Chinmaya ......A Sequel ( Part 2 )

So lets journey forward from where i left the trail ...and now i know i have many people with me on the forward journey ..... My first step into Std 11 Chinmaya Vidyalaya , Tripunithura .....taken with a lot of doubts and anxiety ....not knowing where its leading me to ....but taken with prayers and hopes for the best .... I was asked to introduce myself , which i did ...and ended my introduction with the words ...I did my entire schooling in Bombay .....CRASH BOOM DAAAAM DHOOOOOOM ........ those words kind of dropped a bomb in my new class :) That was a time when our dear Tripunithura was not ready to adjust and understand the alien land called BOMBAY !!!! Little did i know that for the next one year i would be judged severely based on this one sentence .. People accepted Dubai and Riyadh and Saudi and even Africa ,,,,but Bombay ! no way ....Girls from Bombay are " over smart " , " not to be trusted " .....The problem with the human mind is that it absorbs the bad more easily and lets the good linger back so that it can absorb it in leisure ... The same thing happened to me too .... I absorbed these comments faster .... There were a few who thought i was cool ...:) I remember Manju coming and asking me " Have you seen a lot of film stars :)) " Manju was a person who always made me feel comfortable ( also comfortable about my bombay tag that just refused to come off !) Slowly the girls and i got familiar with each other ....a few with caution and a few with the thrill of welcoming someone new ...... The guys kept away from me as if i was an alien ..... many times i encountered whispers like " she is from bombay right ....adhigam adipikyanda !It hurt a bit but i let it go ..... Then like an oasis in the desert i found a silent dreamy ...oblivious to all the happenings ...a silent girl sitting in the first bench of the last row ......SREEDEVI ...who later on went on to become one of my closest friends .... I enjoyed the moments i spend with her ....we had common interests poems .... stories .....and dreams and imaginations ........Sreedevi really made me feel good . A few guys too were really nice to me naming a few ...Mahesh , Krishnakumar , Ramesh Krishnan and Vineeth Vishwam ( that guy always made me laugh :) ) ...the rest stayed away .............................. I remember an incident when i tapped a guy on his shoulder to ask him something ....tapped him because i did not know his name and felt it would be rude if i did shoo shoo and called him ..... MY GOOD LORD ...the look on that guys face made me feel like i was standing trial in a courtroom for triple murders and a dozen kidnappings and many othre heinious crimes !!!!!!! Immediately his bench partner said Bombaylu padichu valannadhalle ...vivaram koodi poyeetta ( she is from bombay right ...she thinks too much of her self ) What had i done ?!?!?!?!? Immediately Saira came to my rescue and said she does not know ...and told me " Sindhu you should never touch your guy classmates ...usually we use a book to call them !?!?!?! " A book ??? If you need to call someone whose name you dont know ....Beat them with a book or a pencil case or a waterbottle or anything you get in hand ...but dont touch them !?!?! Now what sort of weird rule is that ?? Dont touch a person but u can beat him up hahahahahahahahaha The initial shock and the anger gave way to comic relief ....even today i think of that incident and laugh :) If your mind is clean then a touch is also clean it does not spoil you in any way ..........Hope that person is reading this .....;) From STATE SYLABUS to CBSE was like the transition from a road to a mountain !!! And in a semi friendly ...semi hostile environment it just gets tougher ... There were nights when i cried myself to sleep ........ Let me not forget to mention Arun Paul :) .....though my senior ...but a person who always made me feel welcome .....a person who accepted me as a friend along with my bombay tag and funny accent etc etc etc ....... I remember him going on his cycle when i stood at the van stop and giving me a big smiley good morning and i would silently wish hope all my classmates understood me equally well and accepted me the same way ....... A big thank you to Arun paul and Sreedevi and also Saira ...who gave me comfort in the desert ........ And then thanks to Sweet Rose,Rose,Anju,and ever so lively and happy Sreeja ( I loved her spirit and her non stop chatter and her friendly talks ) , Mahesh , Krishnakumar , Manju ......... My thoughts have got clogged ....the string or the chain is broken temporarily and many memories have got mixed up so i will write a few gud memories i have ... Oh how Prakashan sir used to make us laugh and i would have tears in my eyes by the end of his class , My pretty Mini teacher ...strict but very much respected , Ganesan sir ...always a father figure feared , loved and respected ..... And the final straw was when i failed my 11th std .... Something i had never dealt with in my life ......Failed ? me ? no there was some misunderstanding ....it could never happen ....my father who usually is so strict that i think twice to speak in front of him ....he too did not say a word to me ...he understood perfectly what i was going through ....and i a thankfull to him for that till this day ... Slowly i realised that after God put me in hell for a year ( with a few comforts ) now he was sprinkling chilly powder on my burns ......Not one tear escaped my eyes because i could not believe it ..... A few people who i thought were my friends ,,,became strangers overnight ! That hurt more than my failure ..... And at that moment i realised that i had struggled and reached the top of the mountain only to find another mountain waiting to be climbed ... Read on it gets better from now