Saturday, March 27, 2010

Googling Memories...


8:45 pm Andheri Local

"Hey, You are Shanu right? From ****** school at Andheri? Remember me?? I am Eliza."

I gave her a broad smile while my mind started hunting through the various names I had stored under the School section in my brain. Its in times like these, that you wish life was like Google..Bas enter the name and you have all the information you need about the person right from her date of birth to how she looks to details of why you are no longer in touch.


Searching….Eliza….Eliza..

Std III

The window seat in the class was her favorite. It allowed her to stare out at the traffic going by and on rainy days splashed drops of cold water on her. Chotu Shanu went to school in a time when the classrooms weren’t air conditioned like they are now..it was the rickety old fan that tried its best to keep the kids cool but failed miserably.

Her neighbor, a long black haired girl nudged her and they giggled. Eliza was her best friend. They shared their tiffins in the recess and played together during PT.



Eliza wasn’t like the other girls in her class. Some things about her were different..like her pretty grey eyes and her long hair..and the million lice that called it their home. The lice would jump around merrily while Shanu watched in fascination. It was like a little kingdom on her friend’s head. A couple of huge ones were called King and Queen while the chotu motus were the servants.

While Shanu played with Eliza and her lice, Shanu’s mommy spent a fortune buying Medicare to get rid of the lice that Shanu merrily brought home with her everyday. A million shampoos and 3 complaint letters to Medicare (to complain about the poor quality of their products) later, her mom gave up. Finally, it was time for the schools to close for summer and the lice finally left Shanu’s head in peace.

“You don’t remember me?? We were bench partners in Std III after which I moved to Canada. We were together again in Std IX remember?”

Searching….Eliza….Eliza..Std IX


Std IX

Shanu looked at the new girl who walked up to her in the canteen..she didn’t look like she was new here. The girl squealed “Shanu, don’t tell me you don’t recognize me!! I am Eliza..we were in the same class in Std III”

Shanu gave her a broad smile while her brain started hunting through the various names she had stored under Std III.


Searching….Eliza….Eliza..


“Uff, this heat is making my hair all ichy and irritating the lice in my hair.” She said.

Shanu, who no longer found lice and their kingdom fascinating, suddenly remembered Eliza and the bottles of Medicare. Medicare smelled yucky..no way was she spending another school year using Medicare to shampoo her hair. No, she was way too cool for that.

That year, the school was buzzing with gossip about the not so new girl Eliza with the mini Lice kingdom in her head, who would remove her socks the minute she entered the class and folded her skirt an inch above the mandatory length. All this in an effort to fit in..and yet nothing was done about the lice and the havoc it played in the life of her bench partner that year.

Search ended…486897 memories found

I beamed “Ahh Eliza, of course I remember you” I said, while I stared at her in surprise. Her beautiful hair framed her heart shaped face and her grey eyes twinkled when she smiled.

I quietly moved from the seat next to her to the seat opposite. It was a great ride back home that day… with loads of catching up and trading loads of gossip about all our ex school mates. I reached home, Medicare in hand, pleasant and happy memories rekindled and most importantly, with the old, not so pleasant ones deleted. :)

70 comments:

NIM said...

LOL I think all of us have friends from school who had lice kingdoms in their hair and were very curtious when it came to sharing the lice. :p the funny thing is that I still have friends in college with lice kingdoms up there! it's hard to avoid standing/sitting next to them. hey it's nothing personal right... :p

Reema said...

eeeks!! why didnt u ever tell her?

buckingfastard said...

ohh!!! its bak to dat lice fraand of urs whom u miss sharing lice with!!! aww!! i had such a friend in class 2 too...

nyways...did she still hav lice...and do she still think having lice is cool...and and did medicare paid u for fokat publicity!!

A Fineapple said...

lice..!! the post reminded me of my classmate.. i thank god because she was sitting in front of me.. u know when the classes got boring i used to count.. nice little entertainment.. :)..

Urvashi said...

nice tale..brought back memories of school n yeah bench partners n medicare.... :) :) I also liked ur line "Main toh apni Bakwas kar chuki....Abh tum kaho!!" its cool...nice blog.. :)

gayathri vishwanathan said...

medicare ne paise diye kya publicity karne k liye? I have been through this lice kingdom wala problem too. Canada se aake bhi lice?

Sid said...

ROFL!!! This is the most hilarious post i hv read :D

Shanu said...

@ NIM

Absolutely..nothing personal ;)

Shanu said...

@ Reema

LOL...Aare yaar, she knew that she was infested with lice but for some weird reason didnt think it was much of a problem. She openly spoke abt the lice in her hair and left all of us running for cover!

Shanu said...

@ BF

LOL..I didnt check to see if she still had lice..the shampoo was just to be on the safer side.

Kaash, I was paid for this re :)

Shanu said...

@ Arpitha

Yup, counting lice..my fav game too :)

Shanu said...

@ Urvashi

Welcome to Fullon.

Glad u liked my post..keep dropping by :)

Shanu said...

@ G3

Kya na, I have purposely misspelt the name of the brand (its kar not care)..coz I feared that they mite sue me or sumthin..but now I feel I should go and put up the correct spelling..kya bolti hai??

Shanu said...

@ Sid

Thank you :)

gayathri vishwanathan said...

arre bindaas correct spelling daal and tel dem tht u have done dier publicity...tell dem 2 pay u 4 fukat kaa publicity :) Mujhe bhi pehle laga medikar hain...but mera spellings mein pange hain so thought medicare is d correct spelling

Anwesa said...

lice..yuck!! but it was nice read Shanu :)


P.S. : My lil' sis s also called
S-A-N-U.

Vatsa said...

Crikey! I hated that shampoo when I was young and subjected to it on a regular basis thanks to generous people like Eliza. Funny post :-)

moonlite:D said...

lol, classmate & lice,,, have faced it big time,,,
than fascination, I was horrified always :D
ah!! Aliza reminds of me of that girl,, grrr

Dhanya said...

lol ;) I have seen lice playing games on other's hair... entertaining to say the least ;)

Harini said...

Even i had a girl in my class with jungle in her head. I used to feel disgusted with that. I would do anything but not sit beside her... eww still sometimes some did find my head. I hate it!

Blunt Edges said...

an entertaining tale of truth and lice! ;)

Ordinary Gal said...

hiee dear..first time at ur blog. You made me smile. I read ur first peom for Champu and loved it completely :D

want to follow u but Followers button is not appearing :(
will come to visit ur place again soon :)
Keep writing n rocking ;)

Thousif Raza said...

memories... i loved the way you said it.... there are some pretty nice memories with lice and me tooo, but thats for another day ;) :P


take care and keep writing.......

Sangitha said...

sach me yaar.. Life should have been like google.. Sometimes i rember only my school frnds nicknames and it gets so embarrassing when i ask arre i forgot ur real name yaa.. :(
Ok bas bahut pakaya na..chorry :P
Good to know that u remembered her twinkling grey eyes and lice infested but beautiful hair also.. ;)

nitwit said...

well i find your full on bakwas totally rocking

scarlet pimpernel said...

hey ... super funny post

scarlet pimpernel said...

hey ... super funny post

Unknown said...

hey Shanu,,,,,had a hearty laugh...n was thinkin of the days when lice was passed on from the girl sitting nxt to me :)

did Eliza get to read this :P

Unknown said...

hey Shanu,,,,,had a hearty laugh...n was thinkin of the days when lice was passed on from the girl sitting nxt to me :)

did Eliza get to read this :P

riddhiculous said...

I have read this. I will comment..... I will I will. I like it as well. so maafi for the routinely analytically detailed comment shall follow.

Tanvi said...

totally giggly =)

bondgal_rulz said...

Awwwieeeee!!!! Cute post!!!

LOL @ king queen lice. hehe

Cheers

Beauty and the BEast said...

I remember this girl in school with lice-laden hair. It was like two lice parties were at war with each other, for absolute control of her hairy scalp. Her thin partition was sort of the LOC.

You sort of reminded me of her.

Now I want to google her up :p

Kavya said...

wow.. very funny..

Shanu said...

@ G3

:)

Shanu said...

@ Anwesa

Glad you liked it.

P.S: Say hi to Sanu meri taraf se:)

Shanu said...

@ Vatsa

Yup frnds are always generous with their lice and moms are generous with Medikar :)

Shanu said...

@ Moonlite

Ahh, Eliza reminds so many ppl of thr childhood..i guess all of us had a lice infested buddy at some point in time :)

Shanu said...

@ Dhanno

Yup, super timepass :)

Shanu said...

@ Harini

She was my best frnd ya..and i was too young to care abt the lice :)

Shanu said...

@ Bluntu

Wat a smart and hatke comment..me likes :)

Shanu said...

@ Ordinary Girl

Welcome to Fullon.

Glad you liked my bakwaas poem.

Do keep dropping by :)

Shanu said...

@ Thousif

Maybe you could write a post on it, wat say?

Shanu said...

@ Sangitha

Fullon pe pakneka pakaneka fullon permission hota hai..chorry wory nahi bolneka kya? :P

Glad you liked the post :)

Shanu said...

@ Nitwit

Thanks :)

Welcome to Fullon and keep dropping by :)

Shanu said...

@ Scarlet

:) Thank you

Shanu said...

@ Valerine

Hey, long time no see :)

Nopes, Eliza didnt get to see this, but I hope she does :)Will save her frnds the trouble of using Medikar :P

Shanu said...

@ Riddhi

Waiting for the detailed comment :P

Shanu said...

@ Tanvi

Thanks :)

Shanu said...

@ Bondgal

Thanks babe :)

Shanu said...

@ Beauty

Hey, long time no see..howz u??

LOL..Loved the LOC wala description :) Google her up and let me know if she still has lice :)

Shanu said...

@ Kavya

Thanks :)

riddhiculous said...

It is the most easiest to write long comments for ur posts because the comment window pops up. can read and write.. nice.. padhna likhna sikho.ok crap.

anyway.

very late comment.
I love the searching eliza bit.
and joooon aka lice kingdom reminds me of school as well. even I used to be fascinated by their kingdom. actually i found them gross but the fact that when u took them out and the 'tick' sound they made when the old aunts in my ancestral home used to put them on their thumb nails. it was little tick that fascinated me. hw when they died they went tick. and how they were found by that painful little comb especially designed for lice treatment.. god it was like treasure hunt see how many will come ..
eeeewwww i sound like so enthu about lice hunting... hehhhe
damn m so eeew..
but come on i was a kid.. allowed tha... but then ofcourse the saner ones used to put all those lice in a bowl of water and the tick was missing.. but then new age got mediker and medicare.. and then no more..

your post moves in circles. our thoughts move in circle.
But fact no. 378 of the bachpan goes --
Lices move in semi circles. remember mediker advertisements. mummy. and the lice moved somewhat like an inverted parenthesis path.

nice post. good good.. bachpan is always fascinating

COMMUNI said...

Shanu

2 hafte ho gaye!!!!!!!!!! kahan chupi ho??

Arshat Chaudhary said...

wow! Its amazingly written yaar... I know how difficult its to come up with such posts.. Cheers girlie.. Keep on writing more of these.. :)

Shanu said...

@ Riddhi

Finally a long comment..thank you..my post now feels complete :)

Shanu said...

@ Communi

Bahut kaam hai re babe...saans lene ki fursat nahi..but me will b back soon.

Thank you for missing me ..acha lagta hai :)

Shanu said...

@ Arshat

Thank you. Glad to see you back here..keep visiting :)

♪♪Happy Go Lucky♪♪ said...

Hehehehe lol i remember the medicare days too. lol how much my mom would try to comb lice out of my head and go all "Who sits next to you?" lol!! Maybe thats why i was never allowed to grow my hair long when i was a kid :P

oof ya! said...

hi Shanu - this is the first time in my whole blogging career that i have commented on a random stranger's blog !!!!!!! but i just have to say - you made me laugh a lot :) i have read atleast 20 of your posts in a single sitting - and am wondering why you haven't posted in so long!!!! i am so glad i have discovered your blog!!! it is hilarious !!!!!!

Shanu said...

@ Harini

Yup, all of us have gone thru the licey bench partner days :)

Shanu said...

@ Oof ya

Thank you for your kind words.

Welcome to Fullon. Hope you njoi yr stay here!

Bullshee said...

I used to love having lice in my hair...not sure why, but I did...

Poor Eliza...she might get crushed if she reads this...

p.s - she hot? >:D

Blunt Edges said...

kaha ho yaar???
aapse aankhen-char hue ek arsa ho gaya.

Ire said...

LOl. Nice post. My sister had a friend like this! Cool blog.

Shanu said...

@ Bullshee

Thank God, you werent my bench partner thn :P

And yes, Eliza is very hot..u want her number??

Shanu said...

@ Harini and Bluntu

Wasnt in town for sometime doston... but I am back now..will hop over to your blogs in sometime..I am sure I have missed out on a lot of action :)

Shanu said...

@ Nikita

Welcome to Fullon. :)

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

http://jingleyanqiu.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/jingles-may-awards-week-1-awards-4-u-all/

Happy May!
some friendship seeds.

suzziii said...

this onez my 2nd post (reading) on ur blog...

took me back in my school dayzzz...

a girl sitting next to me..
she was good looking.. :P
but but but.. lice problem... :(

everyday I used to take home good number of lice...
and my grand ma used to clean my head... :)

wow yaar...

I like the way u narrate things...

Started loving ur bakwaas...