The Big League

It was only in class 9 that you actually came in the big league. In class 6, 7 and 8 you' re simply called chotu, which basically meant that no one knew you. These three classes were the lowest laboureres in Sherwoodian society. You were called down the Milman Hall to remove, rearrange or put in the chairs for any function. You were told to carry the tables to the school canteen and you were also 'asked' to carry things down to the gym and then back up after a function.

Coming to class 9 didn't feel like such a big deal, but i don't know why, every batch got screwed by the prefects once they came to class 9. Maybe we tended to fuck around more, people tried cigarettes and drugs more and just got into more random bullshit. For my part, i remember breaking a full, perfect wooden chair to smithereens at ten thirty in the night, with this tough punjabi called Bains. We then threw the pieces of what was once a chair down the mountain (called khud side in Sherwood parlance, khudda in Hindi meaning ditch), behind the boys toilet. It was great fun, an amazing feeling of screwing something and getting away with it, and how. The next day, somehow, the Principal's wife, an english teacher, got wind of some missing chairs. She came in tow with the Deans of Boys and Academics (Mr Kerr and Mr Bisht, respectively) and scrwed the class. Luckily, no one spoke up, many didn't know, those who did, shut up.

Class 9 also showed me one of the worst form of power abuse I ve ever seen. In the evenings we used to have really low voltage, and when you switched off a tube light before dinner, there was a huge chance that it wouldn't light up again after dinner for prep. Obviously, we used to deliberately switch them off, and be content to spend 2nd prep in darkness just chatting away. One evening, we were told to take our books and go upto our dorms. We were specifically instructed to sit on the edge of our beds and study. Now since there were no prefects, many just fell back and slept. I was sleeping too, but luckily they could not see me from the corridor leading up to the dorm. Those who were caught had a very bad time that night. They were thrashed with hockey sticks, slapped, kicked repeatedly, and were made to do haunches for don't know how long. What i do know is that one surd had to go to the infirmary that night and another fellow left school (he returned in class 11, but thats a different matter). These prefects who did that were probably on a power trip or some other shit, but they were at their worst.
There was a huge commotion regarding this incident, mainly because a teacher came to know about it, but nothing was done and the bastards walked away scot free. Those were times which make me think that maybe it's not wise to bestow so much power and authority upon class 12 children.