Overall I think I had it pretty good at my school. I had some bad days and some bad times but I look back at my school days as mostly good and I have a nostalgic good feeling in my heart when I think about the school. For the most part. Now, I have already posted earlier about my worst ever experience at school, which was terrible, so I guess I will tell you about my second worst experience.

This is when I was in the 8th grade, 13 years old in 1989. I was a rotten little rebel that year and my grades suffered and I usually got into a lot of trouble that year. One day when one of our teachers was ill and we didn’t have a substitute teacher available, the class was left to it’s own device. Hence there was a lot of noise and students were either yakking a lot, reading something or playing little games at their desks. Someone decided that it would be fun to play a little basketball – using our class football and a makeshift “hoop” which was just the triangular gap between the opened door and the wall, when pushed open inside and touching the wall. I hope you get that image in your mind! So I joined in a bit but mostly I was at my desk while a few guys played at the door. The principle, owner of the school and overall wicked witch of the state was away from the school and happened to be coming back in her car and saw the activity as her vehicle approached the building.

She was furious and rightly so and I could see my classmates, my buddies scrambling to their seats and avoid being caught. She sent the school clerk to the class and said that the culprits had to go and report to the principal’s office right now. No one moved or offered anything! Surprised! Then she said that if the culprits didn’t come forward, the whole class would get punished. Groans and gasps were heard all round. Now, I had a devil may care attitude and didn’t give a fuck, so I stood up and thought I’d “confess” rather than have the whole class suffer. As I stepped forward, Nikhil, a close friend of mine decided to give me company and also stepped forward in a show of sacrifice to our friends. And we weren’t really among the guys who played ball in the class. So we followed the clerk to the principal’s office and went to face the music. The principal hadn’t seen who it was that played but was happy enough to put the blame on anyone and she started yelling at us. Although we bought couldn’t give a damn! We just stood there and listened.

And then – she made the clerk get the ball from our school and told us that she was going to destroy it. And then she made the stupidest mistake ever! She tried to rip a hole in the football with the sharp end of her high heel! Man, she almost tripped and fell down in front of us and we couldn’t hold back our laughter. Both of us giggled at the funny scene which ofcourse made things worse. She was livid and took a pair of scissors and ripped a couple of holes in the ball and then proceeded to take a cane to us and gave each each a couple of swift beatings on our arms. But it hardly hurt at all since we were laughing on the insides and as he and I went back to our class bonded over the event. Thanks Nikhil, wherever you are, for giving me company on that afternoon :)