Happy Birthday to ME!

Happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me...happy birthday dear Suruchi...haaaaaaaappy birthdaaaaaaaaay tooooooooooo meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....
Add a nice long pull on the last note of “meeeeeeeeee”:)
I may not be a great singer but singing the birthday ballad is my speciality...You could have spotted me in my toddler years as the girl sticking right next to the birthday baby, guarding the territory around the cake ferociously...yapping away the birthday song with all the excitement in her little body (ok, not so little then...alrite, not so little even now...ab khush...mil gaye shaanti?) and eyeing the sumptuous chocolate cake all the while...being cautious of the proximity to be able to be the first one to gulp down a humungous piece of cake, after it has been ceremoniously sliced with the knife...and hence the expertise! Birthdays have been BIG for me...whether my own or those of special people around me...days to celebrate who you are and what you have achieved in terms of relations in life!

Yup, yup, yup....
Yesterday on 28th of September 2009 people, I celebrated 32 years of my existence on mother earth...Wow...How lucky can dear earth get!
32 years old and still feeling 22 and so proud of it (I stopped growing mentally after the age of 22...I was hoping that the ‘physically’ bit would also follow suit...but never mind!)
It’s like heralding into a new era...
Good bye giggly n nervous teens...
Good bye the indecisive twenties...
And say hellooooooooo to the sexy, thundering, throbbing n thrilling thirties!
Time to put my best foot forward...even if I have just two mediocre ones...I would dare to find the best one soon...I promise!

This birthday was a landmark of sorts...I anyways love birthdays...wish I could be born n dead and be reborn every month to be able to celebrate this day...
On second thoughts...not such a great wish...because before I could get out of those diapers into a sexy new outfit or chuck away the nipples of milk bottles to sip on a tequila shot...I’d be dead again! Boo hoo...Ok Almighty ji, can I have a birthday just like that on a more regular basis, without having to go through the grind of worries about wrinkles, throwing lavish parties and other unearthly horrors that are still at bay?

Anyways...mein kahan the?
Haan yaar...birthday mera...kya aap log itne bakr, bakr karte ho ke mein ulajh kar bhool he jaate hoon ke mein kahan the!

So this birthday I have been flooded with wishes, hugs, chocolates, flowers, kisses....and please note that gifts and cash are conspicuously missing from the list....but never mind...there’s always next year and my favourite dictum in life... “To err is human, to make up for it-divine”
So next year people...get a little more divine-ish n less devilish!

The birthday began with a normal dinner the previous night turning into an eve of sorts! Aha...so there used to erstwhile be just Christmas eve, New year’s eve, Holi eve, Diwali eve...never mind the last two hypothetical ones...This one coming now is a far cry from any presumptious banter...The latest on the block is.... “Suruchi birthday eve” (they are planning to make it official from next year and madam Mayawati in apna Uttar Pradesh just might oblige after I agree to give her a makeover with all my magnanimity and tolerance prowess;) Move over Gandhi Jayanti...coz here’s Suruchi Jayanti...but dry day nahi rahega yaar...well, we’ll call it the wettest day of the year...
Come and get drenched in my praise...hehe...uff zyaada ho gaya...I better stop my imagination horse...durrap...durrap...halt!

But then I have proof yaar that I am actually lovable....
My face book wall page shall bear testament to my popularity meter...This year my wall has been adorned with 81 birthday wishes (ji haan, meine sahi mein count kiya sab ke sab...and still more in counting) and with 2/3rds of them being longer than mere sad looking “Happy Birthday’s”.
I hate the sookhe sookhe happy birthday thrown at people on their special days...if you can’t say anything long, flattering and nice...at least add a hug or a mwaah...lage to kuch mila hain...and zor se lage...not just bounced and lost.

Anyways and that’s not all...there were 16 ahem, ahem...private messages in the inbox...I got two guys to sing for me and another two to write poetry in my praise...I got some other ‘lost planet kinda souls’ extracted from their cocoons to pop out n wish me....I have 54 messages (ya, ya that’s on record too) on my mobile and I was non-stop on the phone since morning...getting together local, inter-state, national and international callers...some symbol of global unification this is!

Gawsh...Am I bloody popular or what?
Is there no other soul occupying the walks of life?
What a pressurizing existence this is...to be so loved by all!
Hehe...just kidding...but then I feel bloated today and I thought I must whoosh out some of it here...before I burst...

Big, big thank you to everyone who conspired to make me feel like god’s gift to birthdays...;)
And big, big reminders to those who forgot to add to this band wagon...Baby, there’s always a next time and pehle galti to bhagwan bhi maaf kar dete hain...mein to bas ek nacheez se insaan hoon!
Big, big hugs to all those who joined in my circle of life...coz that’s what the circle of friends means to me!
I had been smiling through the day yesterday and dismal today for another 364 days more to go before mere janam divas arrives again when I’d be the queen of the world...my world...yet again for just another day!

Hot Pants!!!!!!!!!!

Ok...another page from the escapades of my walk...or rather let’s just say something ‘Jo dimaag ke batti jala de’!

I was walking along the lonely and dreary road, chatting up a friend on the cell to make me oblivious of my moving lone footsteps, when something hot and happening passed me by, that made me say, “Boy oh boy!” Yup, a boy he was for sure, though not so blasphemously young...wearing a scarlet red and white jersey with really short sleeves and really, really hot and short and oh-so-red hot pants...I mean the ones that barely cover the bottom...rising enticingly high on the sexily tanned bare long legs and ending at just the lower round curve...there’s a bloody good reason why they call these things ‘hot’ pants!

And phew! Suddenly the heat became unbearably hot!
To top that I could conspicuously eye the trickling lines of sweat flowing through the bulging biceps and oh could the sight make you thirsty or what!
Lemme look for more adjectives....sultry, scorching, sizzling, searing, and sweltering hot was the rear view...
And if someone like me says it...because it takes a lot to get my eyebrows raised...you better take my word for it ladies...that the butt was quite a view! Like they say- but‘t’ naturally! ;)

Unfortunately or fortunately (for I somehow feel the book was only alluring by its back cover...despite the bulging pages of the rippling muscles-shuscles), the guy was on a jog...probably a hostel-r and moved past fleetingly and against my better instincts I decided not to gallop along to catch a glimpse of the face....The ogling for now had done enough for the adrenalin rush and I better not gaze any more, all moon eyed and so...before the hostel gentry turn into their holes and declare it unsafe for their modesties to trot on the streets!

The incident made me wonder how far we really judge a book by its cover. Well, whether we’d like to admit or not, we actually do! Though what makes a woman turn and return to give you more than just another look, has little to do with blazing curves and more so with the intense package deal. Your hot quotient may make our heads turn...but minus the cute or suave elements and the good moves suddenly become cheesy. You may sweep us off our feet but then you need balls again to make us rise up to you....no puns intended! We love to ogle and a bottom like that might get us tempted enough to give you a pinch or mischievous spank (only in our minds)! But then for ogle, don’t we have the Google...Give us something sharper and snappier, if you want to see us happier...and if you were born with a cute butt like that...you know, round and shapely and just about synchronised in the curves....aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh...you were born to rule dude!

Let’s just dedicate this to those barely 3 inches long or should we say short/skimpy hot pants...hmm, makes me wonder of the blissful predicament if the rain gods would have sided with me this once and we’d have an encore of the flick ‘Ram Tere Ganga Maile’ with clothes sticking to make second skin....oooooooo...gimme a moment dear readers, coz the memory reminds me that I must take that cold shower and return “back” to give you more later!
Ciao!

Hugging was invented for a Bloody good reason!

I read this somewhere:
“They say Disney land is the happiest place on earth...obviously they’ve not been in my arms!”
So rightly said...also like it was said for Kashmir by some wise guy...
“Agar dharti pe kahin jannat hain...to woh yahin hain, yahin hain, yahin hain...”
This guy too would have forgotten to remember the significance of the eternal embrace...sigh, sigh!

I think I was made for hugging and being hugged!
It’s my cherished pass time...
My favourite hobby...
My ideal state to be in...
It’s the inevitable cure-all, priceless be –all and ultimate end-all!

The need for hug would have to be timeless too...
Picture this...the stone age man returning home after a tiring day of hunting down the flora and fauna and meets his partner at the threshold of the cave...She welcomes with a smile but he needs more than that...the comforting feel of skin against his own...especially considering that they didn’t wear clothes then (...that should make some things stand...I meant the goose bumps). And their hands would clasp at the backs and heads rest on the shoulders and feeling the feel-good factor being transferred from one end of a human body to another....mmmmmmm! And lo! The hug was discovered or rather invented and passed down as a traditional legacy to the off-springs...a secret more inestimable than any material wealth!

It’s amazing how a simple hug can conquer, transform and transcend...
Feeling blue...antidote=hug
Feeling ecstatic...elucidation=hug
Feeling victorious....rejoinder=hug
Feeling nothing...solution=hug

The simple hug may say that someone’s there, that everything would be alright, that you did well, that it’s great to see you, that you rock big time, that you are my life, that I need you, that i wish these clothes didn’t come in between us and so much more!
It brings about a rush of hormones if done suitably and lingeringly...and bear hugs are known to release the bouncy nuts in the system. So if there has to be a hug, it better be a long, crushing, everlasting one for those like the proverbial kiss in the air and fad-like are such spoilers. A hug must be a full blown jhappi or nothing at all...when you close your eyes and become oblivious to the world... Like Munna Bhai so rightly said...it would and should be a jadoo ke jhappi...reinstating bonds, establishing new ones, culminating feelings and winning over enemies! One hug can do it all!

So gimme, gimme, and gimme more of hugs for without my daily dose of it...I feel my body stiffen, emotions wither, my humour crumble and the muscles twitch...so the withdrawal symptoms are pretty serious and I prefer to stay addicted!
Hugs to all my friends and readers that say...thank you for the warmth you bring in my everydays!

Red-Hot Hair Haywire!

I began writing this with a heavy heart...sob, sob and an imaginary sad wailing tune in the backdrop because they say sound effects help magnify the impact of what you wish to emote. Socha tha kya n kya ho gaya...types song...
A tragedy had transpired, the magnitude of which should be ascertained in the days to come....

Background information dene ke banti hain yaar yahan....
Madam Mandira Bedi is at fault...
How you might ask? Well, she recently adorned a brand new make-over in a reality show on television, with beautiful short red streaked hair on her cute head. And despite me not being a huge fan or belonging to the category of senseless and swooning masses, who ape fads by jumping on the celebrity band wagon...I think, this time I was caught in a weak moment. I have been aching for some change in life and routine from a long while and my dearly beloved has been getting an ache at the idea of taking me on a holiday. So the beckoning red head of Mandira had me completely in its grip, struck by a steadfast awe and also awwwww...And I reached the parlour next day for my date with experimentation and a make-over to club me with the ranks of the fashionistas! Move over plain Jane!

It’s funny how people just go to such places...maybe with pictures of their stars and just declare...“Make me like Aishwarya” or something...Or weird still, imagine guys hitting the gym and saying... “I want a body like John Abrahim”. If it was said to me I would just ROFLMAO. I was wriggling at the idea of doing it myself and somehow kept beating about the bush...I inquired about all the possible shades of red...not able to mouth out what exactly I wanted...Madam Mandira ji, I hope someone’s flattered you so much before so that I don’t do the best sucking-up-to job in town or rather nation in this case!

After an exhaustive and baffling session of rejecting most of the reds...some were too dark, others too tacky...some too copperish or too burgundy...my eyes fell upon the increasingly growing red face of the beautician....Ahem...ok...time for some action before her red should give me the blues...
“Have you seen this Akshay Kumar programme called Fear Factor?” I crooned...trying to hedge my way to the issue.
“What! You want hair like Akshay’s?” she blurted.
“Grrrr....no wonder you are here madam hairstylist coz your sense of understanding is just senseless...I am not confused or planning to confuse the public with my hair gender choices”...I didn’t say that in so many words...I was sitting in a chair before her, with big tufts of my hair in one of her hands and the scissor in another...I better be good to her....or get a handful or mouthful or whatever...no puns intended again!

And finally Mandira madness came out of the bag!
“Oh ya” she said...and I thought...waah, waah an accent...maybe this gal is not a dumb bimbo after all!
And then she told me the words that every man and especially women should beware of when going to the salon....
“Don’t you worry...I have understood exactly what you want and you are now in safe hands.” I was in her hands, alrite!

Phew! I was relieved....How wonderful that at least certain things in this world exist where you are understood without the necessity of expression...Little did I realize that like the mooh maya of our existence...this is also just a make belief! A big fat myth!

A huge black apron was fixed around my neck and loads of water splattered on my head...and my mind was picturing the lady in the garbs of an executioner and me being buttered up for a capital punishment of sorts! “Would all red lines be too stark for me?” I queried thinking of the lines of kiddies who come to me for studying and apprehensive of their shock stricken faces. “Hmm...It would be, I guess”, she said. Wow, and what were you waiting for to tell me that mademoiselle...after my head is done up with the damage? “I’ll give you streaks of blonde in between...it would suit your white complexion”. And like always, compliments make me scatter-brained enough to lose the sense of comprehension and I smiled knowingly. And she knew, “hassi to phassi”!

She took out big dollops of some weirdly sperm like liquid in a not so big bowl...and I instantly pictured the flick ‘There’s something about Mary’...I was hoping this would not be another “hair-raising” experience! And then with her expert fingers she unruffled my tresses, holding me by the back of my neck and I feared if the sperm like liquid in her palm was making her horny! Thankfully the drill ended in two minutes but to my horror I began to feel her pat on my cheeks slowly and suggestively... “Ma’m you have great skin...soft and smooth and radiant”...I was waiting for the catch...there better be before the seduction blows out of proportion. “You must try our new facial...meant for skin like yours”....Phew again! My izzat was safe despite those closed walls...I had passed the pass!

I told her to just concentrate on my hair...on my head....no matter how distracting the rest of my appealing or lack of it body may be!
She began using her pins to uplift little lines adding the blonde and red tinges...I sat there in the glow of a light bulb right over my head which made the red shine a burning crimson. I decided to not panic but wait with baited breath and ordered the butterflies in my stomach to do so too till all those foils on my head were removed and I get the final look...So with a foiled head and hopefully not a foiled look...I watched the hands of the clock tick...and soon it was washy-washy time! My head was laid on the basin as the old me was being rinsed off.

I looked at the mirror instantly being a critical judge as well as ready to console myself in case there’d be a bolt from the blue...in this case red! Hmm...I was unsure...she was sure.... “Mast lag raha hain ma’m...” Hmm...Should I trust her or blast her...I was unsure again and dissecting the length of mutilation....for thin pin lines of bright red and bright blonde looked back at me from the reflection of the mirror. I was now technically half redhead, half blonde head and also half my original brown head...there can’t be three halves, right? So in all and completely...let’s just say a dumb head! She gave me a haircut complimentary and got down to it...haircut that is! Within minutes of hair drying and giving me a shorter flick on the forehead and curly bounce to the ones behind...I was all set with my new look. It was different for sure...and I kind of liked it with a nervous excitement!

Now what was awaited was the world’s verdict...I paid the damages and trotted off from the saloon with a new sense of what I thought to be oomph and airs about me...At the insistence of my net friends, I immediately took some snaps of my new avtaar holding the camera myself and after rejecting 10 not so hot close ups...I uploaded one on face book that passed off as decent enough...And then the wait again...the jury was in council and the accused waiting for doom or bloom...
And...
And...
And...my world came crashing down...a bare minimum twitters of whistle n wink and an obvious roll of shredding me apart...and half an hour later the picture was removed from my profile page. Like always I had not waited for the axe to fall on my feet...I had sauntered my way onto it! I was burning red...not at the right place! I could kick myself for giving in to the spur of the moment...but then just a kick would not suffice for a big ass like me!

My hour of glory became my hour of massacre...my brother leading the march in the laugh riot....Of course brothers are envious specimens but then some of my so-called friends ganged in too in the leg pulling game...till thank god for a dear friend, who finally soothed me into the belief that the picture’s not so good....but I am actually looking hot and happening! What the heck...might as well live with looking like a white sauce laced tomato on a brown plate for a while!

And slowly the curves round the corner of my mouth began to rise up again...Saturday night it was and we hit the disc after months of my wanting to do so. I told me dearly beloved that using the night as a camouflage, perhaps I would just mingle in the crowds and not be so horrendously noticeable...He held my hand proudly and said I looked awesome (alrite, the deep necked top over my jeans should partly share the credit)...and he looked deep in my eyes...that made me believe that I did...And I ventured forth...only to be showered with generous compliments and “wow’s” and gentle touches of my tresses. I did not mingle for a change...I was right there at the centre getting jiggy n giddy with it, in a way I had thought I would. I was basking in praises and enjoying the admiring eyes along with the reassertion that certain risks in life are worth it! Well, all’s well that ends well? It sure is!

The Fear Of the Unknown....

The fear of the unknown…
Has me firmly in its grip
I don’t know what it is
But I know it’s there…
Watching my every move
Perhaps anticipating its own,
Spreading its roots
Branching its hold!
The unknown is pleasant or discordant?
Let’s just say still a mystery
Shrouded in pleasure,
In company of pain
Partly logical, partly insane!

The fear of the unknown…
Makes me take baby steps at a time
Though each is a giant leap for ‘my’ kind!
I falter and resist
I give in and still insist…
It’s a turmoil that’s making me churned
It’s like getting something, I have yearned
But lavished freely and not really earned!
Do I deserve it or does it deserve me?
Should I accept it or just let it be?

The fear of the unknown…
Makes my heart palpitate, my senses titilate
And my philosophies to mutate!
You come within the radar of my aura
And I realize I am the one who is being magnetically pulled instead!
Is there a blindfold on my eyes?
Or have all forces suddenly become dark?
I stop, I call out, I reinstate my premise
I analyse, I dissect, I debate, I surmise!
Not knowing that all the while…my mind was playing games
I thought there was a distance,
Then why the proximity held my breath?
Despite ordering them to stop…my footsteps had been trotting still...
Don’t they receive my signals or have they developed their own free will?

The fear of the unknown…
Is it fear really?
Or is it the unknown indeed?
Perhaps when the pace of my heart quietens…
I’ll hear.
Perhaps when I stop dreaming with waking eyes…
I’ll see.
Perhaps when I shut down my pragmatic world…
I’ll feel.
Perhaps when the dust settles…
I’ll know.

It was MY Day, alrite!

Teacher’s day for a teacher is an acknowledgement and certification of what you have been doing and if you have been doing it right...no puns intended for a change!

This year my students pleaded for a treat and when I could not resist their cute beckoning elongated moans of pleeeeeeeeaseee and equally long faces anymore (that would be precisely for 60 seconds), I gave in and decided to take the senior ones- 10th, 11th and 12thies for a treat to MacDonald’s...Taking the complete whole bunch of 100 was not humanly possible for me or humanly hand-able for the Mcd’s staff and followers....and hence the cut off...that almost broke my heart...but then, sigh! sigh!

Before venturing out though...I handed down to them a verbal list of statutory warnings:
1. Please reach on time...this is not a class that you reach sauntering away to glory, 15 minutes late and always with the same excuse that you car had a flat tyre...What a flattened car that would be!
2. Please come straight to the venue as you leave your abodes and protective arms of your watchful mothers...to say it more bluntly, let me not catch you in a dubious position in the parking lot...
3. Please don’t hold hands or sit with your beloveds...at least there!
4. Please don’t call outsiders...meaning those not in the coaching just so that they catch a glimpse of how drop dead gorgeous you look when not in your usual garbs...after running from one coaching to another!
5. Please go straight home after the party that is scheduled to end in one hour....don’t tell your parents that “ma’m insisted upon our staying there for three hours”!
6. Please don’t make passes at me...you are anyways getting the fringe benefits...the treat that is!

I know my kids and hence the decree...
And also I knew had these been written on a sheet...they would have made paper aeroplanes of it or roses and offered them to me only!
And also since I know them...I was pretty sure, they most definitely would break at least 4 of these rules...
And like I know and pride myself in...I was right again!

The scheduled time was 7 p.m. and when I reached about 15 minutes early...just four of them awaited...I was expecting at least 40...but then there was still time...I was a bit apprehensive too...wondering if I’d be able to handle so many of them in their first official outing with me!

By 7.20ish they began to filter in...
Today the tresses were let loose...there was a dash of mascara and a line of kaajal caressing the eyes...some were reeking with perfume...others with pin straight standing hair as though gelled and stretched beyond human capacity (reminded my subconsciously of a flick called American Pie...but thankfully I put those thoughts to rest...)
Swanky clothes...ritzy accessories...chic style and loads of street smart attitude...it was a party alrite!
Such a fresh change to see them this way...blooming buds on the threshold of alluring youth...And also a change for them because for the first time their ma’m was not in a salwaar suit but in jeans and a kurti...Alrite, I made some attempts to look cool to gel in as inconspicuously as possible!
So after a big round of us complimenting each other...and forming a mutual admiration society of sorts...they just pulled and placed their chairs all around me and the gossip sessions began...rather they began pulling each other’s legs and thank god like is my habit...I did not indulge in here for once!

I was told who was going around with whom...and when I remarked that oh but I thought ‘she’ was going around with ‘him’...
Oh no ma’m...that was last week...they’ve broken up and she’s single again and he’s now hooked with ‘her’...
Ooooooooooohhh! I gasped for a bit of air...breaking news sections in the newspapers...take a bow here!
Two of these ‘couple’ kids I had passed them on my way up to the restaurant...I enquired about them...I was told they are coming...no puns intended again...Well, they kept coming only...for the evening ended and I didn’t see them come at all!

I also learnt of the new patio-ing tricks circling around these kids as the current fad...sit next to the target and flirt blatantly...no scope or hope for subtleties here....
Then some burgers, fries and cokes followed as they teased me to teach them there and I teased them to sing a song...
They did...
Not crooning any Himesh Reshamiyya number...
But singing ‘happy teachers day’ at the top of their voices, as a big fat chocolate cake entered the domain and I cut through it gently with a heart full of pride about to burst with an unknown delight...

They created such uproar that everyone else at Mcd’s turned around to see what was happening...
Never since the day of my wedding had I turned so many heads all at once...and never since that day only had I eaten so much meetha...
(Remember the laddoos stuffed into your mouth just before you are tying the knot and each person under that connubial tent...from the
closest kins to the distant-est of acquaintances bloody insist on putting the laddoo in your mouth before handing over the shagun...and you realize that to earn you have to burn...you here implying the tummy)
Well, aisa he kuch yahan bhi hua...
Then almost each one of them put chunks of that dripping sumptuous chocolatey sin in my mouth...and for the first time in my life I heard myself blurt... “Bas, ab aur chocolate nahi!”

I pinched myself to believe it was really happening for anything brown and melty gets me big time...Waise, abhi I officially have a year’s supply of chocolates that came in gifts...So if you want to be friendly with me...now is the time!

And like this the awesome evening came to an end...
I told them to pack up now...as we hugged and said goodbyes...as though never to meet again...I returned home with a car full of gifts, flowers and cards...and an incomparable high that glowed for the next 24 hours on my face....
The feeling of getting 100% satisfaction from something in life...well, call it my occupational perks, I guess for I still have to know the occupational hazards and know that I shall never know them!

My Teaching Journey!

Everybody needs something in life to pursue to keep up and rocking his levels of sanity...
For me this has been teaching!
The catharsis...
The nirvana...
The journey and the destination...

It’s been some good old 13 years since I started...
I was in Class 12th I remember...just freshly passed from school...hmm...in the year of 1996 and a month later I got a call from the Principal’s office that our teacher who took up Political Science for classes 11th and 12th had fallen seriously ill and they couldn’t find a substitute. And since I had scored 96% in the subject in the boards, she felt I was suitable enough to do that job. What an incomparable high! For a couple of days I think, I must have made cloud 9 my heavenly abode...

So there I was rubbing shoulders with all my teachers in the staff room as peers...just about a month later from passing out of my convent as a student. I was getting the first hand experience of all the gossip which we always wondered about as to what went on in the staff room’s closely guarded walls and needless to say I was enjoying it. I had shifted gears and the ride was taking new dimensions. The students I was teaching were all my buddies for I had a great rapport with my juniors, having spent hours cracking all the non-veg jokes or giving agony-aunt types advice (yup, I am doing it since then) on their blooming love lives. Yet I had managed to catch their attention this time as an educationist. They were ready to take me seriously when I was teaching and just as I would leave their classroom door and thereby my teacher garbs to step on to the corridor...I would get a dose of the latest gossip and scandals doing the round.

After two months of teaching Political Science, our Economics teacher left school suddenly and so I took up her shoes for another three months. I knew it then that this was my true calling. To be able to connect with a listener in such a way that he doesn’t only give you his rapt attention, but understands the import of what you are saying and most significantly what you have said made a difference to his perception, comprehension and intellect...I thought and still think that there’s nothing better than that!

Soon private coaching lessons followed up as the good word spread within my school of how proficient I was at bringing home the subject...please remind me when I am going overboard with self-praise...I wouldn’t stop...I’d just rephrase it to make it look more natural! By god’s grace everyone thought I was anyways awesome- being the Head Girl, Chief Editor of my school magazine, School’s Chief Spokesperson and the pet of all teachers, students, servants alike. So I think many students came knocking at my door just because they were in something of an awe of me as the Head Girl irrespective of my skills! As pompous as it sounds, for some it was just getting the whiff of being around me...mostly girls at that time, so those imaginative horses might take a rest. Again at the risk of sounding highly pretentious here...let me please declare...What a superstar-ish feeling it was!

From a handful to a couple of dozen senior girls and boys and soon the strength augmented to about fifty children that I was taking up during the course of the week...My hands were busy all day either in correcting notebooks or in collecting the money that was being showered from all corners. For an eighteen something...so much dough in hand could have been a head spinning experience! And I also indulged...not just on me but on people all around me...I gifted my mum a microwave...most of my brother’s wardrobe was sponsored by me...I spent on my friends buying them gifts they secretly cherished...and of course gave in to my own fetishes when I went down the market aisles...and of course did my share of hoarding too. In my own way I was realizing the luxury of splurging as well as the value of hard earned cash and though extravagant, yet i was selective in my spending abilities to get the full penny’s worth.

I got bigger batches, got attached to coaching centres and developed a sweet little fan following of sorts. All day I basked in the glory of being surrounded by books and happy, peppy faces who thought coming to me was more fun than studies could rarely be! I would blush and smile in admiration of students who would unabashedly declare that I was their favourite teacher and some would just look at my face while I read instead of reading the text book...more so to get me peeved than anything else!

And this journey continues....
I got married...switched to a new locality but managed to pursue my passion and to continue carving my niche...
Most students even after passing out from my hands remain in touch as they move out into the world...and the satisfaction of seeing them mould beautifully is akin to what a parent may feel for them...
May be momentary for me...but it brings me inexplicable pleasure and I say my little silent prayer to the almighty for being so kind to me. As of now...during peak time, the strength of my students touches a 100 sometimes...and I am glad that I end up managing them all as well as continue to trot on in the web of life surrounding me otherwise...
If asked whether I would have it any different....
NEVER....
Not for a million other temptations!