Aditi Niar & the volleybaal.
You will understand the nitty-gritty’s of this post if you are a SAMS alumni.
The '97 batch will pleasantly remember Aditi Niar ma'am as much for her idiosyncrasies as for her pedantic abilities! In a teaching staff infested with bored housewives and recruits from the "Bengali Quota", here was a lady that personified erudition!! How about a journalist position at Outlook for competence?? (Oh those vivid stories she shared about her barrages (interviews actually) with asinine Bollywood stars and politicians)!! We had this suave, intelligent & ravishing femme as our history teacher through much of high school. (Lucky ain't we?)
It was a hot summer afternoon and we were at the end of the much awaited 'games' period. Note that the period's title is an allusion to the 'game' (tired, dehydrated students) hunted by the sweat thirsty PT master (Mahesha in our times), whose arsenal mainly comprised of his rhythmic 'leapt, leapt, leapt-right-leatpt' ballad for which we marched a good 30 minutes of the assigned 40! After the release from the military drill, a few enthused but exhausted classmates of mine salvaged the remaining time with a little volleyball, while I fervently ran about the sandy Basket ball court chasing the elusive "assist" (SAMS basket-ball lingo for a 3 pt shot that didn't rebound off the board). One of my ambitious tries from half way down the court promptly sent the ball flying towards the volleyball section of the field where my 'big-built' friend experimented with his finger strength by trying to volley the ball to me in a move often used in the sport called 'fingering'. This moment of valor cost my buddy more than just failure to launch the heavy ball, he hairline fractured his left thumb.
Pic of the Basketball section of the field. Now it is all cemented! No more dirty White unifroms for the new genereation.
Aditi Niar's class was next on the time table & the fractured soul kept quivering and whimpering in her class. Patient and tolerant (add these to her infinite 'list of good qualities' [:P]) that Nair was, she ignored the ruckus often made by big built last-benchers like my pal and after much deliberation, sternly said "Mr XYZ, is the WW-2 genocide sending shivers down your spine or are you mocking the passion I try and teach you guys with??". XYZ stood up like a docile dog issued a 'doggie, stand!!' command and muttered something about a possible grave injury to his finger. Being the faithful & supportive friend of last-benchers, known dacoits & communists & also sensing an opportunity to get away from the class, I stood up and declared "Ma'am, he tried fingering a Basket ball & hurt himself. May I assist him to the sick room?" While I expected a reluctant 'yes', what I faced was a torrent!!
To be continued...
posted by IAmMine at Wednesday, June 28, 2006
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