This day that Age.

Okee...So the title has been lifted from one of those articles that appear in 'the Hindu'...

Vi...Nooo..Its not plagiarism now :P

Somehow, for reasons unknown, when I got to hear the news that the founder of my High school, St.Johns senior sec school, Mandavelli, where I studied till Class 10, passed away last week..I was flooded with memories, not necessarily related to him..than it is to the school..

Guess it all started, with the phone call last week, back home, when my mom told me about his demise.

I have heard enough rumors during that time, as to how that guy was a local pauper in that area., who first managed to build a thatched hut for a school, that soon grew into one of the biggest and best in the area..only to fall down in standards, after the fiasco and rukus that JJ had created about CBSE and state board stream in early 90's.

Being a CBSE affliated school, they tried to stem the rot, by making some of the sections state board medium, but I guess it never worked.Anyways, back to the memories...
There are quite a few things that stand out. But then I wouldnt want to etch them all...just because it would show the 'bad me' outside., or as to how I was 'tortured' for my mischievious ways..

So outside of them, the one thing that I got reminded of yday was the NCC days we had in school..

And again that prolly was cause of the Camp thingie that Shilpa was talking about..

Guess it was a 1 day camp, that we had attended in Loyola college during my class 8 or 9, I fail to remember.

2 incidents stand out..
It so happened that we were assigned a weapons training day and after the initial brief session on how to use firearms, we were asked to fire at targets some 60 ft away.

The practice ground has a railway track going behind it..and we were all afraid that we would hit the ones that were hanging' from the train..(if you know how the crowds in India travel). We were assured that it wouldnt happen, one because they were Rubber pellets and two it wouldnt travel that far..

So there were 20 of us in all, and I was right at the center. We were given our dart boards as targets propped against sand bags.

We all fired some 10 rounds, and then it was time for the officer to check who was the best amongst all., and so off we went to the target boards.

I went near mine and realised, to my horror, that I had not even one shot on the board. Forget the Bulls eye' not even any where on the periphery.

Imagine my state of mind, when the guy next to me had around 7 shots out of 10 in the circle and 2 pretty close to the bulls eye.

I just couldnt agree that he was a better shooter.and that was when I decided to investigate..
I counted all the pellet shots in his target and realised that he had like 7 within the circle and another 10 elsewhere on the board outside the targeted area.

Yess...u guessed it right, We were targeting the same board, and I was shooting at his thinking it was mine..:-D

The officer was mightily pissed off, first for me not hitting even one..cause I had been such a big mouth during training and that I was also the Lance Corporal, as I should be leading them in drills., and when he got to know of the 'combined' target he got so mad...and made me..carry the rifle around the ground..
Guess it was like 3 rounds around a football ground...sheesh.................

There was an even more interesting incident though..This was with the guy on the other side of me. The way the gun used to work, was that after every shot, we have to unload the rifle and make it spit out the unused portion of the pellet from the barrel of the gun.
Apparently one of the shots in his gun had misfired, and he did not realised it. And so when he unlocked his barrel, out came the 'hot' peice flying out of the barrel and plush into the face of the guy next to him..

Yikes, the deep throated sound that came up immediately after the HOT pellet hit his cheek...gosh I still remember to this day...Im sure he still has a mark on his face, cause of that...:-))

Pity, I dont remember who that was....

There were quite a few other incidents...I'll blog them when I have the guts to make fun of myself..;-)