My First Flight

I dint realize that my previous post(out of sheer frustration) would bother so many of the wellwishers around. So I guess its time to revisit some happy memories. And needless to say.. A long one

I happened to read this post in monu's blog and its all good and proud times revisited for me.

For the chatterbox that I am, talking isnt the most difficult thing to do. Being articulate is a totally different thing but during school days you hardly need them to win debates and oratorical competitions:)

If more than 30 oratorical competitions a year, atleast double the ODs in school, couple of dozen prizes a year, a page dedicated to you in your school's annual report and star status among your friends come bundled with it, who would say NO!!!

The pressure, expectations are too big a word then. Never really understood that. All I would want then is to make sure I dont lose to a girl anywhere as that would spread like a forest fire in my BOYZ school :D

I distinctly remember not going to school for a couple of days because I lost to a girl in one of the debates and unfortunately the girl was from Hindu Sr.Sec School(Hehehe.. Enemy within)

The only downside of it is the growing number of Thirukkural books and bharathiar songs in your "PARANAI". My mom used to joke around saying we have more thirukkural and bharathiar books than even the Connehmarah Library(Fk.. I dint know its spelling. Have never even been to its vicinity). Neither did I read them once nor did I let the others win. A lose-lose situation looking backwards.If that is not enough, no one in the class takes you seriously in terms of academics.


(In fact before I left India, We stacked up all the books that me and my bro accumulated for a couple of decades in a few rucksacks and donated it to my mom's school library and the public library in my area. Dont know how different it is from donating used clothes to Tsunami Victims. But I guess that was the only reasonable option with us then)


And during 10th Standard, I happened to go for what looked like just another competition in the Lord Bentick School in Doveton. The results as usual would be announced later. After two months I got a call from the DEO office that I and another girl are representing "chennai" in an oratorical competition in a mere 4.5 hours from then.

I called up home and told my mom that the DEO had called me. She was on leave and so she thought she could also come for the event scheduled at QMC. She hardly comes to these competitions and if at all she is one person(excluding Maybe JJ) who can make me feel a lil nervous. So I never complain. Her role is usually to brainstorm on the topics and jot down points to debate on.

But this was an extempore. Absolutely no idea what the event is all about to prepare. I go there 30 mins late as usual and the event started 1 hour late as usual. A series of shocks awaited us..

1. There were about 50-60 students representing their own districts, who have reached Chennai as a gang a day earlier and praticing like hell for a topic thats still unknown. I was wondering why the chennaiites were told only hours before the event when the others had a week to plan and collect their thoughts.

2. The judge panel was more intimidating to my mom than me.. since I dint know who that Mrs. SivaSankari and I still dont know who the other two famous writers were. So for a change my mom was nervous whereas I was in my element running a one man Peanut Gallery Show with the Bharathiraja(read it as village) girls.

3. We were told that there will be only one topic for all the students and I would be the first person on stage, as a token of appreciation for representing CHENNAI. This wud mean a preparation time of 1 min for me and more than 3 hrs for some1 from say Kanyakumari. Pretty non-sensical.

SivaShankari Mam gave me the topic to start off and it is "Sutrula - Netru Indru Naalai"(Tourism - The Past, Present and the Future) marking the occasion of World Tourism Day. The clever human being that my mom is, delayed my entrance to the stage as much as possible with a forced rest room break, water break and dreadfully slow walk and gave me a barrage of points to talk about.

Here u go.. In the allocated 3 mins, i was happy that I wasted the first 40 seconds on my welcome part of the speech. And then talked abt all non sense where I drew invisible and nonexistent parallels to the touring spirit of columbus , Megallan and Vascodagama to science, economy and discoveries.

Ended the speech with a typical "ADUKKU MOZHI VASANAM" where I vaguely claimed that Unity is one thing that none of the isms' that include Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Nazism, Fascism could achieve but for the Tourism. I till date dont know what people understood from that, but it sounded good so they clapped.

Thats all I know.. Next I went out for some time off to the Marina Beach and came back on time for the results. My mom and my teacher were there patiently listening to everyone's speech. I was greeted with a typical "No Chance" gesture from my Mom and "Difficult to say" gesture from my teacher. Yeah! I understood whats in store and I started my peanut Gallery show again.

They started announcing the results. A lotta us were discussing cricket in the last row.

The third prize went to a guy from Villupuram. And the prize was a free week long package tour to all parts of TN.

My mom started.. "Dei.. Nee Bharathiar Kavidhaigal Thaanda maatengareeye daa!! Anga paaru andha paiyana"

The second prize went to a girl from Salem. And the prize was an all expenses paid trip to Mysore through the then sensational Shatabdi Express.

My mom whined "Paati aathukku shatabdi poanaa evlo nallaa irukkum. Neeyum Irukkiye"

"Amma Epdiyum stationla irundhu auto'la dhaan poganum.. Freya vidumaa"

Then Mrs. SivaSankari got up to announce the first prize. Free Air Tickets to anywhere in India for two people.

My mom almost freaked out at my casual attitude.

She slowly announced that the winner was the very first speaker. My mom was jumping and in excitement gave me a couple of thunderous pats that wud make kanal kannan proud for its ferocity. I was more happy at the fact that they announced buffet dinner in Nehru stadium after this. I was too hungry to worry abt anything else.

The next day usual jobless guests Mr. Thamizh Kudimagan, the then educational minister and Mr.Suresh Rajan, the then Tourism minister after talking about everything from how they played Gilli to how difficult it is to manage the "Ponnaadais" that they get decided to hand over the prizes.

All 60 of us along with their parents went to a fun-filled state sponsored trip to Rameshwaram and a fortnight later I and my dad went to Bombay for a 10 day trip. I was probably too excited to see how much my father was excited. I wish I could rewind those days to see how happy he felt going in a plane for the first time in his life.