the classrooms (and the campus) first, then followed by boys. But it never worked. :-D We did have our school bus arranged to drop us in our respective places, but were charged heavily. We always had an option to choose our own means. Nataraja Transport was mine - this is by which I commute to and from school, covering almost 5.5Km one way. Mervin opted for government bus. We both stayed almost at different poles. Albert joined with me, there were two other guys Dhanu and Jithu who joined us later. Did I mention that Nataraja Transport is nothing but walking?

Everyday, I brought my yellow torchlight as I had to walk through tea bushes on my way back home. Mervin on the other hand had manufactured a tiny rechargeable torch by himself using some rare kind of cells, common wires and bulbs. We almost spent most of our time in the study experimenting different combination of cells, bulbs and wires to make it burn as bright as ever possible. We were always successful to a great extent at every step. Dhanu and Jittu both had one torch to share.

It would always be 5 - 10 minutes past 7:30PM by the time we gathered for our journey back home. I would bid goodbye to Mervin at the bus stop and join the crew - Albert, Dhanu, Jithu and I. We discussed on various topics - science, technology, politics, astronomy, global peace, global warming, ecnomic crisis. Good that we didn't have a nuclear deal then.We argued over these all the while we walked and found it started becoming boring as days passed. One fine evening when we were walking half the way, Dhanu came with a brilliant idea of playing wrestling cards through out our journey. Wow! He's the man, I am GAME. He also promised to bring 3 brand new sets of cards that he had.

From the next day it turned to be an interesting journey. Knowing this, the number of members in our crew increased to grow in number. There were two more additions - Sunil and Kapil. Albert, Sunil and Kapil will take a diversion half the way; Dhanu, Jithu and I used to continue till the end. It really became interesting day by day, we started enjoyng our night study. The usual 40 minute journey started stretching up to 1 hour. Now that my parents might know the truth :-D

Almost a month passed like this. I was always waiting with eagerness for all of us to gather down in the road and begin our journey along with the game. Here starts the best part. We didn't have street lights those days, there were very few in our way. The torchlight I used was a powerful one and I had a way of fixing it in my monkey cap making it resemble like a searchlight, this helped our game of wrestling cards.

At one particular stretch of the road, we always came across a mini-bus. I, being so mischievous started developing a habit of throwing light from my torch directly into the face of the mini-bus driver. We started having a bit of fun. Everyday, I made it a point to shine my torch at the drivers face. My friends warned me about this, but the mischievous guy within me didn't give up. He wanted to take a risk. At times the driver would enact like driving the bus over us and we would get scared. Days passed by.

One fine day, the game was going at good pace. I had the good choice of cards, Undertaker, Kane, and all were mine. Just then, there came the bus! Mr. Mischievous in me woke up and got ready for the mission. Its time, I said to myself. I turned my face towards the bus and raised my head. Hope you remember the torch is seated in my head. Looking at the driver and giving him a broad smile, dramatically I let my torch shine in its glory, very bright right into the eyes of the driver. Wow, I enjoyed the moment when he struggled to hide his face from my burning light. I felt like a champion.

All of a sudden something struck my brain, the screeching sound of wheels brought me back to my senses and I realized something has gone bad. I could smell it. I turned back only to see the driver bringing the bus to complete halt with the screech of brakes. I could also see people gushing out of the bus with a loud commotion yelling at me. Thanks to my brain as it acted fast, my legs were already set on fleet. Heart pounding, without wasting another second I shouted at the peak of my voice - RUN!

To be Continued...