There are certain things in life that just don't fade away from your memory. This memory has been a boon as well as a bane for me; boon when you're carrying pleasant memories and bane when you have to live with unpleasant ones and think about bad exam results. I'm now going to remember and write what happened about 18 years ago - when I was in my 2nd or 3rd standard! hmmm... that's a heck of a lot of days.
Like Russia (erstwhile USSR) and USA, we had 2 groups - rather gangs - in our class mainly because of 2 power centers - Jayakumar and M. Vinodh. They were neighbours in the TNHB quarters and had always quarralled whenever they met. This carried over into the school as well. Both of them had their own followers, who were made to follow them either by kinship or by power. Apparently, these guys were the best fighters in the class.
These guys had power centers and had divided the class into almost two. These two groups almost always clashed for no reason. The fights were not among the entire groups but individually. I still doubt if those 2 guys ever fought with each other. I was in two minds for a long time before I decided to join Vinodh's group because he appeared less evil. This one day, a fellow named Arshad approached me and asked me which group I belonged to. I knew he was in Jayakumar's group. So, I lied and told him that I belong to the same group too. But I got a nice beating and after a good couple of minutes, he told me he had changed his affiliation. Poor me. I didn't know that and I felt enough is enough.
Then came a breather. Another fellow, named Barath, who lived in the same colony as I and unable to take the beatings any more, devised a clever plan! He formed a new group - something like the Non-Aligned Movement started by India! Another guy, Mannar Mannan, who lived next door to Barath and his big 'allakkai' was this group's second member after Barath. I felt so relieved by this peaceful approach and readily joined and accepted Barath as the leader because Mannar Mannan advised me so!
From then on, we had pressure from other members of the other two gangs to join their gang, but we didn't budge. Whenever we went out of the class, always the 3 of us would go with Barath at the centre laying his hands on both of our shoulders. We were able to brave the threats from others, who always approached us individually and felt scared to bring up a fight because we were always in triplet...
Then USSR broke into pieces and after that only USA remained the sole super power. Vinodh lost his popularity and power and the whole gang thing was rendered meaningless because there wasn't a need for a gang!
I
Like Russia (erstwhile USSR) and USA, we had 2 groups - rather gangs - in our class mainly because of 2 power centers - Jayakumar and M. Vinodh. They were neighbours in the TNHB quarters and had always quarralled whenever they met. This carried over into the school as well. Both of them had their own followers, who were made to follow them either by kinship or by power. Apparently, these guys were the best fighters in the class.
These guys had power centers and had divided the class into almost two. These two groups almost always clashed for no reason. The fights were not among the entire groups but individually. I still doubt if those 2 guys ever fought with each other. I was in two minds for a long time before I decided to join Vinodh's group because he appeared less evil. This one day, a fellow named Arshad approached me and asked me which group I belonged to. I knew he was in Jayakumar's group. So, I lied and told him that I belong to the same group too. But I got a nice beating and after a good couple of minutes, he told me he had changed his affiliation. Poor me. I didn't know that and I felt enough is enough.
Then came a breather. Another fellow, named Barath, who lived in the same colony as I and unable to take the beatings any more, devised a clever plan! He formed a new group - something like the Non-Aligned Movement started by India! Another guy, Mannar Mannan, who lived next door to Barath and his big 'allakkai' was this group's second member after Barath. I felt so relieved by this peaceful approach and readily joined and accepted Barath as the leader because Mannar Mannan advised me so!
From then on, we had pressure from other members of the other two gangs to join their gang, but we didn't budge. Whenever we went out of the class, always the 3 of us would go with Barath at the centre laying his hands on both of our shoulders. We were able to brave the threats from others, who always approached us individually and felt scared to bring up a fight because we were always in triplet...
Then USSR broke into pieces and after that only USA remained the sole super power. Vinodh lost his popularity and power and the whole gang thing was rendered meaningless because there wasn't a need for a gang!
I
