SNIPPETS OF MY SCHOOL LIFE .. [ 2 ]

THE SLEEPING BEAST !

I must have been in class-5 at that time. It was our half yearly exam. The timing of our exam was such that it was in the second shift( our school would run in 2 shifts- 7 to 12 and 12 to 5). Till class 5 we were in 1^st shift and we wern’t quite acquainted to the teachers of the second shift. So everyday a new face would come for invigilation. Mostly they were strict and just before the exam the older students who would sit with us in the same class room would guess the invigilator and pray for a lenient one to come. And every time an invigilator would walk in there would me chorus of sounds like ‘phew’ and ‘sigh’ coupled with hi-fives with friends for a lenient invigilator( which would mean more opportunity to cheat!), and sounds like ‘gosh’ and ‘shit’ for a strict one coupled with instant folding of hands and turning of heads upwards (meaning .. marr gaye yar! Ab bas oopar wala bachale ! ). On one such exam, as usual the guess who game was on, few guys were standing at the door, watching who’s going into which class and after some time the invigilator arrived! Seeing him I almost jumped off my seat! My mouth went wide open as to how a man can be this huge and monstrous, he was tall as tall could be and fat like a beast. His eyes were all red and fiery. He was looking like a monster who could devour the whole class in one go. But in stark contradiction to my thoughts the chorus didn’t sang ‘gosh!’ but they ‘sighed’ and hands didn’t fold they hi-fived! I just couldn’t understand why? How? How could this beast give a sigh of relief to the elder students? Meanwhile the bell rang and exam started.. I looked at him once.. he was sitting in the wooden chair his red eyes darting the opposite wall. I didn’t dare to see more of him. I started writing my paper. After 15 minutes I heard a loud sound – ‘BANG’ or ‘THUD’ or something like that! I suddenly looked around and to my utter surprise that sound was created by the collision of the mighty head of the invigilator and the table. Damn! He was in sleep! After a moment he cozied himself by folding his arms on the table and digging his face into them ( they served as pillow! ), and that was it! He went into his deep slumber, even started snoring. The elder students went into a tizzy! And our class’ students didn’t know how to react because this was something out of our imagination – AN INVIGILATOR SLEEPING IN MIDST OF EXAM!! Now I knew why there were sighs instead of goshs! He woke up only when the peon brought him chai and after having tea he went into sleep mode again and started snoring even loudly ( the chai effect maybe!) and once again when 10 minutes were left for exam to end so that he could sign our answer sheets ( maybe for him invigilation meant only that). That invigilator was RAO SIR. But I must must mention that he was a really nice person at heart. He never taught us but accompanied us on scout guide rally once and was genuinely helpful (only if we could nullify his snores at night)!

So this was one crazy incident of “THE SLEEPING BEAST” ... a snippet of my even crazier school life !

Also check out "SNIPPETS OF MY SCHOOL LIFE .. [1] - "THE GREAT INDIAN PUNJABI KUDI" CLICK HERE !