The 10th Reason

A couple of days back when I read Waseem’s status update which said S.I.S(my old school)was to be shut down by the MOE it got me thinking.Now we all know with the influence that the Indian Association has and that the school is definitely not going to be shut down but just for the fun of it here are my 10 reasons why S.I.S shouldn’t be shut down(in no particular order)

1-Scouts and Guides
I was one of the lucky few who got to be part of the Scouts and Guides troop during my time there and trust me those three years were just amazing. The camps,the guides,the picnics,the guides,the weekly meetings oh and ya did I mention the Guides:P…it was just amazing.Even the disastrous 8th grade picnic was amusing at times.We were supposed to visit a zoo and park in Al.Ain both of which were closed and we ended up spending most of the picnic anonymously messaging the girls in the next bus ,shopping for food items in some remote shop near Al.Ain(the manager almost had a heart attack-I don’t think he has ever had to deal with 126 noisy teenagers at once ) and finally we when we did find a park that was open our great Scout master didn’t want to spend money on the entry fee and we were forced to play coco(yes we had to ) in grassy piece of land next to the parking lot of the park(that was how miserly our school could get).As for the camps the barbeque competitions,the closing ceremony with the dances and skits(yes including Sooraj’s much acclaimed Three brothers play) and so many other great memories come back to me when I think of my time in the scouts troop .

2-Raja Chips ,Mentos and Star Cokes
How can the school canteen not be part of my 10 reasons.When I was there I thought our canteen was lame but comparing it with my new school canteen(read sticky pongal ) it was great:P.My favourites in the canteen included the mentos multi flavoured candy(all of us in class would fight for the green one which was by far the best one) and twix candy bars (which they stopped for some reason).Lol I also remember the guys would flick the sandwiches under the counter when the guy wasn’t looking.The canteen people weren’t the brightest –I remember once one of my classmates cut out that picture of a 5 buck note in our U.A.E social studies text book folded it and used it to buy food for 4 of us.:P

3-The Bus Ride
Till the 8th grade I was never part of the bus ride to school.We(my bro and I) would go along with Pavan and a couple of other friends of ours in Pavans Mom’s car to school.When he left for India we had to start taking the bus to school and boy did it turn out to be awesome fun or what!There were about nine of us in the bus stop next to my place and couple of them were in the 12th then and they would have a smoke everyday before going to school .The funny part was that they would be doing that under the building right next to my dad’s car and my dad too has his smoke before he drives to the office so it was kinda weird to watch the three of them standing and smoking together (boy was my dad scared of them “influencing” me or what).We also had this ass!@#e of a conductor for about a month or so(he had many names –chacha,chotta nada santa claus etc etc.)He had the biggest attitude ever .Once he made the bus driver stop the bus in the middle of the road cause we were all making too much noise and threatened to call the head master with his(3210 phone-yes the one that looks like a walkie talkie) and all the guys in the back took out their cells and asked him for the number (the guy had a look on his face ill never forget):P

4-The Class Party
Uptill the fifth the class party was pretty much a boring affair with us having to pay some money to the teachers and they would organize everything for us (by organize I mean they would make us play silly games with even sillier gifts for the winners).But from the 6th onwards when we were allowed to collect the money and plan the whole thing out ourselves boy the parties got wild!!!.Normally I was part of the planning committee and it used to so much fun getting all the food down from pizza hut and K.f.C for the big day.Personally for me the 8th grade party was by far the best.We had the whole dance floor set up and a couple of kick ass dancers made it one heck of a party.Plus the food was great too.We usually ended our parties with a spray can fight with the other classes and we would leave the entire school covered in that white snow like stuff!

5-The wall
You know what wall I’m talking about.Like I mentioned earlier our school wasn’t co-ed but the girls were just a small wall and two buildings away from us .So during the break there would be this big rush near the wall next to the canteen from where you could see the girls(but the then headmaster nada (oh btw he’s part of my next blog-11 reasons why S.I.S should be shut down) figured this out and he made it different break times for the girls and the guys!.But still didn’t stop us from looking over the wall hoping for a girl or too

6-The Fights
The fights in S.I.S were just amazing!I mean it wasn’t just a couple of guys shouting at each other trying to look cool but the a bunch of guys whacking the crap outa each other and it would end with someone getting seriously hurt.And this would happen almost every week.I remember this one day during the break period one of the guys in my class had to go to the loo badly and all the stalls were occupied and he started banging the doors like crazy .This pissed off looking 12th grader walks out and whacks my classmate right across the face.Soon it became a 10th versus 12th fight involving almost 25 -30 people and the fight took place in my class(I wish I could say I was involved too but my chair and table were part of it though yup both of them broke as they were used during the fight!)You should have see the crowd outside the class room the entire school must have been there and the teachers couldn’t make it through to the class room and when nada turned up the crowd along with guys disappeared so fast it almost seemed like nothing had happened had it not been for the 20 odd broken chairs.

7-The Teachers
We had the weirdest ensemble of teachers in our school.From the downright Gay(Homo –Prakash) to the slightly demented (Haneef)we had them all.But having said that the weird collection of teachers did make the classes more interesting.My favourite teacher was my hindi teacher in the 6th Vasantha mam –she was nicest lady !.As for my least favourite teacher list that would take a long long time.Lol I guess Homo Prakash and his classes were the most fun .He had this thing for pinching private parts of certain guys(hence the name) and he also hated the sound of steel rulers falling(which meant we dropped them on purpose everyday).Paddu in the 8th was great too the guy spent half the time dreaming during class.

8-Inter School Competions
Back in the 8th we had this one seksii dance(credits –Somu) that we performed almost like a million times in the most weirdest of places.Of course practicing for the dance took ages since it was mainly spent playing playstation or sitting in front of the comp.We would end up doing a step a day and it took us almost a month to get the whole song done.(this one was slightly better than the practice for the “New” song dance during which the guys spent eight hours at my place and we finished one solitary step(that too a bad one) and spent the rest of the time watching hp,playing cricket in the corridor and baseball in the park with a little green plastic bat(the guys never understood the rules I tried teaching them and all we did was run around in circles looking like idiots).But despite all this we did win a couple of awards for the dance (Thirumuttam I think it was we came in 2nd):P.But it wasn’t about the awards the fun we had was just amazing!.

9-Mega Mall
For all of you who have spent their lives in S.I.S you know I had to put in mega mall in the list!.Its this mall next to our school and anytime you go there you are bound to see atleast a dozen S.I.S students walking around aimlessly especially on the top floor.We weren’t any different too .Mega Mall was like a second home for the most of us.We would sit in the food court with a collective total of hardly 20 bucks and would end up buying French fries just to able to sit there.Of course the pool tables cant be ignored as well.We would spend ages there looking absolutely ridiculous cause we didn’t know how to play it properly then!.Personally for me and many of my close friends too M2 holds a special place in our hearts cause that was where most of us had our first dates(2 of which turned to be on the same day-boy was that day confusing or what) walking around in circles aimlessly!:P

As for the 10th reason it’s you guys!.All of the wonderful things that I have enjoyed in S.I.S is cause you guys have been part of it in one way or another and I just want to thank you guys for that!So here’s to our school a place that I’m sure we will all remember with fond memories!.Its 3:32 PM and I haven’t had lunch yet.So Goodbye and Goodluck™!