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Knights of the Square DeskIt was in 11th, I think… yes, 11th grade. I sat in the last row, hidden away in a cosy corner of the classroom. Yet, the teacher’s eye seemed to be permanently fixed in that very corner, like a sniper waiting to rain bullets at the first sign of mischief. Ok, I shrugged. I was criminal par excellence, with eleven years of intense training to my credit. I wasn’t going to let a puny teacher in a frilly black sweater and gold nose-pin twice the size of her small nose faze me. I stuck my hand up in the air. The Sniper straightened. She tried to look as though she’d just caught sight of me and hadn’t spent the last five minutes of “break-time” between three continuous classes scrutinising every twitch of my muscle from the corner of her eye.“Yes, Ayesha?”“Ma’am, may I drink?” I pointed to the innocent silver flask on my friend’s desk. “Haan, haan, beta!” Her liquid eyes widened. “You can drink in break-time. You can go to loo also” She smiled sweetly.“Thank you, ma’am!” I smiled back and felt the light from my bright yellow halo bounce off the walls and ceiling. Priyanka and Jacqueline had doubled over with laughter. I uncorked the cap of the flask and tilted the contents into my mouth. Bleargh. I hate the taste of beer. My annoying friends laughed harder at my expression, then proceeded to drain down the rest of the disgusting fluid. We hi-fived. “We should do this more often, you know.” And we collapsed over each other, laughing madly. There was no humour in our laugh, we laughed for the sheer joy of it. We laughed the laugh of freedom, of a dizzying sense of rebellion. We could have been Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev then. Defying rules in the face of authority, we were the Knights of

the Round Table. Given, it was no bombing of the assembly but just three over-excited nitwits drinking beer during Eco class one warm winter morning. But for us, it was greater than a bombing. In a school where coming to class two seconds late was right on par with beheading the principal, this small act felt like felony. It was the stuff legends are made of, always done by some Karanveer, Arjun, X Y Z in some snooty school around the city where incidents like these were as routine as Math class. Our escapades would be lost among the A grades and medals stamped all over the pages of history, but would stay alive forever in the fist of our hearts. We will hold onto them and smile with our pink gums. Pull our grandchildren closer and whisper into their ears…Sigh. They’ll probably say, “Damn, grandma. We did that in fifth grade” and skip away. I’ll still hold on.

WORDSPILL of the weekENTRYTHE

Ayesha Mathur

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CYANIDE AND HAPPINESS

CAMPUSACTION!

Here is a catalog of events that you can look forward to in the coming

week…take your pick!

RED BULL PAPER WINGSLet your imagination take wings and enter this one of a kind, rather bizarre paper plane making contest. All one needs to ace this competition is a little ingenuity, a strong arm, a bit of paper and their wits. Spread over 85 coun-tries, the event will take place on the 5th of February in St.Stephens College, 1 p.m onwards.

CAMPUS ROCK IDOLIndia’s biggest inter college rock com-petition is back. Now in its fifth season, it witnesses participation numerous amateur bands, all vying to clinch the coveted title.Date: Sat January 31, 2009Delhi: Regional Event & Zonal Finals Headline Act: Them Clones & Prestorika Venue: Delhi College of Arts and Com-merce, Netajinagar

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“This is the first time we’re doing a street play inside a mall and we are pretty much satisfied by the response we got from the people. The main aim behind holding the event in public places as opposed to colleges like we did last year was to reach out to the general public. When we perform in colleges the audience is usually students like us who are already aware of the problems we bring up in our plays, but this time, we wanted to broaden our audience to include people of all ages from various backgrounds and levels of awareness.”- Vedant Ahir, President CBS Dramatics society

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