'Dipponapanasanadagamapaaaaaaaaaa', I cried.
'Pandey, you have gone mad', Rinky yelled, 'how further long are you going to extend this name?'
Rinky was my desk partner. Dippo, I would call her usually and for some reason, I don't recall clearly anymore, I was extending the name daily, adding one syllable everyday.
I was at Oak Grove, my boarding school from the 3rd standard, but only in the 9th, when Rinky joined, did I find someone with an equal level of craziness. We were 21 girls in the class together, most of us from the 3rd with only a few of them joining us in the 6th and the 7th, and a couple more in the 9th.
She had a beautiful voice, I recall. She still does I mean, with albums of her own now, but wow, how truly amazing she sang back then. Some english song on her first day, I do not remember which one, but her voice would vibrate on high notes and we were all mesmerized.
We were together right from the day she joined. She was my desk partner and we were both a bit insane. We were bound to be together.
Amongst all the other craziness we shared, our deep love for dogs was on top of the list.
'This way, up this hill. Pandey cummon! Just a little further and we will get to see them,' she would say whenever there was a fresh litter of puppies. We would climb rocks in our school campus or visit spots behind our dried swimming pool, even restricted areas, but we were always there.
We would get to see a new batch of puppies every few months. We had a lot of dogs in our school compound and they kept us both busy the entire year. From feeding the mummy dog, to making our swimming pool cubicles comfortable for the babies, we would take care of everything.
I remember an incident.
There was a hail storm and the back door of our corridor was barred, keeping us from going out. It was after dinner, about 7 pm, yes, our last meal was that early during winters, we were in the common room, reading, when we heard our puppies whining.
The common room was right next to the rock which hid the cave where the puppies were this season. They were not even a month old and we knew something was wrong. We removed the wooden bar from the door, rushed out and climbed up the rock.
One of the puppies had fallen off the cave onto the slope. We had to trace the sound to locate him.
We picked him up, but to place him back, there was a little climb. The hail stones slapping us and the rocks, did not make it easy.
Girls peeped out from the common room window, cheering for us. We felt like saviours from heaven crossing all barriers to save a being. We moved up the slippery hill taking help of the shrubs, when we heard a loud howl from far and a yell from the window to run.
The mother dog had spotted us.
We were stuck now, couldn't leave the puppy half way and the dog was definilty not going to understand our intention. But we were saviours, and saviours don't run, so we just rushed up to the cave.
The moment we kept the puppy back, the dog jumped over us right in the cave and we ran for our lives.
I don't know if I saw for real, I don't think I could have as there was very little time, a fraction of a second maybe, but I recall the dog's face looking at us, not barring her teeth but with love in her eyes before we ran. Well, I must have imagined this, for I was in the hero mode then, heroine actually.
I do remember many such snippets of my crazy times at school.
Rinky's call today, reminded me of it all. A rush of memories filled me which I thought I couldn't remember clearly anymore.
I have never been good at calling my friends. I am not saying that it's ok. No, I am not saying that, but, I am just bad in keeping in touch. I miss my friends, I love them and I will always be there for them but I am just not able to call them.
I tried explaining this to Rinky when she argued. 'Keeping relationships take efforts, Pandey', she said, 'why will I feel like calling you when I am low? How will you even know that I need you if you never keep in touch?'
She was right, I knew it. I was just trying to argue my way out, but she had always been right whenever she had mentioned this. She said she misses me when she thinks of the school times. 'I do too', I had said.
I don't think she was convinced but I actually do.
I miss everything, my friends, my childhood, my beloved school...
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