Gumboots on sunny days: recalling school life

The dormitory was lined with tiny green double-decker beds. So tiny that if you move around too much,  you would invariably find yourself on the floor the next morning. Some were bigger beds, in which two to three kids slept together. The dormitory walls were fitted with shelves, where we kept clothes and shoes. Water was scarce. We would bathe twice a week and were given two full mugs of water twice a day to brush and wash. It was cold throughout the year.

We would get up every day at 5 in the morning and get ready for our Karate classes, a painful, torturous exercise I loathed. I was pathetic at it. I couldn’t even stretch my limbs forget about a decent kick. If we were caught being negligent, the regular punishment was to frog jump at least 30 to 40 rounds of the playground. I know the feeling; your knees become loose, they bend on their own, and you can’t walk for at least half the day.

Throughout the year, the chilly wind lashed against our bare limbs. Our regular uniform was a tee-shirt and a knee-length pinafore. When it got really cold during the winter, we wore track suits to shield ourselves from the cold.

The playground was the only open space we had, where we would sit, play, talk, or eat our “tucks”. On one side, the playground was surrounded by an open gutter with black stinky slimy water. Nobody bothered; kids would drop their playthings into it and pick them up without even bothering to wash. The playground would be as big as what we would consider a big living room. It had an antique merry-go-round and, at one corner, a caged monkey called Cindy who was our school owner’s pet. Cindy was excellent at picking lice off kids’ heads.

Everyday before dinner, we would get in line in the small playground. The house captains would count heads and make sure everyone in their team was present. We had very little chances for doing mischief. The rules were strict and if we were found wanting in anything --- for example, dirty or improperly made beds (yes, we made our own beds), untidy shelves, long or dirty nails, torn shirts, unpolished shoes, and so forth --- we were disciplined with the cane. I got my fair share of it too. We were marked/graded for all these tasks and anyone who got more than 3 minuses was banned from the eagerly awaited Friday TV night.

Friday was eagerly looked forward to. I remember watching Grease, John Travolta dancing his ass off to Grease lightning.

We would walk in pairs on the way to school. It was a walk of about 5 to 10 minutes from the hostel. It would rain most days during the rainy season. We always prepared for the worst, being the disciplined, responsible kids that we were, and wore gumboots to school if the weather was cloudy. On such days, the sun would come out smiling at our silliness. So, very often we walked the sun-drenched road in knee-length gumboots, with passersby giving us the funny look.

I loved it. I loathed it.

Throwing out the junk

Despicable Brain

Yeah I hate it finally. It doesn’t work.

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I'm going back to the hills after more than a decade. I hope the place does me good and shake me out of my dispassionate existence. I could spend the rest of my life lying on my stomach, thinking nothing.

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"Out of the ash, I rise with my red hair
and eat man like air"

Sylvia Plath

The words keep coming back.

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To a dear friend who's a jerk and a snob

Don't be cranky. Your age shows ... and there's no end.

Avatar

I’m really not a movie freak but once in a while I do enjoy watching a couple of good films. Last year, one of the most hyped Hollywood movies was Avatar. Colleagues talked about it, friends argued and fought over it, and even the newspaper constantly nagged me every morning with a splash of the alien-looking figure. From mild irritation, it ultimately became nerve wrecking to even hear about Avatar. I even got into an argument with a friend (who became a big Avatar fan even before watching the movie) over the movie. Sometimes, my stubbornness makes me do things that are beyond the realm of logic or sense, and this was one of the times. But I did see the movie and boy am I glad! I came out of the movie theatre feeling good and smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Yes, Pandora was awesome and Jake Sully even better! My friend had a very ingenious reason for not liking Jake. He said Jake didn’t give a hoot about Pandora or the people living in it; he only wanted to be a part of it because in that world, as one of the Na’vis, he is liberated from his handicapped self. This, however, is a flawed reasoning, not to mention a childish argument. If it was only a question of Jake wanting his legs back, he could have simply accepted Colonel Miles Quaritch’s offer and got himself a pair of brand new legs! The year’s 2154 after all! Arguments aside, and dismissing all initial misgivings, Avatar has proved to be one of the best movies on my list of favorites. James Cameron’s decades of hard work has finally paid off (He had been working on the movie since 1994; I was in school then …jeez!).
The concept of Pandora, in which the inhabitants live in harmony with nature, appeals to our modern, displaced sense of being. It reminds us of a place and time that we’ve lost to “civilization.” The story of the movie may not be out of the world, but it succeeds in connecting with the audience.
Avatar can be seen from many perspectives. Colonialism and its ugly claws are seen in the invasion of Pandora by the humans. There are many dimensions to the movie and Cameron fits them all together in such way that their subtlety is captured without losing any of their essence or displaying the obvious.
Some people find the story of the movie “simplistic” and so may you. But the visual accomplishment of the movie is unquestionable. If not for anything else, go watch the movie for its awesome visuals. You won’t regret it!

Questions

I'm a quiet girl
Never mind my soliloquies
I do it alone
Like mad Ophelia; muted
Shrieks that wring these purple veins
Into a splinter of wild pink poppies
Swaying, teasing, blinding: I float in ecstasy.

You baulk at my idiosyncrasies
Mad, you call me
Let me tell you
It is as good or bad as Hamlet's antics
Hear me out
This mad girl knows the rules of the game.

So
Don't question me again
My friends
Don't make a liar out of me.
All I want is
To lie face down
On this dew-drenched morning grass
And sing my swan-song.