Of Bungling Lovers, And Their Tales...

Whats funny these days is the amazing candour with which we discuss a subject that was among the most taboo and worst kept secrets in school and college life...love! Back then, it was an affair of private despair clumsily stashed away very from public glare in the deepest recesses of the mind, only to be reopened, mulled at, strategised, procrastinated and once in a while mustering the guts to make a public airing of feelings. Today with the girls who then captivated our hearts married and gone, we look back and laugh at all the embarassingly funny situations that infatuation, love and trying hard to keep the affairs of the heart secret produced. I had the good fortune to study with a huge set of dimwits from school through college who conceived ideas of megalomanical proportions to win over the ladies, and though we knew how bound for failure they were, yet we would prod them on in their heroics for a good laugh later on at the unfortunate victims expense. Today those duffers regret their heroics as even years later because of unforgiving, unforgetting friends using those mistakes to have a jolly, good laugh at reunions and idiots like me blogging those down for eternity.

School was the heyday of infatuations. What made our situation more precarious was that we kept Vishwamitranian ideals and a belief that girls entering the fold would damage our batch's unity. But boys will be boys, and from motta who could find his way to a gals heart so easily that we would stand respectfully at his side trying to get the "mullapoonkodiyettu kedakkum" effect to the forever love-lorn chunni to the tough and hardy hooper, everyday in schoollife had a most hilarious outpouring of somebody's woes, another's gaffes and someone's successes to narrate. As for me, I remember waiting for my crush, all over the place from Nanthencode Junction to Pattom
LIC wondering what mode of transport she used and finally giving up that tactic when she arrived with a policeman for escort...her dad wuz an IPS officer!!! But what took the cake was a love rectangle shaping up in class and Hooper forming a planning board with a few guys to deduce who the gal was interested in, and finally for all his efforts landing up with a nickname chairman which still stands! Well that was not the end of chairman's travails as he used sentiments to appeal to an HAC gal and she broke into tears in the middle of Statue Junction with hundreds of people watching and abba and gundu who accompanied chairman, running away with chair trying his best to console her... that was the last i ever heard of chairmans tryst with the fairer sex. Infact something happened so reminescent of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar that we would tell muthu, "ninakkum oru waste penninum vendi loyolites peruvazhiyil chenne adiyondaakenda gathikedayi"!!! There are so many more tales that merited mention here but due to lack of space you readers could look up this link

College brought on dilemmas of the same nature as school. I again fell into the hands of a dedicated gang of rogues whose first priorities were mischief and adventure and who considered love and gals as waste of time and money. But then human nature has a way of asserting itself...viswan soon began writing love poems, shan began to study hard to catch up, kiran went from gyms to diets to naturopathy to loose weight, anoop trying to be quiet and obedient in class, i would try my hand at sitting studiously in the frontbenches...oh, unforgettable all our experiements at taming our wild ways and finding a path to reform! None of it really worked...we would think to ourselves, "ithinokke oru knack venam enne thonnunnu" and return to what we were best at...movies, cricket, booze and alambufying in class. Still remember the day Kevin hit on a novel way to propose to his lady love...got a t-shirt specially painted with a "Right Here Waiting for You" caption and borrowed a bike and a sunglass, waited for her at the college entrance and the gal walked right by giving just a smile and not making much of the hardly crafted tshirt. We then decided a more direct, "I love you" painted tshirt could do the trick but by then poor kevin had enough!!! Or the day Viswan got his first love letter, thanks to Yours Truely's nascent writing ability, arriving late in class that day with a most bewildered look on him...taking a seat somewhere in the front, and every few mins looking back sharply at us as we struggled to maintain a straight face and then at the unsuspecting girl, trying to glean where
exactly the change in his life's fortunes emanated from! The mutual distrust among our guys was so great...there were surprise visits to each others house, complete ransacking of computers, bnedrooms, almirahs for personal diary's and other incriminating evidences there were times the savages actually dreaded each other...actually we couldnt blame each other...shan's fone bill, viswan going to ponmudi or kovalam without us, i once went to a coffee shop and the next day as I gingerly stepped into class a shout from viswan, "Eda Kalla Kattankappi, nee aalu kollamallo" and the sinking feeling of embarassment with me wondering despite all precautions how they found out, chakkas secret visits to the gyms and so many more incidents always raised our suspicions...and at the other end of the spectrum there was arun hari who in between playing super spy and enfant terrible to us would "silently" scream at us with a "look at me, learn from me" attitude on how to lead life.

Its time to wind up this post...but i need to mention this incident from cet of a guy who was hellbent on eloping with his girlfriend, despite both sets of parents agreeing to a marriage that he took along with him goondas to whom he lied that the gal was in house arrest, tied up the gals parents, and strutted out with the gal and when the gals father told the truth of the story to the goondas, it wass the guy's turn to get thrashed by the goondas and spent a few days in hospital. Unbelievable...none of us ever understood his logic...whoever said love is blind could never have forseen such a situation...beats even the most twisted bollywood romance!! And to call it quits this last anecdote, may be the best of our schoolife...the gal who cried above drove into her akarshana valayam another of our classmates who started to excuse himself everytime with a strange excuse..."ente oru thengum purayadathil, thenga pothikkan pokanam" and once after tuition he used this excuse and left while chairman and the other guys proceeded to the above said gal's house and surprised on seeing our new romeo at his flame's place, chairman in anger
and jest tells the gal, "Ivide thenga kedappondo...ivan nannayi pothiche tharum"!!!...Oh My God, incidents like this as i have never been tired of saying made our school one of the most extraordinary experiences of our lifteime. Like its funny side, many of us experienced its sadder side too but with time, the scars heel and what remains is a wealth of humor that love and infatuations contributed. Well, unfortunately there's no way to rewind time, but there's always going to be days when I can unwind and laugh and wonder what an amazing maze of feelings, experiences and embarassments litters a man's path to maturity and adulthood. Back to my books now...hope I dont get lynched for this post!!!