|
 |
The "Frail" Romances (Ajith Karunakaran, Dec 4th, 2007) |
| |
|
|
|
| |
ro·mance (\rō-man(t)s\) n., adj. Belonging to the Romans.
A considerable part of my school life passed off with hectic schedules of studies, football, clowning and playful antics with just about anyone I could spot. The hottest topic of those days was why I couldn't join Ghulam's team, and whether Yohan was faster than Fardeen or vice versa. It was important to bring such topics to a general agreement as the next team's structure(and my life in football) depended on it. The only brush with the fairer sex was the occasional academic clashes. Girls were always considered to be bookish and fit to be left in classrooms while the outer world was the Boys Domain. "Romance" was a taboo topic and the lightest mention of such words and synonyms as "Love" brought gasps from me and from my like minded brethen. Occasionally the gasps were so loud that I considered it blasphemous on the part of the person who divulged such information and considered ostracizing him from my circle of friends. There was only one problem. The meaning of those words nor the implications were properly understood in the early ages. Once when I mustered enough courage to ask Pramod of my class, he made it a point of embarrasing me rather badly in front of the bustop crowd. So much so I decided to seek the truth out on my own. I didnt have to wait too long.
Strike the age of 15 and the Love hormones are borne, kicking up the dust in the brain, and stimulating emotions that were hitherto unknown to the human mind. I could see that many of my classmates had slowly retreated from the fields of football and basketball and began to spend more time in classrooms, verandas and unexplored areas of school corners, to that date, I never knew existed. A closer inspection revealed that they were not alone. They had all paired up with girls and were busy talking away. Infact they talked so much that I figured, if they had spent half the time in writing down what they learnt, I would have faced severe competition in academics.
A small group of us souls resisted from such emotional calling, and rather, gathered around everyday to build a foundation of stories and gossips. The brainier among us realised that it was futile to try to attend the call of Cupid since we did not possess the emotional/ physical qualifications to venture out to win a girls heart. The less enlightened, however tried, vainly, day after day, month after month, year after year to get themselves noticed. However they only managed to work their way to Ms. Sequeira's staffroom where they were quarantined and branded.
Gradually such stories took priority even over football, and the canteen was chosen as a vantage point to hold further discussions and to keenly observe such activities, that would add to to our database of love stories.
A key discovery during those years was, what I hereby patent, as the Law of Dynamic Relations. As I had learnt in chemistry during that time, no bond would hold out for long and eventually all it required was a catalyst, or the forces of nature to break the atoms in different directions to search out for a more stable bond. Our record of events were getting rather heavy because of such an unstable environment and gossips soon started taking up an unstructured and contradicting nature.
While I admit I was nervous and unstable in the open discussions of these topics, it was now considered fun and mentally adventurous to pass secretive comments on these matters. People of my clan then began to introduce me rather involuntarily to ideas on how to attract the opposite sex, and for a moment, I used to wonder if these are part of natural bevahiour or the weakening process of a hermetic mind. For I knew one thing that if word of this ever got out either thru' my teachers or through friends to my higher authorities at home, I would be peeled off like a banana, bandaged and then left to dry up in the sun.
Once, I recall, when the exams were high up in my agenda of things, we had one free period where I decided to utilise the time with a friend of mine in mugging up some relevant academic topics. This friend rather decided that the side walk outside the auditorium was the best place to perform this activity and urged to walk alongwith him and perform this rather ardous task of walking and learning. Not being dexterous enough to do both activites at the same, I suggested that we find a better place to sit. However he insisted that walking is the only way out, and after sometime I began to tire. What still kept me thinking was why he was insistent on this activity, and after half an hour of brilliant deductions it dawned on me that we were actually walking in front of the girls classroom windows! It was plainly obviously now where his eyes pointed and where his heart strained to look. I was aghast at being party to this activity and quickly and embarrasingly withdrew from the scene, wondering if anyone else had deduced what we had done.
Because of certain escapades from the more liberal ones, the school decided to separate the girls from the boys, and one day we found ourselves in all male classroom. It was ironic in a way since the girls classroom was next door and the break in between periods was sufficient for the most daring of the two sides to catch up on the exciting events that happened till the last half hour.
And Like they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder. The segregation only served in stimulating the Love-smitten ones even further, and our gossip columns ran full everyday.
The making and breaking of relationships and the trail of uncertainties it left were juicy topics for a short recess. I slowly realised that the innocence of my discussions on football and whose side I would be on, were rather uncelebrously tossed aside to make way for romantic speculations and love scandals of the school.
From then on, the word "Romance", "Love" would never be foreign words in the vocabulary. Yup, they do not belong to the Romans anymore.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
