PP not really crazy of Saki, more of O Henry fan :) But I have very fond memories of this story.Quote:
Originally Posted by pavalamani pragasam
When I was 11, my dad took me shopping in summer to get black shoes for school. We did that last weekend before school and unfortunately my size was the most popular and the "Bata Naughty Boy" model shoe ran out of stock. We had no other option but to go for a model which had velcro straps. (Anything other than the laced "Naughty Boy" model is banned in our school). So I spent the entire year dodging the Prefects during the Post Assembly Uniform Check which happened twice a week(When I gave the reason for my model, they laughed out loudly and told me to run around the ground as punishment). Plus a lot of suppressive/repressive measures - a class teacher who banned the purchase of ice-creams, vacating the school campus by 430pm(my parents actually told me to come late since I'd be alone at home!), banning students from bringing their own balls and bats(we would still play and sprint home with our kit and schoolbags when a staff comes across), conversing only in English, how many times our hide-and-seek games were interrupted by the swooping down of some teacher or the watchman and we raced to the nearest exit from the school or in worse cases got our balls and bats confiscated which means more punishment from parents, waiting till 5.30pm for our teachers to leave so we could buy a 50 paise icecream, doctors who warned that kids playing in the hot sun from February will get bleeding in the ear/nose......the list of tortures from our teachers/watchman/peons was endless. :hammer:
Each year we would label the last day of our Annual Exam as "Independence Day" - a day we could eat icecreams, chase each other around, splash ink, climb trees(and also gang-beat up a troublesome classmate) without fear of the consequences.
And this devilish 11 year old mind imprisoned by such stentorian measures found a perverted pleasure in this English lesson which loudly and derisively mocked at the Camlin wooden scale/Casuarina branch and so-conclusively proved that obedience is for wimps! :twisted: :twisted: :thumbsup:
The academician who sneaked in this story into a textbook for 11 year olds deserves :notworthy: :twisted:
I am sure this is one area where Stanherji will agree with me than PP ;) :D