Lipi mitra madam's younger daughter, Su-mo-na mitra's younger sister, is my little dude maker. The year was 2001, NWWA quiz, after weeks of cramming useless fact after useless fact into our head, acting superstitious like old time sailors, saying shit like 'if this stone right here hits that bottle right there, we win if it doesn't others lose' our unlikely trio was ready for the biggest event of the biggest cultural festival on the Naval school circuit across the country. We were fourteen, and to us it was like, THE event of the school circuit, the day of judgement for the geeks of the school circuit, the NWWA quiz. Navy Wives Welfare Association Quiz.
Note the 'wife', its an office that ranks higher than the President of India, for even the Chief of Naval Staff. And this quiz was their baby; not that it matters now, (nobody tells you at 14 that the only event in life that matters really, is your payday- should occur once a month if you're doing it right) but back then for outcast weirdo geeks like me, this was like the Armageddon or something.
So, were at this biiiiiiiig quiz, with the entire naval brass on the east coast lined up in full gear to be inspected by the collective admiralty of the wives association, you wouldn't see uniforms this crisp and white at the Republic day parade. Huge audience, tension like its the Dark knight's premier at the Kodak Theater and we're doing pretty good in front of the home crowd until a second round mishap on the horn of Africa by Ayub, puts a wrench in the works and a frown we'd all learned to fear on the face of our mentor, Meenakshi ma'am.
Ayub is one of my two team mates. Brilliant, humble chap,a Bournvita Quiz finalist. He knew almost everything there was to know about the arcane art of General Knowledge, never in doubt about his facts, never wrong, except when in came to the horn of Africa, that was the one thing he was always confused about. Tunisia to him, didn't look much like a horn, now Sudan, that was a country that looked like someone drew a horn on the face of Africa. He could never quite get used to the idea of Tunisia being mistaken for a horn by anyone. (you see what they do to kids in school?). So, when the quiz-master, or mistress, and quite a good looking one at that, asked him about the horn of Africa, he said Sudan of course.
Following this there were other mishaps, some by me, some by my third team mate. Ayub was flawless after that 'horny' mistake.Tensions kept mounting round after round, our lost lead staying put, until i got the double whammy question and we were with a decent chance of the title shot. The audience is all clapping loudly, I am their hero, the nice looking lady with the mike is beaming at us like we're all her own sons, and just told her we topped the Board exams or something.
And then I see this cat eyed tiny she devil up on her feet with an ear to ear grin, all the way back in the 10th row or something. Her eyes narrowed down to slits even in all her excitement, hands clapping so fast they're a blur. i recognize her instantly as the younger daughter of one of the teachers at school, whose older daughter had tried so very hard to take my seat on the team, the competitive little vixen. To this day, i don't know the little girl's name, only the elder one's: Sumona. No one could quite pronounce it like she wanted them to, particularly Ayub, so she had this cute but annoying reflex of reminding them how to do it whenever someone asked her name and repeated it to her idiosyncratically. Su-mo-na.
So this chick is clapping her heart away, like you see 34 yr old moms do at Justin Beiber concerts, or twilight screenings. happy like I've never seen anyone be in 8 years now. and 12 years down the line, in the hazy afterglow of a marijuana wave coming down to the breakers, i realize i was responsible for a little kid feeling so bloody happy; even if for a moment, even if for a pointless silly inconsequential thing like school pride, and i realize that for a selected crowd comprised almost exclusively of nerds who didn't have a clue what i was about, i rocked, for that little moment in time.
The extreme, extreme happiness of a little girl i don't know the name of, captured like a snapshot and buried deep inside the cobwebbed corner of my brain, made me feel like a total dude 12 years later. my 10 seconds of fame. the moment of my life where i thought i would make it. the time when i thought i had it all figured out, that nothing in the verse could stop me, defined by that expression of delirious violent silly childish happiness on the face of a little girl. My little dude maker. I think there definitely is, a mathematical theory out there that proves each one of us has our own dude maker, a moment in time when you were THE dude of the entire known universe. Dude maker.
Note the 'wife', its an office that ranks higher than the President of India, for even the Chief of Naval Staff. And this quiz was their baby; not that it matters now, (nobody tells you at 14 that the only event in life that matters really, is your payday- should occur once a month if you're doing it right) but back then for outcast weirdo geeks like me, this was like the Armageddon or something.
So, were at this biiiiiiiig quiz, with the entire naval brass on the east coast lined up in full gear to be inspected by the collective admiralty of the wives association, you wouldn't see uniforms this crisp and white at the Republic day parade. Huge audience, tension like its the Dark knight's premier at the Kodak Theater and we're doing pretty good in front of the home crowd until a second round mishap on the horn of Africa by Ayub, puts a wrench in the works and a frown we'd all learned to fear on the face of our mentor, Meenakshi ma'am.
Ayub is one of my two team mates. Brilliant, humble chap,a Bournvita Quiz finalist. He knew almost everything there was to know about the arcane art of General Knowledge, never in doubt about his facts, never wrong, except when in came to the horn of Africa, that was the one thing he was always confused about. Tunisia to him, didn't look much like a horn, now Sudan, that was a country that looked like someone drew a horn on the face of Africa. He could never quite get used to the idea of Tunisia being mistaken for a horn by anyone. (you see what they do to kids in school?). So, when the quiz-master, or mistress, and quite a good looking one at that, asked him about the horn of Africa, he said Sudan of course.
Following this there were other mishaps, some by me, some by my third team mate. Ayub was flawless after that 'horny' mistake.Tensions kept mounting round after round, our lost lead staying put, until i got the double whammy question and we were with a decent chance of the title shot. The audience is all clapping loudly, I am their hero, the nice looking lady with the mike is beaming at us like we're all her own sons, and just told her we topped the Board exams or something.
And then I see this cat eyed tiny she devil up on her feet with an ear to ear grin, all the way back in the 10th row or something. Her eyes narrowed down to slits even in all her excitement, hands clapping so fast they're a blur. i recognize her instantly as the younger daughter of one of the teachers at school, whose older daughter had tried so very hard to take my seat on the team, the competitive little vixen. To this day, i don't know the little girl's name, only the elder one's: Sumona. No one could quite pronounce it like she wanted them to, particularly Ayub, so she had this cute but annoying reflex of reminding them how to do it whenever someone asked her name and repeated it to her idiosyncratically. Su-mo-na.
So this chick is clapping her heart away, like you see 34 yr old moms do at Justin Beiber concerts, or twilight screenings. happy like I've never seen anyone be in 8 years now. and 12 years down the line, in the hazy afterglow of a marijuana wave coming down to the breakers, i realize i was responsible for a little kid feeling so bloody happy; even if for a moment, even if for a pointless silly inconsequential thing like school pride, and i realize that for a selected crowd comprised almost exclusively of nerds who didn't have a clue what i was about, i rocked, for that little moment in time.
The extreme, extreme happiness of a little girl i don't know the name of, captured like a snapshot and buried deep inside the cobwebbed corner of my brain, made me feel like a total dude 12 years later. my 10 seconds of fame. the moment of my life where i thought i would make it. the time when i thought i had it all figured out, that nothing in the verse could stop me, defined by that expression of delirious violent silly childish happiness on the face of a little girl. My little dude maker. I think there definitely is, a mathematical theory out there that proves each one of us has our own dude maker, a moment in time when you were THE dude of the entire known universe. Dude maker.
Takes me back a long time man! I still think Sudan should be called the horn of Africa!
ReplyDeleteWell written , Himanshu ! yh brings back alot of good memories! my wonderful team!
ReplyDeletewhat's the little girl's name? Lipi Ma'am's younger kid
ReplyDelete