RCEM 61-Group Classroom Antics- continued

17- Mr Silva is called Kota Silva because he is very small made, extremely short and resembles a student when he is surrounded by students. However, in order to show that he is a master, he wears long sleeved white shirts. But, many a time, students mistake him for another boy and even ignore him on the corridors and sometimes unconsciously brush past him, and this considerably disturbs Kota Silva who is suffering from a low self-worth complex.During the interval, students used to hang about outside the library where the newspaper stands are placed. Boys stand and read the newspapers along a line. The corridor along this place becomes a bit narrow because guys are standing while reading the newspapers.Now, Kota Silva used to stand and read the newspapers beside the boys standing alongside him reading their newspapers. When guys who walk the corridor mistakenly brush past Kota Silva, World War III begins!We see Kota Silva in his element flailing out his arms and slapping the boys who brush past him, taking them all by utter surprise and shock! After the guys get this treatment, trying hard to realize why they were assaulted, they get to a side and watch, as realization dawns on them. Then it becomes a sport in watching other victims falling prey to Kota Silva. Other probable victims are watched by the guys who have had the treatment as they come along the corridor, some missing Kota Silva by a centimeter and escaping an assault! Sam is a victim and gets the shock of his life when he sees Kota Silva pounding at him in all fury!17.2There comes a day when a group of guys which includes Sam spot Kota Silva at the far end of the corridor and start to scream, “Ado Kota Silva! Ado Kota Silva!” And in comes Kota Silva bounding at us like a jackal, and the boys take off like hounded deer in the woods towards the hostel and through Royal Primary School premises via the far end gate near its grounds and do the vanishing trick!

18 - Jayasinghe, Peon , this guy Jayasinghe is the peon at the principal’s office. He looks like Cassius, all lean and hungry, scheming to kill Caesar. Dark, gaunt and cadaverous, graying hair, in shirt and sarong and belt. A top graft man! Waiting to make a fast buck from the boys in exchange for ‘taboo’ information which is much sought after by the boys to their advantage. Sort of a low grade espionage type or even a mafia-type soldato! Jayasinghe is the office mole.One time when the boys are coming in to get their leaving certs, they are requested to state their results at the Junior School Certificate exam. Jayasinghe had, for a reasonable fee, tipped off the boys in advance that the JSC results sheets had been destroyed by white ants! The teachers, who assumed that the boys didn’t know about the fate of the results sheets, are now playing it by ear, requesting the boys to come out with their results. All the guys confidently put “passed with honors” in their submissions!18.2This guy Jayasinghe one day bumps into Sam on the corridor, and, as is usual leans towards Sam at an angle of 30-degrees from the vertical, breathing heavily, like an asthma patient in the ICU, into Sam’s shirt pocket, which strangely isn’t opening out! The well laundered shirt is extra starched and the pocket refuses to open! Jayasinghe continues to hiss harder like a prairie rattlesnake, while being amusedly watched by Sam. That used to be Jayasinghe’s tactic, to ascertain the availability and amount of cash, before he strikes a deal!

19- Mr Amarasinghe - takes geography. He is also a musician and is in charge of the College band.One day he overhears Abdul Raoof Moosa calling Navroze as a cabbage.“What was that you called him?”“Cabbage, sir”“What does that mean?”“A friend, sir.”“Friend! Keep standing on the form!” And Abdul spent almost half the period on the form.– Navroze Asgerally.

20 -Major A Rathnathicam - an Army volunteer force member, for some reason Major Rathnathicam was supervising our class.Suddenly we hear someone repeating at intervals, “Ouch!...” “Ouch!...” “Ouch!...”“Who the hell is ouchinng there?” Mr Rathnathicam enquires, and Fazal puts his hand up.“What’s your name?”“Izzadeen, sir.”“What’s your problem?”“Someone threw a galsiyambala seed on me, sir!”“So, you are ouching for that?”“Yes, sir.”“What does your father do?”Fazal now proudly announces with a swank, “He’s a police officer, sir.”“Then why don’t you become a police dog and do some detective work?”***Fazal says that he had bumped into Rat in recent years and related the incident, which Rat simply could not believe he had said such a thing. And he had hugged Fazal with luv. That was great of Rat., such an honorable a man.