The 6th Patrol

I’m back after the two day weekend break which was quite boring .The only highlight was watching Roger Federer win the French open(finally)!!I’ve studied French for four years now and I still couldn’t make out a word he was saying during the post match presentation!Reminded me of the good old days in S.I.S where I had to study Arabic till class 10!(I still cant say one whole sentence in Arabic!).Anyways back to the 6th grade then!6-B I was in with Bobus Mathew sir as the class teacher !He was our math sir as well so we had math every day as the first period!The guy had a thing for the math tables and he would start the class with making us all stand up and he would fire these questions at us (u know like “wats 7 times 6,8 times 12 “etc etc!) and if you don’t get it right you get pinched!Now that doesn’t sound like much but trust me the one person you don’t want to get pinched from is him!!His favourite areas include the lower butt and the arms !!(I don’t have flesh on either but it still used to hurt and the worst part was he asked me the toughest questions like whats 12 times 9 and things like that).Other than the butt pincher our other teachers were quite boring.Science period was fun occasionally especially the time when the teacher took the human anatomy lesson and we used to sit and giggle like those girls from the Disney channel shows(yes I have to sit and watch them when my younger cousins come along).Boy was I immature then!(who I am kidding I’m worse now).

Apart from the classroom drama joining the scouts was another big moment in my life.I still remember the first scout meeting on a Wednesday.I was so freaking exicted .Scouts meetings were held after class in the evening every Wednesday and I remember sitting down on the mats listening to Kiri(scout masters nickname-I actually forgot his real name).For me scouts was more than just the camps ,the picnics and the meetings..The friends I made there are the best friends I’ll ever have!In the 1st year of scouts I was part of the “Tiger”patrol(yes we were’nt that innovative with the names) which was the 6th patrol.Of the others in my patrol I remember Giby,Bahees ,Venky , Somu and Arawin!The first few months of scouts was pretty much the same for everyone!All of us would be running around trying to impress the seniors and they took advantage of it alright!Atleast until the investiture ceremony where we were officially declared as scouts!I remember it was during this investiture ceremony when we had this ridiculous play !It was about these two sets of boys –one a scouts troop and the other a bunch of normal teens who were out on a picnic who make fun of the scouts old ways and things like that.Suddenly one of the “modern” teens (me of all people) gets bit by a snake(yes yes its lame I know…my ridiculous acting skills didn’t help either) and the scouts turn up to save the day( Kiri directed it –wat did you expect?).Apart from the poorly directed plays scouts was pretty kool…mainly cause it meant we get to see the girls(guides to be exact)-(My school wasn’t co-ed so this was a big thing indeed).Having said that I wish they hadn’t been there cause the first time I attempted a conversation with them it turned out to be like one of the scenes from the movies where the hero looks stupid when he attempts to flirt with the girl he likes(in this case I was no hero just plain stupid).It took me long while to recover from that !(It took longer for the girl who I tried talking to )Anways despite all the failed attempts at flirting scouts was pretty much the best thing in my life back then!Especially the first camp held in December 02!It was amazing !From setting up the tent to not sleeping the whole night everything rocked except our group performance!You see each patrol had to perform something or the other on the final day of the camp and most of the patrols opted to dance .Our patrol on the other hand didn’t have the best movers(to put it politely).So I came up with this idea for a play!.It was supposed to be this spooky ,horror/thriller about a ghost in a building that two brothers (Somu and me )moved into!Turned up being a comedy/flop especially with the ridiculous ghost mask and swamiji(Arawin)who chased awy the evil spirits!And if you thought that was bad wait till I blog about the famous “Three Brothers” play by Sooraj and Gang in the 8th grade!.

Apart from Scouts other memories of the 6th grade include the intense football matches we used to have!. We all used to be so pumped up for these matches that most of them would end up with us fighting! I remember after this one particularly amazing game which we won I was so freaking happy that after the games period in class I was busy dancing on top of the teachers chair .Sharaffudin sir( our p.t master who later on went on to become the principal of some school)(I pity the students of that school),he saw me doing this and I got whacked so hard I actually couldn’t hear a word he was saying for the next 5 mins!.We had the weirdest games teachers I tell you!Other than that the 6th grade party class party comes to mind !It was the first class party we got to organize ourselves and we made the most of it!Anways back to scouts Geo the assistant troop leader (kinda like the vice president of scouts) told me that I would be taking his post (along with Ehsan)the next year!!which meant two things-a)I got to show off more than usual and b) it meant flirting with girls was a lot more easy the next year(pardon the chauvinistic attitude).So there I was eagerly looking forward to the 7th grade!And it was well worth the wait cause that was the first time I saw the girl that has gone on to become the most important thing in my life!

Till the 7th grade –Goodbye and Goodluck™!
(p.s from now on my blogs will be deemed fictional (by me) just in case any of my relatives are reading it)