it is as clear as if happened yesterday..............

Back in 1997 it was a rainy day in Jabalpur.
The whole school was gathered in the central hall, rather than the play ground for the morning assembly.

There is always a sense of thrill when the assembly is indoors, and the tapping sound of the rain on the concrete surface outside sets up the whole milieu. Sitting inside the classrooms and trying painfully to stare at the blackboard seems a sheer waste of this beautiful moment. It is as if the rain drops are calling our names and asking us to come and join the eternal game of bliss.

That rainy day, all the water logged muddy puddles longed for our robust legs to splash through them; every ones’ shirt was dying to be rolled off in the mud in celebration of a Pele like goal.
We all felt like fierce little Gladiators, with all our wild instincts fully active and we were ready to take on every fearsome beast in the Colossium. Our shirts were disheveled, ties were loosely lapping in the wind while we ran wildly like maniacs; our hairs resembled a modern day pop avatar, every one of us was the exact portrait of what our mothers loathed the most. (I hope, mummy you are not reading this!)
But as the assembly bell rang, the adrenalin levels dropped, the little Gladiators’ dropped their jaws as the world cup fever was over, all games were withheld and every one was involved in a post game analysis. Discussions were held, oaths were taken, and challenges were offered and accepted, as we all reluctantly entered in the hall.

In the hall, whole school was dripping wet, except for the teachers and girls.
Girls I have always felt are odd creatures; I mean what is the big fuss about getting wet shoes and wet hair in the rain?
We boys just cant care less about these petty issues!

The line of our class resembled a hissing Anaconda, swerving and swinging at will; every one was pushing and pulling someone. Every now and then someone was thrown out of the line and then, like an outlaw he had to fight his way back in to retrieve his lost honor.

Our shoes were making squish-squelch sound as we moved, and water was trickling from our foreheads to form small droplets on the tips of our noses, it is really funny that no matter how may times you wipe them off, they come back again!
it is really irritating!!

The whole Kota stone floor had become very slippery by the water brought in from our shoes, and some of the Dare Devils were playing who-slides-the-longest.
They all came running hard through the corridor one by one and slid on the floor with their hands spread as if surfing on a giant wave, then walked away triumphantly like a gold medalist in sliding Olympics.

But this sliding saga didn’t last long. One of our ace sliders was taking his stance for defending the championship. All eyes were on him, each of his movements were well chiseled and well practiced, and he was known to have the solidest techniques. He ran like a lightening, bent his knees and started the grand slide; every soul was awed by his agility.

Oh boy! This was really going to be the new school record!

But suddenly a lightening struck!

Our hero collided with some unidentified brown mass!!
And that too with escape velocity!

And the very next moment he was lying on the floor as his Olympic honeymoon was over (I assume him to be in the same league as Cassius Clay); this would sure be remembered as the lowest point of his otherwise glorious sliding career.

After a few awkward moments, somehow he managed to heave himself on his legs and stand, it was then we shifted our attention to the unidentified brown mass, who was behaving in an odd way, as if trying to walk but his legs wouldn’t bulge.
I was working my grey cells very hard and trying to remember this peculiar yet familiar looking creature. I couldn’t understand why everyone was so afraid of this extra-terrestrial because nobody uttered a word!
To my horror I realized that he resembled quite a lot to our new principal sir!!.................................................

to be continued.
comments invited.