The Wonder Years

As we stepped in 9th grade in 1994 our batch was given the responsibility of maintaining the school discipline. Yes it was time for elections and selection of new ministers. The seniors term ended as they stepped in 10th grade. It was election time, it was time for campaigning. The curiosity began with who all are contesting for the elections. The best chance for any canadite was to earn respect from all the peers in whatever he does. If he excels in studies and other activities would be considered as an additional benefit. One such canadite and everyones favourite was Nripen Sharma . He was clearly the runner for winning the title. Other contender from our class A was Narendra shenoy . He too was a honest guy with back up of good academics. There were couple of girls who were in the running for the post. But since they were in minority as compared to guys no one gave them any chance. The next strategy was to get supporters from fellow peers who would campaign along with them in differ...

It was in spring of 94 that we got an opportunity face the music of the real bad world. During the summer vacations in 94 myself, Atul, Narendra, Sameer, Tejas and Vikas went cycling on yeour mountains in an attempt to go past the hill directly to Sanjay Gandhi national park and moving on to borivili. After lot of unsuccessful trials and returning midway back to thane we achieved the impossible and decided that we would go on the same trial in winter vacations. As usual we decided to assemble in my house early morning at 7.00am and then proceed towards yeour since I stay close to yeour as compared to anyone in our group. We were 7 of us and we had 6 cycles. It was but obvious that one would be accompanying other on single bicycle. The day before we left was my birthday. My dad gifted me with a timex –marlin watch - a watch that I always dreamt of wearing at that point of time. Later in the night I was down with fever. I took all possible medications and went to sleep- hoping for the ...

In the rainy season of 1993 as we progressed from Std 7 to Std 8 there was a feeling like entering into adulthood. We no longer had to wear half pants. We all stitched trousers having latest fashion at that point of time. I went for baggy fittings. The class was new, teachers were new, syllabus was new except for friends. Since we all looked different in our trousers it was not the same for girls, which was quite disappointing. There was a general feeling amongst boys that we are now matured and are able to take our own decisions. Most of them started taking decisions. Not about the careers they wanna pursue but which girl they would go for. Almost 90% of them had identified their crushes and started plotting ways to woo them. Most of the boys having crushes on girls were well known hence we all teased & embarrass them in front of the girls during the moral science classes. Love was really in the air . Since almost all had their crushes finalized how can chintu be left behind. Ther...