THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIENDS..

Thad. Thadam. Udhh.

"Adi you freak! stop hitting me!"

No respect. In front of two language teachers: one,the formidable and redoubtable Mr. Keith,the other,the softer than iron Mr. Scarlet (!!), that stupid thug Aditya Ravi hits me.Or rather whacks,thumps, bulldozes,scratches and wallops me.

Now don't get me wrong,I aint no wimp,I've had my share of school fights..The thing is,I don't fight until I get angry.

But this hard-headed,horrible hippopotamus finds it amusing to attack me on sight.Unfortunately,I never seem to get angry and hence break his teeth,because the expression on his imbecile face always leaves me laughing.

It still hurts,though.The bugger's strong.And he has long sharp nails.

Lunch time during 11th and 12th are normally boring,if you're not part of a gang of around 12 and hang around some moronic git's bike and talk about "figures" and wether or not Vijay is cooler than Ajith.(personally,I find both of them rather insipid). I,on the other hand,eat lunch with the school genius (Ill mannered Yelavedthavan,a.k.a Immanuel Ilavarasan),who, although an interesting conversationalist,lacks in speed and good food. Most of my lunch is invariably guzzled by the ravenous Abdul Azeez (who's picture you will find in my orkut album) during the morning break,so I tend to gravitate towards the canteen.

And thats when Aditya strikes.

He appears from behind,without a sound,and hits. Hard.I yell,and gleefully he continues to hit,till I fend him off with curses and blows and those nice friends of his call him away to play hand tennis. (yes,hand tennis. On a cement bench,with a bunch of onlookers)

Occasionally I join his gang for lunch,and most of them invariably bring chappatis and naan and puris with nice nice sabjis. Its like a north-Indian food fest.Free to all.That is,whatever is leftover after Adi plunders the lunch boxes.

After devouvring everyone else's lunch,he then proceeds to the canteen,where he pounces on unfortunaes who carry eatable things,like puffs,samosas,fruits,paper etc. He eats indiscriminately,then returns to lunch spot,where the gang is starting the game. After a few rounds of 'tennis' he wanders off to find and hit me,or drags Sundeep to the canteen to buy him more stuff to eat.

According to Sundeep,he's had his stomach replaced with a septic tank.

I agree.

Especially after watching him eat at Siddharth's party.

I'm not going to miss Aditya's fists.


But I certainly will miss LUNCH AT ST.BEDE"S!!