The Thakurian Holiday

It is the story of 12th when Mr. R K Thakur used to teach us Thakurian physics for CBSE (central bored of second ejucation). There was this habit of his to experiment with the truth that we all were aspiring for IIT JEE and that he thought he had a cure for this epidemic which seemed to affect the bio guys too (just that commerce guys could not understand the JEE concept was the only relieving factor for him). He used to coin "new new" terms every week or when he pleased (whichever was earlier). His tall frame would enter the class and then look at the guys inquisitively (I guess he looked for some physics genius amongst us, but he forgot he passed 5 yrs ago). Then he would start his mahabharat.

Similarly that day too, he coined a bright new Idea "Dekhiye, is saturday ko class hoga, physics chemistry maths. sabko aana hai". Some lesser mortal asked from the back bench "Lekin Sir, saturday to chhutti hai!". Mr. Thakur stared at him as if he would barbecue that poor soul (or it could be that Thakur secretly compared himself with Amitabh because of certain skeletal similarities and was in angry baby mode). However, that shady creature went back into shades when he saw the fierce expression.

Saturday came and went and i did not show up, like Friday.

When i reappeared on Monday, Mr. Thakur was taking attendance. "Was you parjent on Saturday?" he shot a student. The poor guy was absent. "Yahan aayiye aur khade rahiye" he pointed out to a blackboard. The guy stood there, smiling, for soon others were to follow his fate. The Guys, who had a note from their parents (stating why they were absent) were relieved and the guys who were absconding were standing, with their faces beaming like martyrs waiting for their turn into the gas chamber, and i was in that group (it was a large group, about a third of the class was in that elite category).

Mr. Thakur had made a point to teach the group a good lesson. He took us to the Gas (read Vice principal's) chamber. He said, pointing to us "ye log diary likha ke nahin aaye hain madam! dekhiye in log ko!! Aur ye (pointing at me) to do din nahin aaye the, diary bhi nahin laye hain aaj!!! in logon ko chhodiyega mat! class mein ghusne mat dijiyega". And Mr. Thakur returned into his harem to teach new antics of Thakurian physics.

The Vice Principal was a wizened old lady, Mrs. Kar. After dealing with a few boring cases, took a break and called me up "Why did you not get a note for absence?" she asked me (it was her nth time in the day). "Because madam, sir said that if you are absent for a single day, then you need not bring any excuses, and Saturday was not an official class, technically speaking", I shot back. "And why did not you bring your diary?" she croaked. Perhaps she wanted to write my autobiography for such a repartee, and she was missing it badly. "because it is torn and if i bring it, the pages will fly all over", a bad excuse, but better than saying that i had lost that vestigial thing. She said "okay, like others, go and do not come back today in the class"

For an instance, i was sad that I was punished, but soon all my shame was displaced (and it precipitated instantly) by the joy of not being the part of Torture of Thakurian physics (where we were taught how the adiabatic processes had "Expansion at constant volume"). Following that we had double lecture of Mr. KK Sharma who taught us maths from a very original perspective (how to complicate a problem, and then solving it is an art i learnt there, and later realised that it helped people write Comic strips like Dilbert). Unable to contain the joy to myself, i almost ran from the vice principal's office,and shouting "yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee", i ran past my class. I am sure they might have noticed the doppler effect that how various frequencies change their identity when one is uncontrollable and happy.

To cheer other friends, i and some guys started playing handball, and seeing us merry and gay, the other people from the not secret brotherhood started playing table tennis and other sports. We were having fun, and it was doubled seeing Mr. Thakur and his follower students watching us longingly, but you can not have all the fun...

... And we can not have all the fun all the time. Mr. Thakur must have realised that we were too happy, because then he came to us merrymen and asked us to rejoin the class, as we saw Mr. Sharma get into the class. We didn't want to, but he was unrelenting. We even said that we wanted to get punished and we accepted that we were wrong in getting absent, so we deserved this punishment, but he seemed to have melted by this attitude of ours and applied some force on us, so that we could do some work in the maths class...