Times Gone By

Have been feeling very nostalgic lately, I do get into these moods now and then. Thankfully, this time it's not been about bad memories, for the most part. Mostly the happier times have come back, I guess I needed to cheer myself up, been feeling unaccountably down for a while now. But the remembered memories have been very varied, stretching over years and places, and about completely different things, things I thought I had forgotten and things which I can never forget. Don't remember when was the last time I flashed my life back so much.

Let's see, in the past few days I have recollected...

The adda outside Amartya Sir's (Maths tuition) classroom before the gates were opened. Good, fun times with certain friends I never met anywhere else and probably never will.

Screaming silently and going mad when Juliano Belletti scored the winner for Barca in the 2006 Champions League final. The silent part was because my Dad had made an exception and let me watch the match which was then in his bedroom in mute and I couldn't wake him.

The time, in class VI when I moved to a new colony in Delhi and a school friend introduced me to the cricket playing kids. Somehow the team selection was poor and I was the only one in my team who considered himself to be a bowler (that's a rarity in kids). So even though I was a newbie, I got the first over.
I took four wickets in my first five balls. If there ever was a fairytale debut, this was it.

The time when we were playing football after school in DBPC (class XI, I think) and I scored my best goal ever. I went to receive the throw in well within my own half. The throw was poor and onto my head, with two opponents guarding me. I improvised a turn with a short seal dribble and left them behind. Looked up and saw no teammate in front of me to pass to. So I took off, beat four defenders and then the keeper with a neat finish. It's one of those things which I can unashamedly boast about, and do. As soon as the ball touched my head I got the feeling that nothing can go wrong, I know exactly what to do. Guess other footballers will know what I'm talking about. Even when I grow old and start losing my memory, I have no doubt the memory of that feeling is one I will hang on to till the end. For the record, my favourite part of the move was the finish, although most people remember the head dribble.

Someone called Mehtab Samra. I have met him once in the last 12 years and have no contact with him. Yet, I consider him to be one of the best friends I ever made (and I have made quite a few). We were inseparable. In fact, in school we talked so much, they couldn't shut us up just by ordering us to sit in sifferent desks. They had to put us in different classrooms. Wonder what he's up to now.

The time I got electrocuted by a lamp-post. I was stupidly swinging around it and my hand went inside the open fusebox.

Various parts of the Rajasthan trip we took in 1995. It's part of my earliest clear memories.

Various parts of the Himachal trip we took in 2000. When we were staying in Manali, my Dad had the bright idea to take a walk in the night. We started without a torch and walked till we couldn't see anything and then we walked some more before common sense forced us to turn back. Next morning we retraced our steps and realised we had come as close as 3 feet from the bank of River Beas which ran next to where we were staying. It wasn't one of the wimpy calm rivers either, it was a mountain river and was frigging fast and rocky and dangerous. We had nearly died without knowing it.

Cinna's house, and the time when we made that satellite dish thingie for the science exhibition. We called it a PSCD unit; P-something Sound Collecting Dish. Spending those couple of days i making it is one of the most fun times I ever had.

The time, the only time, I flunked Maths, in class IX. I flunked because I got suddenly freaked out before the exam and the exam went badly. I resolved to never get scared for any exam ever again. I haven't yet. Touchwood.

The time when I was forced to debate in school by the blasted teacher because the chap didn't turn and I was the blasted VP of the House, on the day of the debate when the motions had been released a few days back. My knees were knocking badly behind the podium while I gave my speech; public speaking is not my thing. Still, I came 6th out of 16, that's not so bad.



Remembered a few other things too, but the post is too long already. I'll leave that for next time. If you are thinking why there are no law school memories on the list, it's because law school is very much the current phase of my life, I have nothing to feel nostalgic about. It's not yet a time gone by.