Gooseberry.. hmmm.. reminds me of soooo mmaanny incidents from my childhood. Well.. long time I remembered those incidents.. I have a biiiggggg smile on my face as I write this story of my past. ;)
Prologue :
“Niveditha this is not expected from you!! YOU!?? How could YOU do this??” Shubha 'maatrushree' was speaking to me, looking into my eyes, disappointed. I had disappointed her. Well, atleast the situation around seemed that way.
“maatrushree... I .. “ I wanted to say I didnt do it. But then changed my mind and said..”I am sorry”
She was very disappointed. She left giving me a punishment to clean the “Go-shala” for the whole next week. I couldnt help. My friends, who seemed to be my enimies to me then were trying hard to stop their laughs. I looked at them with “Look-what-have- you- go- me-into” expression in my eyes and left to my vasati - dormetory.
“Niveditha this is not expected from you!! YOU!?? How could YOU do this??” Shubha 'maatrushree' was speaking to me, looking into my eyes, disappointed. I had disappointed her. Well, atleast the situation around seemed that way.
“maatrushree... I .. “ I wanted to say I didnt do it. But then changed my mind and said..”I am sorry”
She was very disappointed. She left giving me a punishment to clean the “Go-shala” for the whole next week. I couldnt help. My friends, who seemed to be my enimies to me then were trying hard to stop their laughs. I looked at them with “Look-what-have- you- go- me-into” expression in my eyes and left to my vasati - dormetory.
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I studied in a residential school. Its actually unfair to call it a 'SCHOOL'. It was a GURUKULA.
Shubham karoti- maitreyee gurukula in bangalore.Well its still a GURUKULA, in a way that we were taught sanskrit, bhagvadgeeta, vedas, and so many related things. We did yoga, pooja, bhajans, praatah-smarana. We celebrated all the festivals together. We were tought about living with value system.Our lifestyle there depicted the same. Btw it was only girls there. We used to call all the lady teachers as 'Maatrushree', who used to stay with us, and took care like mothers. So the name maatrushree. And all the men teachers as 'Acharya'. Ours was the 3rd batch since the gurukula was started and I was in 7th standard, 'Prajna gana' they called it.
OK ok.. let me not bug you more with my school stuff!! but without this background the story doesnt make sense. So, When I told you about that value system and stuff, one of the values we fallowed STRICTLY was 'Never to pluck any fruit or anything ALONE. Always SHARE AND EAT”. So we were SUPPOSED to never pluck any fruits that were there in the garden, like we had 'anjoor', pomegranate, guava, coconut, papaya, banana, chikku many more and GOOSBERRY ofcourse.
If it was a season or many fruits in the garden, were ASKED to pick them and give it to the kitchen. They would cook something out of it and give it to all.
SO now you can guess what must have happened. Right?? No??
Hmm.. So, in my batch we were only 12 of us and we all were pretty close. Some of them were really naughty. REALLY naughty. Not me!! I was those 'Teachers - favorite' type of student. My friends always picked up the fruits, hide them and ate without our matrushrees getting to know. Gossberriers were all time favorite. They would grab some salt from the kitchen after lunch. Hide it and keep in their bags. In the breaks, or early mornings when no matrushrees will be there around, they would pick big big bunches and hide it in their bags. Eat it every time they wanted. But I.. Not one of them. Not did I ever picked the gooseberry or for the matter any fruits or I stole salt. You see, I was one of those who got things done, WITHOUT doing it myself ;) :P.
I was never till caught while STEALING fruits from trees. But, this was an exception.That day, we had just finished our class. We thought, there were no other classes going on.(Well.. thats what we thought)
My friend vishala, had climbed the gooseberry – to be specific 'rajanelli' tree. It was very bigg and strong. Usually rajanelli trees are not that bigg on which you can climb. But, this one was. I usually would never be in the places of CRIME ( ;) ). but, that day was an exception. I, along with all of my classmates was standing outside and instructing vishala where to look for the bunch of rajanellikaayi.And, then there was this bigg sound. Dhaaabbbb, churu churu... chiri.. dubu dubudubu..
Vishala had fallen!!! he he he.. she had fallen off the tree. We had the goosberry bunches full in our hands. And to our bad luck, there was shubha maatrushree(one of the very STRICT matrushrees) teaching in the nearby kuteera(class room in between these fruit garden made up of tile roofs which resembled the old age kuteeras).
She, along with our juniors came out to see what was the sound. And there vishala was, fallen from the tree, my friends had thrown away the goosberries they had picked. I hadnt. And then, I was caught. And given a punishment to clean the cow shed for the whole week. He he he... can never forget that incident.
Shubham karoti- maitreyee gurukula in bangalore.Well its still a GURUKULA, in a way that we were taught sanskrit, bhagvadgeeta, vedas, and so many related things. We did yoga, pooja, bhajans, praatah-smarana. We celebrated all the festivals together. We were tought about living with value system.Our lifestyle there depicted the same. Btw it was only girls there. We used to call all the lady teachers as 'Maatrushree', who used to stay with us, and took care like mothers. So the name maatrushree. And all the men teachers as 'Acharya'. Ours was the 3rd batch since the gurukula was started and I was in 7th standard, 'Prajna gana' they called it.
OK ok.. let me not bug you more with my school stuff!! but without this background the story doesnt make sense. So, When I told you about that value system and stuff, one of the values we fallowed STRICTLY was 'Never to pluck any fruit or anything ALONE. Always SHARE AND EAT”. So we were SUPPOSED to never pluck any fruits that were there in the garden, like we had 'anjoor', pomegranate, guava, coconut, papaya, banana, chikku many more and GOOSBERRY ofcourse.
If it was a season or many fruits in the garden, were ASKED to pick them and give it to the kitchen. They would cook something out of it and give it to all.
SO now you can guess what must have happened. Right?? No??
Hmm.. So, in my batch we were only 12 of us and we all were pretty close. Some of them were really naughty. REALLY naughty. Not me!! I was those 'Teachers - favorite' type of student. My friends always picked up the fruits, hide them and ate without our matrushrees getting to know. Gossberriers were all time favorite. They would grab some salt from the kitchen after lunch. Hide it and keep in their bags. In the breaks, or early mornings when no matrushrees will be there around, they would pick big big bunches and hide it in their bags. Eat it every time they wanted. But I.. Not one of them. Not did I ever picked the gooseberry or for the matter any fruits or I stole salt. You see, I was one of those who got things done, WITHOUT doing it myself ;) :P.
I was never till caught while STEALING fruits from trees. But, this was an exception.That day, we had just finished our class. We thought, there were no other classes going on.(Well.. thats what we thought)
My friend vishala, had climbed the gooseberry – to be specific 'rajanelli' tree. It was very bigg and strong. Usually rajanelli trees are not that bigg on which you can climb. But, this one was. I usually would never be in the places of CRIME ( ;) ). but, that day was an exception. I, along with all of my classmates was standing outside and instructing vishala where to look for the bunch of rajanellikaayi.And, then there was this bigg sound. Dhaaabbbb, churu churu... chiri.. dubu dubudubu..
Vishala had fallen!!! he he he.. she had fallen off the tree. We had the goosberry bunches full in our hands. And to our bad luck, there was shubha maatrushree(one of the very STRICT matrushrees) teaching in the nearby kuteera(class room in between these fruit garden made up of tile roofs which resembled the old age kuteeras).
She, along with our juniors came out to see what was the sound. And there vishala was, fallen from the tree, my friends had thrown away the goosberries they had picked. I hadnt. And then, I was caught. And given a punishment to clean the cow shed for the whole week. He he he... can never forget that incident.
Epilogue:
After Shobha maatrushree left giving me that punishment, all my friends went to her and told her what actually happened and they also have equal participation in that SINFULL act of stealing goosberries from the tree. So we all shared the same punishment. :) We together clean the cow shed for a week which was worth the punishment he he he :)
Every time I see goosberry I remember this and vishala. Hmmm... long time, didnt meet any of my classmates from school. All busy in their own lives. How strange the world could be more??? No time to meet up people you spend almost your entire childhood with. And there I leave a deep breath. :)
Miss them all. Miss my partners in CRIME and GOOD DEEDS. :)
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P.S : This is written specially for the competition Here
After Shobha maatrushree left giving me that punishment, all my friends went to her and told her what actually happened and they also have equal participation in that SINFULL act of stealing goosberries from the tree. So we all shared the same punishment. :) We together clean the cow shed for a week which was worth the punishment he he he :)
Every time I see goosberry I remember this and vishala. Hmmm... long time, didnt meet any of my classmates from school. All busy in their own lives. How strange the world could be more??? No time to meet up people you spend almost your entire childhood with. And there I leave a deep breath. :)
Miss them all. Miss my partners in CRIME and GOOD DEEDS. :)
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P.S : This is written specially for the competition Here
