My early years.....by Ravi Jain

  "Bade Baap ke Aulad" by Sricharan Iyengar

   "Who's good at sales?" by Aditya Ahluwalia

That's the day Ravi and I fell, no jumped (it's more macho that way), off a DTC bus and Ravi seriously injured his arm and had to stay away from the basket ball team for a while, and Narendra Ghai gave me much grief. Now I ask you, why should a guy be blamed just because he jumped, ok fell, off a bus and pulled down a whole lot of other guys? But I digress...

Anyways, as we were waiting for the bus, Madhubala, who was then sort of working on a Phd on Palmistry by reading hazar books on the subject in the Ashram library, decided to practice her craft i.e. start reading palms. As expected the guys lined up and had the usual bunch of very important questions you would ask in such occasions. Finally came the turn of Mr. Chumber (yes, he was just "Mr." then). The exchange went thus:

Mr. Chumber: Madhubala, I have but just one important question.

Madhubala: Yes Chumber?

Mr. Chumber: Madhubala, tell me, will my future wife be beautiful? Madhubala (after the obligatory exam of the palm from all angles): Chumber,

I am really sorry to say this, but you wife will be really ugly!

Mr. Chumber: But Madhubala, YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!

Now you know why Ravi and I jumped, ok, fell from the bus!

I joined the MIS in 1976 on my return from Indonesia and one of the first persons that I clashed with in the Class IX D was Ravi Kant. We soon became

friends and discovered a common passion for movies. I still retain that passion , I don’t know if he does.

We had decided to see “The Ten Commandments” at Archana Cinema Hall and so we went to book the tickets after School was over. We only had a vague idea where it was located and took a bus in the general direction and ended at Chitranjan Park, several Kms off the mark. So we decided to walk all the way to Archana. It took us some time and we also crossed a house where the name-plate reads”POORS” and as you come closer, you realize that it is KAPOORS- this house and name plate is still there whereas the Archana Cinema Hall is no more. We got the tickets and this led us on to see several other movies together- The Exorcist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Towering Inferno at Shiela and several others that now I can’t even

remember. Several of the other boys wanted to take to adult movies mainly because I had a better beard and all the others were still looking at their

chins with a microscope. So, if youth came early to me, so did the graying!

For almost two years Ravi and I were regular at the movies till I shifted to the Hostel in Class XI. Gautam is covering my hostel life in the most

romantic manner that I could have imagined. I continued my passion during my college also and for some time was in the cine club at AIIMS – when I got to see a lot of French and German Cinema and have on my own organized festivals of Indian Cinema-Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Madhubala and Guru Dutt. In fact my friends were also film buffs and continue to be so. But my life changed after marriage. Kavita has no interest in movies- there are probably only two movies she has seen- The Sound of Music and Macenna’s Gold. So, when you talk of movies- it has to be one of these two. Some of the other movies that I have seen are cartoon movies of Golu’s taste

I have retained this passion for movies but nowadays I get to see only the movies on the TV. In fact, there are only two things that I watch on TV-the

news and movies. I do not know if you have retained this passion, Ravi. Whenever, I have to book tickets, usually during the summer vacations, I

always remember when Ravi and I had gone to book tickets for Ten Commandments.....

"Gaa rahe ho ya ro rahe ho?" .......by Sandeep Kaul

I actually joined MIS in 1973 in 6th grade, when I was just 11 yrs old. I have some interesting recollections from what I call "..my early years..", which actually were not very exciting as I was quite "seedha-saadha" in those years.

But I do remember having a rough time being teased about by American accent as our family had just returned from the US in 1972) and not knowing much Hindi. Especially on "rolling my R's" - seems like everyone made fun of that. The hardest time I had initially was in Hindi class with "Panwari" (someone please help me remember her real name!) who continuously berated me until I finally had to complain to my mom! My mother was a well regarded writer and poet in English and Hindi, so she came to school and actually gave it right back to Panwari! After that things changed and Panwari did help me learn Hindi actually.

Of course having lived in the US, I brought some interesting things to class - for example I remember introducing the very American song "So and So sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G...." . The first person I tried this on was Rajni and someone else, can't remember. Boy that got me in trouble - and the standard lecture of ".... it may be OK in the US, but this behavior is not acceptable in India...." Teaching everyone how to play baseball was fun - did result in smashed glasses once and a broken wrist - but was worth it. Anyone remember the shehthooth (mulberry) tree outside the classroom and climbing us on the roof of the class to get them!

I remember once a few of us went to see a movie in Chanakya. No problem per se, but for the fact that we were bunking school, were in school uniform, and most critically- it was an A movie!! I think my partners in this foolhardy venture were Naren, Pankaj, Shailendra Jain, Sanjeev Jain and Sanjay Nadir,(anyone knows where the latter three gentlemen are?). So after buying the tickets, we try to look 'adult' enough to get past the usher, who obviously spots us and shoos us off to the manager's cabin. We find the manager checking the I-card of a few people, and signing their wrists as 'proof of adulthood'. Shailendra Jain, master forger that he was, got this bright idea that he will 'certify' us as adults in the toilet, and we decided to do the needful. Once again we get caught and apart from losing the cost of the tickets, we also got an earful from the manager- 'bade baap ke bigdey aulad' varieties!!

How naïve could we have been?