Std 6

After getting a really really long lecture about the life and behavoiur in secondary sections from Mrs. Balambal on the last day of primary, we really got to know that these guys were more boisterous than we had been. It was nice and we got into the groove pretty soon. During the whole of my secondary schooling, I was in J section. That really helped build some strong relationships with friends and teachers. 6th was fun in more than one sense. We made every teacher most welcome (ie teachers dreaded our class). I remember my class teacher Mrs. Alamelu Chidambaram (AC) was very fond of me that she even made me class leader for 2 quarters (which she said she has never done before). I was a bit proud of that.

I was an early bird right through my schooling days. I usually come to class some 30mins-1 hr before the school starts. One day, I decided to have a bit of fun and closed the door of the class. A friend of mine, Nivedita came into the class later and opened the door only to find me screaming and scaring her. Then she thot we should let the others geta taste of it too and so we began the chain reaction. That ended when one girl started crying and then we scared AC too. What followed was a stern warning. I had a nice reputation and I was scared that this incident will mar my image. Luckily in the fun, nobody knew the person who started the whole thing, so I escaped.

Also, we sometimes lock ourselves up in the class so that we dont have to go down for the prayer routine which was usually boring. We used to have fun inside the class while the rest of the sections used to pray in the mornings. This ofcourse lasted only till the vice principal caught us when we were making too much noise one day.

One more incident that I had forgotton about, but was later reminded by Nivedita. Our class was adjacent to Indian Overseas Bank (there were quite a few complaints due to the noise we make) and also a beautiful cotton tree. The ripe cotton seeds will be at a pluckable distance from our class window. Even otherwise, we used to invent ingeneous methods of getting cotton seeds including using a string of rubber bands tied to a stick. What started off as a one-to-one fight with cotton one day during lunch engulfed the whole class and the cotton was strewn everywhere. AC ofcourse wasnt as cool as AC ;) But who cares, it was fun ;)

We had to give in some stupid book reviews "compulsorily". This word is often the funniest word during school, as it is usually taken as nothing but a joke. Anywayz, this actually made me read a few books n novels. We actually started reading books like chandamama and wisdom and archies when in primary (a valiant attempt by the librarian to keep us quiet in class). Though the Middle School Library did not have much of a collection, it was a good start for me.
And as per logic, I got my 3rd all rounder award. Also, for my birthday, we had a nice party at home with loud music and all the guys and girls dancing around. I was too shy to join them, even when they insisted. My father presented me with a nice Titan watch, which I still have it with me and wore it till the end of 12th.

Two of the most tragic incidents happened this year. First my perippa (father's bro) fell down from a train while trying to alight and got smashed. He was a bunch of bones when we took him to the hospital. But the most peculiar thing was that he was bearing all the pain and did not say anything about it baring once when the pain must have been really too much. I guess I learnt my patience and ability to keep silent when pained from him. But later that year, he went to his hometown and died there, about which we gotta know 6 months later. I still get emotional when I think that he did not want to give us any inconvenience even when he died. Then the next thing is when my dad fell down the stairs one day and broke his skull. After a month long treatment and examination at Vijaya Hospital, where doctors said he was fine, he returned but when he got checked by another doctor, we realised he had brain tumor. Thank god I dint know the severity of a brain tumor then. He got a long surgery done and still has a tube running from his brain all over his body draining fluid that is accumulated. He had a 50-50 chance with that operation and thanks to a lot of people who helped us with money and blood, he was able to survive. The only thing is that that dint make him quit smoking :P Habits die hard!