Yaaron dosti badi hi haseen hai...

With the extended weekend and hubby down with cold (yeah, he can catch a cold in the hottest of weathers), I took up the daunting task of cleaning the bookshelves. We both are ardent readers and consume atleast two books a week each, in addition to the magazines, newspapers, e-papers and blogs. But I digress... So, as I was cleaning, I came across a bunch of albums - my school days' photographs. All thoughts of cleaning flew from my mind as I opened them to relive and cherish the priceless childhood memories...

I loved to play 'House-House' with my elaborate kitchen-set. Even while my bro was very young, I used to make him the Man of the house, give him an empty brief-case and send him to office while I took the skins of peeled veggies from my mom and would cook meals, hang clothes to dry on ropes tied between windows.

I had (and still have) this childhood friend of mine (let's call him H). Now, H was in my school and while returning home, we would hand our school-bags to our mothers and run off ahead, climb the staircases of other buildings and hide till we would see our mothers pass from below. Then we would race ahead and surprise our mums by hugging them.

We played in mud but didn’t catch any germs; played in the pool but didn't catch a cold... It used to be a regular feature for both H and me to try and beat each other in swimming.

H used to have these birthday parties with the most awesome 'Aam-Raas' (Mango pulp / juice) I'd ever eaten. His birthday would also have the most craziest of punishments for 'Passing - the - Parcel' - climb a tree, drink 10 glasses of water, jump over the gate etc.

In school, the last period of the day used to feel like the longest. We used to eagerly wait for bell to ring & to run off to the play-ground / auditorium to play. PT (Physical Training) periods used to become TP (Time-Pass) for all of us.

We used to write in the best of our hand writing only to get a star in the class work copy.

I used to play a lot of DOS games. PC-MAN, BRICKS were my favourites.

I have played dozens of pranks. We were a group called Chunky-Monkey' group - a gang of sorts and we used to have immense fun.

It was a matter of pride to become the monitor of the class. And I was the undisputed monitor from Standards three to ten since I was one of the most talkative student around.

We used to be the happiest when teacher wrote those four words in our diaries -Tomorrow is a holiday. It was the best purpose of the school diary.

There are lots of memories where these came from... Vibrant, energetic, innocent and pure fun - school days were some of the best days of my life.

24 Carat Necklace...

Do you remember Slam Books - the ones which have these standard questions (What is your favourite colour / movie / food...) which we used to pass to friends in school / college to capture details and memories of our life - n - times. I was going through the book and came to the place where, in the last page, I had filled it out for myself. And the answer to the question - What is the craziest thing you have ever done? - brought a broad smile to my face, as I remembered the incident...

It was my friend's birthday and we were this big gang of guys - n - gals who decided to gift her something she would remember for a long time... in short we decided to play a prank on her and I was the master-mind!

She was very fond of jewelry and had a large collection of chunk as well as junk pieces which she would team up with her outfits. So, being the faithful, sensitive and observant friends that we were, we decided to gift her - yes, you guessed it right - jewelry and that too a 24-carat necklace! Her excitement knew no bounds.

The D-Day dawned bright and clear. Armed with a gift-wrapped box, we entered her Birthday Party. Balloons, streamers, a large number of common and uncommon friends and relatives greeted our gang. In fact, she had been so excited by our proposition of gifting her a 24 carat necklace, she had told it to all her guests. So when we entered, all eyes automatically drifted to the gift-wrapped box in my hand.

After the cake-cutting ceremony (and a large piece in my mouth), we decided the momentous time had come when we'd gift her, her birthday present. With guests gathering around, all of us together, chorused a BIGGG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her and handed it over to her. The box was bigger than a normal jewelry box but our innocent friend herself gave an explanation for it - 'Box ke andar box, uske andar box, usmein mera necklace hai na?' (The gift is within a box which is inside another box, isn't it?). We suppressed a giggle.

She removed the wrapping and pulled out a string of... 24 bright orange, garden-fresh CARROTS!!! We howled and doubled up with laughter, seeing the incredulous look on her face. She too took it in a sporty spirit and actually wore the Carrot Necklace with us in a group photograph. Of course, we were not heartless and after all the shrieks, giggles and snorts of laughter had died down, we gave her her real gift - a necklace with a stone-studded carrot as pendant - to remind her of her 24-carrot necklace!