As I am in work today and have nothing to do, I thought that the best thing to do at present would be to post some new story of mine in sajha. And I dunno why but the sajha chat and the msn from this computer doesn?t work!! Maybe my managers din like me coming to chat from here?. Anyway back to India. So where was I? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweet memories? always there inside the heart and whenever you try to open it up and see the pictures that are stored there, a feeling of nostalgia engulfs the heart like the great ocean engulfs the white pearly sands in a beach!! Every time I think about my school days, that?s what exactly happens to me. I still remember the games period we had. As we HAD to choose one sport or the other and then play it daily and master in it, I had no choice but to choose something I liked. My friend and me were aimless souls and would choose anything that would let us out of the teacher?s loop. So we found something that did not have any coaches involved? table tennis. We had no coaches for that and it was the easiest game that we could play. We had to be out of our rooms for games at 6 pm during summer and 4:30 during winters. Even in the evening of 6:00 pm we would sweat like crazy. It seemed like someone had poured a jug of salt-water on our shirts and left it there. After reaching our hostels, the sweat would dry up and we could see the small clusters of salt from the sweat deposited on our brows and hair. It was hell during the summer, it seemed like we were burning in the devil?s flame. The good thing about TT was that it was indoors, and we did not really have to play. We only pretended to be playing when a teacher would drop by to check on us. But later we discovered that a lot of teachers liked to play TT. There would ALWAYS be a teacher popping in for a challenge. We knew NOTHING about the game and our Physical Ed. Supervisor discovered that there was a new interest amongst students to play TT. He did not leave us after that.. even in the 5 min. walk from the hostel to the TT room, we were not allowed to be idle. We had to bounce the ball in the TT bat all the way. We had to learn how to play? so slowly Sharmila and me started learning how to play the game. We started enjoying it so much that even on Saturdays and Sundays when we had no games period we would go and play. After every time we spent some time in our new interest our T-shirts seemed like we taken it straight out of the laundry and worn it wet. We had to wear a cotton loose T-shirt of any kind, a white PT skirt and sneakers. If we did not wear PT skirts, the other piece of cloth we had on would be cut to shreds and the shoes thrown away. We had to do it right. We would wear different colored shirts and by the end of games period, the shirt would turn to a darker shade due to our perspiration, except the small part in the back of the T-shirt where there would be another strap of clothing between our skin and the T-shirt. Out of all the teachers that liked to plat TT was a teacher named Abhinash Sir.. who played as if he was about to fall down any moment. He would start crying at the smallest provocation. I remember, once w hen he was dining with us on our table, he was making too much noise with a bunch of student who had a major crush on him. He was about 26 years old, and all the girls literally dotted on him for a reason unknown which was weird because we were all basically kids. Well, that day they were making too much noise and I sort of was not in a good mood. All I did was to tell him to quiet it down a bit and it greatly hurt his feelings. Now my friend Anita was his best student, and he went to her and started complaining and crying. He said ?I did not expect Rythm to do that, she seems to be such a nice girl, why did she have to tell me to quiet down?? I did go to him and said sorry and of course the apology was accepted but I never had the same respect for him. Every time we talked about him, I would tell my friends to not make ?the baby cry?. Anyway the main point was that he would come to play and act so funny. I cant deny that he was a superb player but rather than playing his focus would go to his positions in front of the table. Every time he was not there, I would copy him.. sort of jump around and take my face real close to the table and as the ball came near me hit it will all my heart and will. Well that did get a huge laugh and thank god he din really see me do that. Din really want to upset the baby again!! But well that was that? can never forget those days.. the games period, the fun.. the laughs.. and the immense heat that made my face unrecognizable with rashes. I lived the goods and the bads of Hissar, but the nice part is when I remember it, it is with a smile on my face, not a frown on my brow!!