Monday, 18 November 2013

Karlsruhe Diaries...!! Chapter 3

19th November,2013
Karlsruhe

Till the Grief subsides and appetite is full...
I drink its ardor and the never ending depths...

Till the happiness ensues the promise of an everlasting mirth...
Dissolved in time...
Meddled with the mind....

Till the Poetry surges in the Poet's mind....
Till everything becomes omnipresent...

And INFINITE....!!

This is the Promise of a never ending Verse...!!
People tell me very often that my poetry is sort of dark, depressing and what not… but at times, that’s what everything seems to be…doesn’t it ?

Too much of everything is bad, they say, but I never thought that too much of aesthetics can be suffocating, at times , so much that you can’t do anything but blame the weather for your own weariness, and for your own inability and the incapability of your own mettle, no one is to be blamed, but perhaps a strange land teaches you a lot, to be stronger, to keep your emotions under control, and yet, be sensitive.

12.30 pm in Germany, 5.00 pm in India, I call my mom, she is as usual, busy in the daily stuff, routine chores of an Indian household, at times, I admire the ability of a female, that too of a mother, how she controls her emotions, and yet, can do all and everything by herself, hats off to the spirit…

At times she messages me, even though she recently taught herself how to write an sms, “Miss you a lot” , and I can just wonder that this too shall pass..and everything has to come to an end, and eventually, we have to move far away from our own houses, our people, the warmth, our own language of spices. It’s quite strange how I can fake to be happy and smiling all the time, despite the turnmoil going on in my mind, the frustration over a “not going anywhere” thesis work, the annoyance over my professor not responding to my emails, and the daily tiresome routine of preparing food, perhaps I have turned too mature for my age, as almost all the people I look around are still under 25, and at times it feels I am ageing, the only consolation is that I have experience, more than any others, to tackle situations.

After all, now I can say, that I have been to places… and that too… too many at an exhausting pace, burning a hole in my pocket. Recently I spent a full night outside a Paris metro station, hopeless, cold, shivering and sleeping in a café next morning only to find that my mobile has been stolen. It pisses me off like hell, but anyway… I am here, In an alien land, where no one can help me but Myself, the process of making oneself strong is always the hardest, as it is full of pain.

At times, I have moments filled with happiness too, like making brownies for someone’s birthday till 1a.m in night, or just ditching everyone and going to Munich all alone, travelling aimlessly, but not all wanderers are aimless, as said in “Mona Lisa Smile”. But what’s hard is figuring out at times why I am here, and why I need to fake a laugh when on the inside, all I want is to scream and vent out my frustration endlessly….

The promise of a never ending verse ? or perhaps just the suffocation of the Aesthetics. Oh..and I remember someone telling me, it’s just the weather…u will feel good once u have sunny days…



Monday, 4 November 2013

Karlsruhe Diaries...!! Chapter 2

4th November,2013
Karlsruhe,Germany
The reason perhaps why I am writing a blog after one and a half month is perhaps I am missing myself , and my writings, in all this hustle-bustle, the trips, the planning… and the group splits…ughhh…There is a saying in Hindi that when 4 utensils are kept together…there will be noise, but here we are…15 utensils..Oops 15 people together…so the fights.. And the so called split in the group is bound to happen.

Well..But instead of noise, all I have around me is deafening silence, for which the group split is only partially a reason; here I am, in this alien land, fighting with migraines and the bitter cold. Maybe the weather is so depressing that it has imbibed in me its gloominess. Beautiful cities, scenic surroundings, new friends, but a silence. Silence around me prevails.

At times, a foreign land is so full of hope, and at times, all you can see around you is misery. Misery exaggerated through the rain, the fog and the cold, and when you taste your own cooked food. And when your mother messages you on Diwali “Miss you beta”. The land of new opportunities, but not that easy to live in, if you don’t have that surviving spirit, at times I remember that quote from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar “ I was supposed to be having the time of my life”

So what went wrong? Nothing. It can be just a perspective, a temporary, floating phase of time, an empty mind is a devil’s workshop, at times I feel the urgent need to break open that double window in my room. Anger..maybe… it works in mysterious ways.

Everything, each damn thing has got its own darker side. The darker side of living in a foreign land is its strangeness and silence. At times, one is bound to feel stuck inside, but unless and until one gets up and fights, this will happen.

The fall is finally here, and 5 months to go before I will be back to my country, where atleast I have got friends who miss me, and who are there for me, unlike some people over here, whose only objective is to make sarcastic remarks at other people, and to book tickets for every damn place in Europe( at the risk of wiping off the current bank balance and keeping no emergency money), as if there is a world tour competition going on. It’s a foreign land where I strive to be listened, to talk to someone, not to see famous places, but to just have a good and relaxing time.

Here I close this blog, hoping that there will be actually some “sunny days” ahead.


With dark and deepest despairs..
Comes the mettle to fight..
When this alien land beckons me again ...
Feeling like a tree which bends but never breaks...

The Silent Symphonies to be sung...
At times...deafening lullabies to be heard...
And NO Words to be spoken...
The fear of loss and the fear of defeat...

When this alien land beckons me again....
Expecting to be a Seraphic...
When i am just a Human and a Poet...!!

Writing my verses i looked upon to see:
Even he who stands
on the other side of the Mirror...
Seems a stranger in this Alien land...!!


Sunday, 15 September 2013

Karlsruhe Diaries...!! Chapter 1

15th September,2013
Karlsruhe,Germany 


Hmm.. After all those long,tiring, full of emails and notices.. I managed to land in Germany, and this happened to be my first time in flight, the first flight was okay.. but minutes before landing,my ears pained like hell… and my head got a little dizzy, that was a valid reason to have 3 glasses of red wine in my second flight and sleeping for 2 out of 5 hours of my second connecting flight.

Well.. to begin with, there has been a huge packet of stories to tell, my struggle with Language classes, and the subsequent struggle to order a hamburger in McDonalds -_-
But luckily,people are quite helpful over here, and finally I am learning to cook, of course with the help of my other Indian colleagues, its not much work. The least I can manage is to chop onions and potatoes well. One fine day, I went out to explore the city on my own after the language class, the sprawling palace, the serene streets, hustling bustling of the trams, and finally I ended up in a bookstore with my earphones on.. a lady came to me , and I realized that she was actually speaking to me, and I was being rude ignoring her. That was when I opened my mouth finally to speak. I was a little conscious whether she speaks English or not but I went ahead and asked.

“Do you have English books as well?” She smiled.
“Of course ,we have, in fact, we have two separate shelves for English books,What are you looking for?”
Which was when I realized that I need to buy the Tangram book for Learning German level A1, of course she helped me with it and inquired about me a bit, where I came from, and what I am doing here. I was impressed with her gesture and welcoming behavior.
Finally after shelling out 16 euros for that colorful book, I went back to my room.
But of course, I have my own share of adventures wherever I go. This weekend I happened to visit a friend in Heidelberg, reaching there was pretty smooth because my friend was well acquainted with the city, and the train routes, but while coming back, he left me at the station and I boarded the train.
That was a slow train,(slow according to Germany standards), but I managed to reach in 40 minutes flat.I had to go to Karlsruhe Hauptbahnof, which is the last destination. I again plugged in my earphones and got lost in my world, admiring the architecture from the train windows. Then I fell asleep…
When I got up, the train was deserted apart from another lady who was sitting to my front. I stammered, and lost the track of time. The station was indeed, Karlsruhe but all the doors were closed. For one second, I thought that now I will end up in the yard maybe, but I asked that lady “Is this Karlsruhe Hauptbahnof?” She replied “yes” and questioned me back “Will this go to Frankfurt?” , I was too shocked to answer her, and I went to the door, when one guy signaled me to press the button to open the door.I did that and landed safely on the station.

But .. there were other things destined to happen.

Now, I needed to take a tram. Using a tram ticket machine can be a little complicated for dumb people like me, but as usual, there was someone to help.A woman, who happened to know English quite well.She told me that “Even I am new here, but I can help you”.
After the ticketing was done, the machine showed 1.30 Euros, and a message “Exact money please” . I put a 2 euro coin but it came back, then I put a 1 euro coin, and was unable to find any change, that woman even offered 30 cents from her side, but I realized that it will be too much of a favor, hehe..

Then she told me, “Okay..now you need to take tram S1 which goes till Marktplatz , which is the center of the city, I was so full of gratitude for her. “Thank you so much” I replied back.
S1 came… and I went in,stamped my ticket and sat down comfortably, then I realized..
“Wait a second..” I had a tram route map in my hand, I realized that I boarded the right tram but it was coming from MarktPlatz, not going to MarktPlatz. Three stations in the opposite direction, and I got down and went to the opposite platform, where again, a lady helped me with the directions. I smoked one cigarette to help me relax a bit…Ghosh…!! How dumb could I have been!! I would have reached the outskirts of the city.

Finally I took the tram and got down at MarktPlatz, after having a burger and coffee, I sat down again to smoke, with my packet lying at the table. This time a guy came with 50 cents in his hand, and asked me in German  “Kann ich einen kaufen cigarrette von Ihnen?” (Can I buy a cigarette from you?) .
Thinking it was too cheap to actually sell one cigarette, I offered him one for free, and another old man, taking advantage of the situation, took 2 cigarettes from me :-/

Finally I decided to call it a day, and realized that it was too much adventure for a day, and I better head back to my room and have tea.

Well.. well.. here I am…finally updating my blog after so long, and falling in love with the city…the palace, the roads, the campus…the people… J

Ich liebe Deutschland !! J

Thursday, 27 June 2013

Being Iyer… Part 4

28th June,3
Being Iyer… Part 4

Well..its really been a long time since I sat down to write something, but the atmosphere around me persuades me to write and awake the forlorn writer inside me.
Recently I started learning and writing tamil before coming to Auroville,Tamil Nadu for my internship. Of course, mom and dad were elated, and helped and encouraged me, I made several notes of vowels, consonants and so on… and now I have a considerable grip over a language whose script was alien to me.
Auroville is nice, peaceful …serene and what more with altogether new friends and new things to talk over, but for that, I would have to wait till I write again for the details of it.
But let me continue with the woes of a Tam Brahm.

To begin with, the same story continued here, of being a Tamilian,but hailing from Kerala, but born and brought up in North, the first day, when I reached my accommodation, I was asked to fill up a form, which was a formality, the lady care-taker asked me- “Neengal eppudi Tamil pesuranga??” To which I replied “Ennodu sondha oor vandhu Palakkad thaan, aana porandhu valandhadhu ellam North-la..Delhi”
(How do you know Tamil? My own village is Palakkad, but I have been born and brought up in North)
Then before they assume that I was a Malayali, I told them, “Palakkad Tamil ellam konjum vityaasam irrukkum” (Palakkad Tamil is a bit different). Ghosh…!! But over a few days, I have got used to the “Nasalised Pondicherry Tamil”. And it surprised me , how people could recognize from the way I talk that I was a Tamil Brahmin.

It so happened that I was talking to dad over phone sitting at this “Morgan Café” in the Town hall of Auroville, I started my conversation with the usual “Enna Samacharam” (Tamil Brahmin version of What’s up? ) . After I finished my phone call, the café person asked me,you are a Tamil Brahmin right??
I said yes… “I am a Pattar” :D  He started explaining that he easily understood because the terms like “Enna Samacharam” and others.. have disappeared from Pondicherry Tamil.
I still have a hard time explaining to others specially my fellow interns , what my origin is, and of course, I had to go back 300-400 years to tell them the stories of Mass migration of Tamil Brahmins to various parts of Kerala.

Well… it didn’t end here, the guy who lends out two wheelers to everyone sits at a desk near to me, Laxmanan as he is called, he was all praise for Palakkad Tamil , which he said was pure tamil, and not adulterated one like that in Pondicherry, well..i don’t know what is pure and adulterated, but still proud of the mixed origin that I have, (becomes easy and fun to confuse people I guess) :D

Apart from this, there was one uncle in a restaurant, who was impressed when I told him that I am from Palakkad, he was all praise for Palakkad “Romba nalla edham” (Very nice place)
Everywhere I go, the mixed origin will stay with me, it only gets more mixed and “adulterated” hehehe…
A Tamilian hailing from Kerala, but born and brought up in Ghaziabad, graduated in Greater Noida, then worked in Noida and Delhi, and then going to Post Graduate from Roorkee..
Ghosh… that’s an interesting tale to tell my Grandchildren…..!!


Friday, 5 April 2013

Tojo Troubles in Jawahar…


6th April,2013
03:41 am
Jawahar Bhawan,IIT Roorkee

Well.. the story of Ms.Tojo starts about one month ago…when I found her near canteen during wee hours of the night… I carried her in my arms and went to my friend’s room on the first floor of Jawahar Bhawan.. our very own hostel…!! But alas, I was forced to abandon her by none other than Mr.Debadutta Parida…!! L
A week later I found the same creature in another of my classmates room, who had finally adopted her, and become her Foster father…Mr.Ashish…!! Well.. Perhaps Ashish was inviting trouble, till now I had heard that hope comes in small packages… but Trouble comes in minute packages.. and we were yet to see the trouble…hehe…
Well.. everything started off well.. Ashish kept her in his balcony which Tojo converted into a Manure factory within a week… and which actually was enough to burn one’s nostrils within no time… -_-
Ashish fed her Pedigree bought by his own investments…!! And he actually bathed her at times…!! Till she started to BITE…!! :D
That’s one of the things similar to human and dog babies.. they have a tendency to bite almost everything and anything once their canines start growing too big for their clumsy mouths…and I had to actually save my kurta once by being bitten by Toby… But the trouble had only started…One fine day, she bit Ashish… and my poor classmate is taking anti-rabies injections now… ROFL…!!
Once.. during another wee hours of the night.. I heard her squeaking and barking feebly… then I heard strange noises coming from outside.. when I investigated after going outside…it seemed that almost all the hostel mates were at war with Mr.Ashish.. !! “Kutta laaye hi kyun the jab maarna tha to”
“raat bhar chillata rehta hai…chup karaao isko.. ya fir chodh aao..”
“Saala kabse roya jar aha hai”
After a series of remarks.. things cooled down a little bit…
Till today…!! When I heard that due to numerous complaints.. Ashish had to finally abandon Tojo.. well.. when I went for a smoke to my friends room on 3rd floor… Ms.Tojo was already sitting beneath his bed busy tearing something.. the moment she saw me.. she again jumped and started chasing me… until we chased her out of the room or we might be the next ones to take Rabies injections…God!!
Well.. my night troubles didn’t end here.. she chased me all the while from 3rd floor till ground floor and unless I reached my room and shut her outside….!! If only I had a balcony and I didn’t have a room on ground floor.. I would have been glad to adopt her again… and named her Ms.Tojo Iyer…!! :D :D
Well.. after eating a couple of biscuits… and chasing me around the courtyard.. Ms.Tojo has finally gone to the first floor and trying her best to jump from another balcony… I just pray that she keeps well… That’s one thing with dogs… they are fond of you and you are fond of them…and Tojo actually barked on me when I was playing with Simran.. I think she envies her…!!
Hmmm… lets see.. what tomorrow morning brings for me and Tojo.. till then… I am gonna crash….!!
Or on a second thought.. should I go out and chase her for a while… hahaha ROFL…!! :D

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Reflections


4th April,2013
01:25 am

As  I write this, it has been 3 days since I had a proper sleep, well..too many things going on my mind… and the best way out… an outburst of verses…
As Sylvia Plath said “The Blood jet is poetry… there is no stopping it”
But as always…are all poets supposed to be insane and insomniac?? Well I don’t know… I just want to pour verse after verse of writings….
The very fact that you feel suddenly so lonely at times….!! And insanity is like icing on the cake…well..too mixed up to describe anything here….

(1)Till the Grief subsides and appetite is full...
I drink its ardor and the never ending depths...

Till the happiness ensues the promise of an everlasting mirth...
Dissolved in time...
Meddled with the mind....

Till the Poetry surges in the Poet's mind....
Till everything becomes omnipresent...

And INFINITE....!!

This is the Promise of a never ending Verse...!!



(2) Silence of this night...
Damp memories and Remembrance..
of an Unfulfilled Romance..

Numbness of the mind.
Lost in the darkness of a desire..
The heart mocks at this satire...

Often my hand throbs for yours..
That one caress..and that kiss..
Once more i long for that eternal bliss...!



Monday, 11 March 2013

Being Iyer…Part 3 :The Dilemmas of a Long Name


12th March,2013
04:51 am

Being Iyer…Part 3 :The Dilemmas of a Long Name

I am beginning to wonder and ponder over the fact that why I get the craziest ideas at the wee hours in the morning, and at this time, with nothing to do…actually lots of things to do…with the slightest and least inclination and willingness to do those things…I am enjoying laziness with attitude …!! Bang on…!!
There is a wasp buzzing threateningly on and around the tubelight..and to escape it.. I am trying to divert my attentions to other mundane things…like writing a lame blog,when I ought to be writing research papers…well well..who cares…hehe…

Well..recently I had to fill up my passport application, and so I had to figure out what my First Name and Surname was …including middle name..if any, the form clearly said that the initials need to be expanded, I remember how my juniors were ragged all the time and were actually given an assignment to memorize my full name, and I would tell them only once, adding to their fury. So I would tell them my name as:-

Koduvayur Venkitaraman Subramaniam Abhishek Iyer…. Now, I was in a total Dilemma, My official name is K.V.Abhishek, that is Koduvayur Venkitaraman Abhishek, Koduvayur being the place where my father hailed from, obviously being born and brought up in Ghaziabad, naming me according to Iyer tradtion would have been difficult ,as Ghaziabad Venkitaraman Abhishek would have sounded crazy, and Subramaniam(which was my grandfather’s name)  would be unsuitable for School purposes, and mom didn’t quite like that name, so my name according to the Tradition should be K.V.Subramaniam, as Sons are always named after their Grandfathers,well..to cut the long story short, finally I was named as K.V.Abhishek, phewww….!!

So..back to the passport form , I am wondering what to fill in and how to fill in, what if the authorities misinterpret K.V. to be my first name and Abhishek to be last name? :O I actually had an argument with dad, who was all the time correct when he told me how to fill in and what to fill in…hehe…This was the first time when I faced the Dilemmas of having a long name , gosh….!!

I already had a hard time explaining my friends what my initials were, they cannot simply pronounce Koduvayur,,, in their north Indian toungues, so finally I gave up one day…and as they say in hindi “Maine sabkuch bhagwaan par chodh diya”.

Problem no.2 What if the authorities asked for a full-name proof?? My dad, being a perfectionist, had a proof ready, the Life Insurance Policy papers, but alas, only later on I observed that Venkitaraman was actually written as Venkikakaman and Koduvayur was written as something else….
I shall go mad for crying out loud…I tell you…

However, it was nowhere mentioned that full name proof is needed, and I had my PAN card for proving it, so I just have to wait and watch , what the consequences are… Swamiye Sharanam Ayappa….

There is a whole generation of long names in the family as I recently found out…. My maternal Grandfather(Taatha) was named N.A.Vishwanathan Iyer. That is Nurani Ananthapadmanaban Vishwanathan Iyer. All this may lead to nuisance sometimes, but still I am proud of that 10 feet long name that I have, and my Namesake, which is unique and sounds influential at the same time, and the whole irony of the story is that I hated the word Subramaniam during my childhood, and now I have a strong going facebook profile that spells out my name as “Abhishek Subramaniam Iyer” …
And I love it…

Abhishek Subramaniam Iyer Likes this :D :D :D

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Juvenilia...School Times...



2004,Standard XII
INGRAHAM INSTITUTE  ENGLISH SCHOOL
SOME GAGS OF MY LIFE




# MY  MOST EMBARRASING MOMENT ON STAGE
We were in green house, all the questions were childish , even a junior student could have answered them ,the auditorium was full and occupied by every criticizing person possible .And they had ‘Great expectations from me’  every thing was going fine ,until- 
 I was sitting nervously, then the next terrible question was shot at us...the girl (anchor)  started –‘which is the fastest running animal on earth?’ I didn’t knew what happened to me in that very moment. Had I gone blank? not exactly, for without even the slightest hesitation I replied-  “OSTRICH”
and ..for three whole seconds ,the whole auditorium submerged into silence , I raised my head a little ,looked here and there ,’what is happening?’  and the  next thing which I heard was a loud ,roaring ,thundering ,combined laughter in the auditorium… and Neha, was venting out all her anger on me. “Its not ostrich ,you idiot it’s a leopard she asked about the fastest running animal ,not bird .”  They would have excused me, If I had even uttered the name of a animal , ostrich is not even an animal . I felt so, so, so      embarrassed that I didn’t dared to even look at any thing else except the surface of the table, my head bowed down, till the quiz contest came to an end and the worst part ,we lost …when it all ended ,I rushed to the cycle stand and I cursed myself I didn’t even turned back and looked anyone ,if I were a little late my classmates and those devils of the ‘B’ section would come and make fun of me ,and I feared what I will face if that Rahul came….HUMILIATION.  I fled from the spot .When I reached the main gate of the school a boy from my house was mocking at me he was in  a much junior class . He said  ‘There goes the loser ,our house lost just because of you ‘   .
I cycled as fast as I could and breathed a sigh of relief only when I reached home .
To avoid all possible embarrassments and accusations, I didn’t go to school one whole week and spent my time in home, sulking over what I had done it may seem a little but it was too much to be taken for granted…although there have been many embarrassing moments in my life nothing can be as embarrassing as answering a question wrong in a stupid quiz competition ....and that too the question being most trivial….
 ...there was no excuse left for me to say anything or to persuade my mind against my predicament. I was even nicknamed –‘Mr. Ostrich’ by one of my friends.



#MY LOVE FOR SINGING
 It was our English Literature period .As usual, my love for singing continued even in the lecture of the subject which I loved the most .And that too ,every kind of song ,whether the singer is Madonna or Shamshad Begum ,it didn’t matter to me. I loved singing ,no matter what a torture it is to the listeners .My friends fondly called me –‘FM Radio’ , as I used to sing songs on every situation. So, just as usual, my singing was in full swing that day. Mrs. Shukrey happened to be our English teacher .She is an old lady and moreover, I happened to be her favorite student, after all, who got the highest marks every time, okay, I am not boasting, let me return to our subject –my singing.
I was sitting with Vvidushi. The teacher had not yet arrived. She is an old, aged lady and took a lot of time to reach our class. We usually had a lecture of 35 minutes, 10 minutes she took to come to our classroom, 15 minutes we took to settle down, so Mrs. Shukrey had to remain contented teaching us hardly for 10 minutes.
This time my song happened to be –‘Tan dole mera man dole’  ,from an old movie . A gem of Lata Mangeshkar was today finding place in our English Literature class.
My song was in full swing, Vvidushi was listening and enjoying thoroughly, laughing at me, suddenly the expression on her face grew grim, serious ,pale, terrified and stupefied .
But I continued my singing, I asked Vvidushi-“what is the matter? Why are you so quiet?” I suddenly realized that the whole class was silent. What was happening ?From a wink of her eyes, she tried to tell me something , and I turned back ,there she was our teacher –Mrs .Shukrey , “What happened Abhishek? you may continue singing ,go on”
I was so shocked by embarrassment that I could hardly say any thing I stammered – “ I …I … Am
sorry ma’m “    She would not listen a thing she continued – “come on, I heard you singing “ I didn’t reply .
“How come you remember such an old song ?”
At once a reply came from me-“ Because it was remixed !!”   How absurd was to give such a reply to her In front of the whole class.
She only said “I expect you to be more disciplined “
 The matter was left out but I became a laughing stock for my classmates. This was even worse than that stupid quiz competition.

#I CAN’T CONTROL MY SLEEP !!!
Our biology teacher respected Mr.Ajay Singh happened to be the most boring teacher in the whole world ,whom I used to hate (pardon me ) ,he was just so boring and he boasted of everything and every experience(whether he had it or not, I don’t know) .He was small ,not much in height just five feet ,three or four inches ,with a tummy bulging slightly outside, and with a leather belt with a cellphone tucked onto it. Anyone who saw him understood why he was famous as “CHAVANNI”,because of his height .It is a hindi name given to the 25 paisa coin .
 When he smiled ,three of his front teeth , molars ,or whatever, gave a sight which I  will never forget  , and moreover ,those three teeth were blackened . Somebody told me that it was a result of a feud with some vagabonds, rowdy boys of some other school, who burnt his TEETH!!, after giving him a severe beating. I laughed at this idea, it may be true, who knows? His character had many layers to it.
While teaching biology ,he gave us a rough knowledge of all the subjects which existed in this world .He wore spectacles that were a bit huge for his face, frowning through them ,he would teach us the theory of evolution ,often interrupted by his own enriching experiences , One day ,when he was giving a lecture on the theory of evolution , he asked us “Okay ,can you tell me ,class, which living being bears a close resemblance to us, from which evolution of the Homo Sapien has taken place?”
 To this question I answered, keeping him in mind – “Sir, we have evolved from monkeys!” This I had answered just for fun, however that part is true that I meant him, by that answer. The whole class roared in  fits of laughter . And he said with an angry tone - “you better keep quiet if you don’t know the correct answer”. My answer was enough to disgust him for the next few days .But I had no doubts that he has evolved from monkeys.
Now, his experiences, I must tell, included a lot of trekking, fishing, hunting, adventures and his tales of his family. Often, genetic mutation was interrupted with his mention of his Grand father and how he encountered a ghost which wore expensive jewelry!
Often I thought ,’if you have so much experience, then what the hell are you doing in this school?’

Another dilemma with him was that his syllabus was never complete. No matter how fast we were in catching or how fast he could be, which he never was. As a result, a lot of course was left to be covered and to compensate, he started taking extra classes, which I never attended, he sometimes took other teacher’s periods too, to teach biology.
Once, we had practical classes in whole of our second half, so this was his chance, and it was the greatest torture of my life, he took all the four periods after the lunch break to teach us biology, I was attentive throughout the first two periods ,and each time the bell sounded, I was excited ,as it marked the end of one period ,end of 35 minutes of suffering. When the third bell sounded, I was growing sleepy, effected by the dullness of the November month , and the gloomy ,dingy classroom ,and most of all his lecture , I was on the last bench , and I was far away from his sight, unnoticed, I took my heavy bag ,placed it in front of me on the desk ,so that it will reduce my chances of getting caught, and threw myself on the desk ,my eyes closed, and I gave up to the honey-heavy dew of the slumber ,though partially, not completely. I could hear his speech but I didn’t dare to look up, it was so enjoyable. All, of a sudden , everything came to a came to a standstill, and a silence occupied the room, I suspected something is wrong , I looked up with dizzy eyes ,yawning, with my jaws wide open. I found everyone staring at me, I started feeling nervous, and the situation worsened, interrupted by a familiar voice-
“Abhishek, I never expected you to sleep in the class. “
No answer.
“Actually”, he continued ,” You are not sleeping , I am sleeping “ Then addressing other students ,he said –“ He has made me realize that It is me who actually sleeps in the class , this means that I am not a good teacher , had I been a good one , you won’t have a reason to sleep during my lecture.”
I agreed completely with him, after all, one should admit his mistakes, be it a teacher.
He then came to me and asked –“Are you not feeling well?”
I said –“Sir, may I go and wash my face?”
“You surely can, you can even take a bath if you want.” He said cynically.
To this I replied, “Sir, that is not possible here, I have to manage by washing my face only.”
This ridiculed him and he arranged the fingers of his right hand in a curved form, caressing the thumb, he then again asked me- “Do you know what this is?”
“Surely sir, it’s a punch!!”
“Get out before it destroys your face and you are never able to wash it again.”
I fled.


#FUNNY YET SERIOUS
Once, it was proved practically that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transferred from one body to the another .
It happened so that Anu was sitting peacefully at her seat the period being a free period , we were taking full advantage of it , Asheerwaad , the prankster , came and was in a mood for fun , helpless Anu being unaware of it , Asheerwaad is a person whom I used to hate but today ,he is my good friend , but that is another story , well he came and in an impulse of a moment, swung his bag over her head , his intention was not to hurt her , but it did , a great blow over her head and her temper knew no bounds , and he went away to avoid all embarrassment .She was still sulking and fretting over him and was standing just near the door , when I entered the classroom , unintentionally, I hit her , and as we all know , every action has an equal and opposite reaction , she hit me back .A tight slap right over my face ,   on my left cheek. And, for a moment , I remembered my mother , only she had slapped me in my whole life.But to get a slap from a girl, and that too with no fault of yours ,was really disgusting. My spectacles flew away five feet apart ,to the biology lab. And I being almost on the floor .I was about to fall. I recollected myself, and just went away, without even saying a word.
By lunch break everyone came to know that ‘K.V.’ was slapped by Anu.
In the lunch –break , I was walking in the corridor downstairs, Pulkit, that irritating guy, was behind me. According to my personal observation , some people do no harm to you ,but on seeing their face , you feel disgusting and get irritated, and you just wish to give them a tight punch ,without any reason.
He was just like that . I was in a bad temper . So, he was at risk, he held my blazer and wouldn’t let me go ,he was irritating me.
I persuaded him to leave me, but he wouldn’t, and I found myself more and more ridiculed. Then I didn’t see anything and just flung my right hand in the air, and gave him a tight slap which he is going to remember his whole life. He fell onto the floor. And I left the spot, later on I saw him, with his face swollen as if fat had accumulated over it .
In the end the energy of the slaps was transferred from Asheerwaad to Anu to me and finally to Pullkit . Perhaps he may have given that to someone else .
For the first time I saw that Physics is very much there in our daily lives .Energy can neither be created ,nor destroyed, it can only be transferred from one body to the another.