Hi Guys,
Gunjan has touched an interesting chord. It has brought my attention to many such mischievous incidents which still bring a smile to my face, whenever I think or talk about them.
I would like to share one of them to you all. Perhaps some of you still remember parts of it or may have your own version. Let's see...
It happened during those lunch hours when we used to wrap-up our tiffins fast and rush to play cricket in lobby. There weren't no bats or stumps there. We used to bring those tennis (plastic) balls and use our desks and stools as stumps for both ends. School bags were also used to stack-up the openings under them so the ball doesn't pass through, but hits the stumps. The best was our own unique version of cricket bat. For that, we used to break legs of old desks furniture and hold them upside down (so the nails don't bite on fingers or palms) for use. Mind you, it was a bit daring, as there were many complains for students damaging school furniture and our school principal Bhatt Sir had issued strict regulations to catch the culprits.
One day, when we were playing, something bad happened. I believe, it was Gunjan (or Raghu) who was bowling and I was on strike. As he pitched the delivery and I posed to play, suddenly Mehta appeared from nowhere in between the ball and me, and swinged hard his desk leg to force a pull shot. He missed the ball and seeing that I went with my forward defence and managed to connect it right.
After playing the ball, once I raised my head, I noticed that neither Gunjan or Sudhir were anywhere around. To my shock, even the fielders including wicketkeeper were also missing in action and I was the only one in middle standing with my glorious bat. To my shock, it didn't end there, next I heard was some shouting noises coming from ground floor. As I turned my head, I noticed bunch of junior class students standing under, pointing fingers towards me. With that group, there was this little kid, holding his bleeding head.
I couldn't at once get what happened, but I surely understood that I am in trouble. We did something terribly wrong and apparently I was the one getting the blame. I turned back and realized that while trying to hit the ball, Mehta had dislodged his so called bat, and it went flying below and had hit the poor fellow. The reason why they aren't around, because they are running for their life now.
Holy shit! Realizing what was about to come, I ran towards where rest were heading and we all disappeard from other side to the crowd under. It was our rescue plan, till things get a little settled.
It was a safe exit strategy for them, as nobody probably had seen their faces. Since, I couldn't claim that and knew that I was the loser, who they had seen as the poster boy, holding the bat. Chances were looming large, that I will be prosecuted for their sin. I was fear struck for a while...with only one thought ki 'Shashank, tu to gaya'.
Drastic times require drastic measures. Churasia (Amit) came to rescue (BTW, how many of you remember his name?) with his innovative idea. He was one of those, who was always full of them. His idea was to go near the principal office and access the situation (That was where one could get the first aid) first hand.
When we reached to the office, we saw P.T. Sir standing there, giving first aid to the boy . Chaurasia knew him well, so we approached him and asked what happened, pretending to be completely oblivious to the situation. Luckily, the boy didn't recognize me. PT sir gave us the briefing, telling how bad were our 12th standard students and how is he going to go after them after taking care of this boy. He was looking for somebody to take the boy to doctor and later drop him home.
Chaurasia and I offered him those services and immediately left with the boy, thanking our luck. As far as I could remember, I didn't return back after and stayed away till the next day. What happened that day, after we left...is every body's guess.
Shashank
