Kakkarrr!!!
Weird title. I know. But it is there for a reason.
At school, which I used to go to till about an year back, we had a very fixed and rigid routine each day. We had 9 periods a day, and each subject was assigned periods. There was hardly any room for flexibility, and bunking classes, although being a standard practice among students, could often lead to complications. The only time which we got free in school, and when we were not told what to do and what not to do, was a 15 minute break (or recess, as some people call it) that commenced each day at about 10:00 AM.
In class XI and XII, the guys from my particular section, including me, fell into a habit of playing 'Catch' during recess. So as soon as break started, most of the boys from the class assembled and we divided ourselves into two teams. These two teams, usually consisting of about 6-8 people each, then positioned themselves along opposite sides of the class-room (Yes, we played 'Catch' inside the class). About a dozen aluminum foil balls were quickly made after fishing into people's lunch-boxes, and once this was done, the play began. The object of the game, as you can probably guess from the name, was to catch the foil ball that was thrown at you by a member of the opposition. You were then supposed to return the ball, in such a way that the none of the members of the opposite team could catch it. At the end of the break, the team which had more dropped catches lost. Aluminum foil balls were used for two primary purposes. Firstly, because foil balls do not hurt too much when they hit you. Thus we employed foil balls out of pity on all the peaceful students who wanted to quietly sit in class and enjoy their food during break, and were occasionally unlucky enough to get caught in the cross-fire between the two warring parties. Secondly, because our class was on the 3rd floor, and while playing, balls used to routinely fly out of the windows. Foil balls, being plentiful and not as expensive as actual balls, served our purpose wonderfully.
Now, also in my section during class XI and XII was a poor guy whose name was Ankur Kakkar. He was a decent guy, but catching wasn't exactly his strong point. So he dropped, without fail, each and every catch that was thrown at him. This led to a great deal of agitation among his team-mates, and every time he dropped a catch, somebody or the other from his team came up with a comment like, "Kakkar!!! Yeh kya kar raha hain?", or, "Catch kar le Kakkar!!!" After some time, these cries of anguish, due to their occurrence with alarming regularity, were abbreviated to simply, "Kakkar!!!" So every time Ankur dropped a catch, cries of "Kakkar!!!" filled the class-room.
This happened for about a month, and then came the turning point, the day when the exclamation "Kakkar!!!" evolved from a simple reprimand to a universal exclamation of pain, anger and disgust.
On a Wednesday morning, at about 10:10 AM, which means about 10 minutes into our break, all of us were, as usual, playing our game. It was then that I threw the foil ball towards Mayank Gupta, a guy who was, on that particular day, in the opposite team. Mayank tried to catch the ball, but was unable to do so. The ball touched his fingertips, and then slowly rolled down to the floor, coming to a rest at his feet. Mayank slowly looked down at his feet, and calmly stared at the ball for a couple of seconds. Then he looked up abruptly, disgust evident on his face, and shouted loudly, "Kakkarrrrrr!!!!!"
After that, the exclamation came into wide usage and became a part of the lingo of class XI-G (which later became class XII-G). "Kakkar!!!" started being used left, right and centre. Every time someone erred, "Kakkar!!!" was the unanimous cry that came from all directions. And all dropped catches were blamed on Mr. Ankur Kakkar, even if he wasn't around.
I remembered this incident today when I met a few of my friends from class XII for lunch. It has been a long time, and I had almost forgotten about the roots of the exclamation which was so widely used by us in school. The incident was never brought up as such during lunch, but being with the same people who were with me at school brought back a lot of old memories, some which I didn't know I had retained in my mind. I met quite a few people after a very long time, as lots of these people are no longer in Delhi, and have come here only for the holidays. It was nice being in their company. I regret to say, however that Mr. Kakkar was not present.
At school, which I used to go to till about an year back, we had a very fixed and rigid routine each day. We had 9 periods a day, and each subject was assigned periods. There was hardly any room for flexibility, and bunking classes, although being a standard practice among students, could often lead to complications. The only time which we got free in school, and when we were not told what to do and what not to do, was a 15 minute break (or recess, as some people call it) that commenced each day at about 10:00 AM.
In class XI and XII, the guys from my particular section, including me, fell into a habit of playing 'Catch' during recess. So as soon as break started, most of the boys from the class assembled and we divided ourselves into two teams. These two teams, usually consisting of about 6-8 people each, then positioned themselves along opposite sides of the class-room (Yes, we played 'Catch' inside the class). About a dozen aluminum foil balls were quickly made after fishing into people's lunch-boxes, and once this was done, the play began. The object of the game, as you can probably guess from the name, was to catch the foil ball that was thrown at you by a member of the opposition. You were then supposed to return the ball, in such a way that the none of the members of the opposite team could catch it. At the end of the break, the team which had more dropped catches lost. Aluminum foil balls were used for two primary purposes. Firstly, because foil balls do not hurt too much when they hit you. Thus we employed foil balls out of pity on all the peaceful students who wanted to quietly sit in class and enjoy their food during break, and were occasionally unlucky enough to get caught in the cross-fire between the two warring parties. Secondly, because our class was on the 3rd floor, and while playing, balls used to routinely fly out of the windows. Foil balls, being plentiful and not as expensive as actual balls, served our purpose wonderfully.
Now, also in my section during class XI and XII was a poor guy whose name was Ankur Kakkar. He was a decent guy, but catching wasn't exactly his strong point. So he dropped, without fail, each and every catch that was thrown at him. This led to a great deal of agitation among his team-mates, and every time he dropped a catch, somebody or the other from his team came up with a comment like, "Kakkar!!! Yeh kya kar raha hain?", or, "Catch kar le Kakkar!!!" After some time, these cries of anguish, due to their occurrence with alarming regularity, were abbreviated to simply, "Kakkar!!!" So every time Ankur dropped a catch, cries of "Kakkar!!!" filled the class-room.
This happened for about a month, and then came the turning point, the day when the exclamation "Kakkar!!!" evolved from a simple reprimand to a universal exclamation of pain, anger and disgust.
On a Wednesday morning, at about 10:10 AM, which means about 10 minutes into our break, all of us were, as usual, playing our game. It was then that I threw the foil ball towards Mayank Gupta, a guy who was, on that particular day, in the opposite team. Mayank tried to catch the ball, but was unable to do so. The ball touched his fingertips, and then slowly rolled down to the floor, coming to a rest at his feet. Mayank slowly looked down at his feet, and calmly stared at the ball for a couple of seconds. Then he looked up abruptly, disgust evident on his face, and shouted loudly, "Kakkarrrrrr!!!!!"
After that, the exclamation came into wide usage and became a part of the lingo of class XI-G (which later became class XII-G). "Kakkar!!!" started being used left, right and centre. Every time someone erred, "Kakkar!!!" was the unanimous cry that came from all directions. And all dropped catches were blamed on Mr. Ankur Kakkar, even if he wasn't around.
I remembered this incident today when I met a few of my friends from class XII for lunch. It has been a long time, and I had almost forgotten about the roots of the exclamation which was so widely used by us in school. The incident was never brought up as such during lunch, but being with the same people who were with me at school brought back a lot of old memories, some which I didn't know I had retained in my mind. I met quite a few people after a very long time, as lots of these people are no longer in Delhi, and have come here only for the holidays. It was nice being in their company. I regret to say, however that Mr. Kakkar was not present.
A big co-incidence was the fact that 2 independent groups from my school were present at Basant Lok for lunch today. So I could meet the people from both of these groups, without having to go to two different places. I couldn't stay with either of the two groups for a long time though, as I had strict instructions to be back home by 3:30, to see-off my dad who flew to Zimbabwe today.
There was one group at McDonald's which consisted mostly of my friends from class XII-G, namely Aseem (now in Singapore), Mayank (IITD), Ketan (Purdue, USA), Rishi (DCE), Ritwik (Manipal), Saurabh (Roorkee), Sukanya (Mumbai), Vyoma (Jodhpur), and Shruti (Manipal).
The other group was having lunch at Punjabi by Nature, and was made up mostly of people who were not in my section in class XII, but are good friends nonetheless. Here, I saw Suhel (he's still in Delhi), Nitya (Mumbai), Nithya (Chicago), Anandita (don't know where she is), and Aliya (UPenn).
It was good to see so many people from school on the same day. I hopefully will be seeing them again on Tuesday, the 28th, when a 'Reunion Lunch' is being held at school. I think most of the people mentioned above will be coming to school then, with the exception of Nithya, who has Pooja at home, and will be unable to attend.
Moving on to other stuff, I saw most of Kal Ho Naa Ho on TV today. That brings the total number of Bollywood movies seen by me on TV during these holidays to 4. That's a pretty large number, considering I don't usually watch Hindi movies on TV. It is an indicator of how vela I have become in these holidays. But I liked most of what I saw of Kal Ho Naa Ho today. I think the first half, all of which I saw today, is pretty cool. I managed to sit through quite a bit of the second half as well, but only because of Preity Zinta.
Where would the world be without her??
There was one group at McDonald's which consisted mostly of my friends from class XII-G, namely Aseem (now in Singapore), Mayank (IITD), Ketan (Purdue, USA), Rishi (DCE), Ritwik (Manipal), Saurabh (Roorkee), Sukanya (Mumbai), Vyoma (Jodhpur), and Shruti (Manipal).
The other group was having lunch at Punjabi by Nature, and was made up mostly of people who were not in my section in class XII, but are good friends nonetheless. Here, I saw Suhel (he's still in Delhi), Nitya (Mumbai), Nithya (Chicago), Anandita (don't know where she is), and Aliya (UPenn).
It was good to see so many people from school on the same day. I hopefully will be seeing them again on Tuesday, the 28th, when a 'Reunion Lunch' is being held at school. I think most of the people mentioned above will be coming to school then, with the exception of Nithya, who has Pooja at home, and will be unable to attend.
Moving on to other stuff, I saw most of Kal Ho Naa Ho on TV today. That brings the total number of Bollywood movies seen by me on TV during these holidays to 4. That's a pretty large number, considering I don't usually watch Hindi movies on TV. It is an indicator of how vela I have become in these holidays. But I liked most of what I saw of Kal Ho Naa Ho today. I think the first half, all of which I saw today, is pretty cool. I managed to sit through quite a bit of the second half as well, but only because of Preity Zinta.
Where would the world be without her??
posted by Manu Saxena at 6:22:00 pm
1 comments
1 Comments:
I haven't read the complete post. I just couldn't when I saw the length of the post and the fact that it was another one about your precious school.
Your blog makes good reading Manu. But that happens usually when it is NOT about ur school or Reliance Web-World at Priya Complex.
Maybe its the stage you are in ..Will attempt reading the post when I have more time. Cheers.
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