Crazy Things We've Done

*Laughs loudly and reminisces*

It was 7th standard kannada class. We had this huge and immensely complex Kannada lesson on the Mahabharatha. Its contents have always been very vague to me, to this date I do not have a clear picture about what it was on.
But the main character was Abhimanyu, and it involved a chakra of some sorts: a war tactic, some kind of formation the army was made to get into.

Well, anyway, there was a war on in our class as well. It was Girls Vs Boys (snots, they thought they were better than us).

Our Kannada teacher was smart. She got a sense of the whole class war and decided to tap into this energy by dividing the class into a girls team and a boys team, each of which were required to perform the play described in the lesson (with exact dialogues and everything) for our project marks. Thought she'd spur us on to greater heights.
Sadly this was not to be.

I was Karna. That was because I'd begged them to let me have a role that involved no speaking.
Once I was granted this role, I relaxed. There was nothing of great importance that I had to do, I could just wing it. I let the others worry about logistics, and figured they would tell me what I had to do on stage closer to the time.

Unfortunately, we were rather unorganised lot, and so it wasnt surprising that on the day of the play, during short break, we ended up screaming at each other, trying to remember who was supposed to be playing whom. Once I had established the fact that I was Karna, and I had collected the bows and arrows (our only props I think), I sat back and watched as everyone slowly gave up the hope that we could plan the whole thing out in the next five minutes. We decided that we'd just have to go on stage and pray that it would end soon.

Class started. With smug looks, Arun's group ascended the stage. They had gotten themselves gold crowns and cool costumes. At our group no one even knew their dialogues. We watched in horror. I mean, we knew they were going to be better than us, just not this much better.

They finished. Receieved applause and praises from ma'am and glares and rude faces (which they returned) from us.

Then it was time for us to go on stage. I really and truly hadnt the foggiest idea what was going on.
Some kind of fight ensued on stage, and I realised (thanks to a lot of non verbal communication from members of our group who were on the stage), that we were all supposed to be participating in it.

I grabbed a bow and climbed valiantly on. Kalvathy ma'am was NOT amused.
There were at least 5 people on stage I think. I sidled my way over to the extreme left of the stage and attempted to look as if I knew what was going on. I could tell I wasnt very convincing Decided that I'd just finish my part in the play by shooting a couple of arrows, and then make my way off the stage.

Thing is, I didnt know how to use my bow. I experimented a bit on stage, but no way I held it felt right. The string away from me? No. Towards me? How do I shoot the arrow then?
I realised there was no use trying to figure it out right then, so i just limply held the bow, and sort of CHUCKED the arrow at the first person I saw (who was unfortunately fighting for the same side as me).

Kalavathy ma'am was NOT impressed. I could FEEL her glares reaching accross to me. And I chose that unfortunate moment to be plagued by sudden and inexplicable bouts of uncontrollable laughter, so I decide that now would be a good time to die, and get the hell off the stage. So I pretend I've gotten hit, by one of the more efficient arrows that the other side has, and drag myself off the stage, laughing, amidst all the confusion.

You should have seen Kalavathy ma'am's face. Karna wasnt supposed to DIE! Or drag himself off the battle field! Or laugh as death slowly approached him!

The play ended in chaos, with the actors in a confused muddle on the side of the stage. There was no applause, only the shocked faces of the scandalised boys and the angry face of Kalavathy ma'am looming upon us.

Sigh, such an easy win it was for Arun and the boys!
And Kalavathy ma'am, yowch, was she angry! What fiery looks of wrath she gave us!
Argh.
But it was all worth it, I think, for the amount of laughs its given me through the years. :D