Tamil Selvi & I

January 15 2011

Studying in a Co-education school has its advantages and disadvantages too. I studied in one co-education school. During High school, every boy would treat every girl as an enemy. Things will how ever change when we enter higher secondary school ( when we become 15). I was in class 4 then. I hated girls big time. I was even a part of the "We hate girls" gang.

There is a word in Tamil Called "Da". It is similar to "Dude". This word was then used to refer to boys. The female version of this word is "Di". It means " Dudette". No boy would like to be called as "Da" and No girl would prefer being referred to as "Di", because these two words were considered to be derogatory words. There was this girl "Tamil Selvi". She was a bright student. I hated her. She threw a lot of attitude. She would look at boys with a raised eye brow and I hated that. She would make me go mad by calling me "Da".

One day she was constantly using the word "Da" and I could not take it any longer. So I called her "Di" and that made her angry. Soon our verbal fight entered the next phase and we started pinching and slapping each other. No one was there to witness our awesome fight. Hence I took advantage of the situation by pushing her down to the ground and I punched her on her face three times and ran away from the scene and entered the class room. I had a sense of victory and I was happily sitting in the class room when the dreadful incident happened. Tamil Selvi entered the class room and started crying out loud. I was shocked and literally ended up wetting in my short trousers.

Soon Mahalakshmi ma'm (My tuition teacher) dragged me out of the class to the ladies staff room. I have heard that some women disguise themselves as angels. I always saw the angel in Mahalakshmi ma'm. But that day, I saw the devil in the form of Mahalakshmi Ma'm. She caned me with her full strength. It was the worst beating that I had received till that day. After receiving the royal treatment from Mahalakshmi ma'm, I slowly limped back to my classroom. When I entered the classroom, Tamil Selvi welcomed me with a giggle. Her gang of girls started laughing at me. The devil inside me started plotting schemes to take revenge on Tamil Selvi.

The very next moment our gang of boys Senthil, Ramesh, Krishnakumar & Shanmugamani had a group discussion. " This is a shame for the entire Boy community. From now onwards, we should call all girls using the term 'Di'." All the boys nodded their head in agreement. Very soon our enemy list started growing and in No-time, we had Gayathri, Reena, Rafia and Poogodi in our hate list. At least one of these girls would receive punches from us everyday.

We also increased our torture rate by pouring sand inside their lunch boxes, pouring blue ink inside their notebooks, making paper balls by tearing pages from their notebooks, filling their bags with sand, stones and leaves. They would Lodge a complaint against me to Mahalakshmi Ma'm. But due to insufficient proofs and witnesses, I would not be proven guilty. Our gloomy days were turned to joy. The boys started walking with confidence. But our joy did not last long. A new mathematic Ma'm joined our school. Her name was Moly. She was not a devil in disguise. She was the devil herself. I have already written a funny article about my Maths master click here [link]. Same as him this Ma'm is a terror. We were scared of the cane she brought along with her to the classroom. She had another bad habit. When we failed to do our homework or if we failed to answer her questions, she would ask the girls to knock our heads. We hated this particular act. During such instances, we would think that caning was much better than this. More often Tamil Selvi would be chosen to knock our heads. She would give a hard blow to our heads. I have been on the receiving end on many occasions.

Tamil Selvi would be waiting for Moly Ma'm to give her the permission to hit us, and when she gets the opportunity she would complete her task with precision. That gave her happiness. Very soon I was used to that too. It would be painful. But I would not show it outside. One thing I like about Moly Ma'm is that she is not gender biased. When a girl fails to answer a question, I would be automatically chosen to do the honors for them ( I was the only eligible boy for this role because I was the one who was on the receiving end more than any other boy). When such an opportunity knocks my door, I would make sure to knock the daylights out of the head of the girls. One day I got an opportunity to do the tribute for Tamil Selvi. That was the happiest day of my school life. I clenched my fists and kissed my knuckles and knocked her head and the next moment she was on the floor crying. The boys around me were happy and I could see it on their faces. I felt so happy as If I were receiving the Nobel prize.

There were some black sheep among the boys too. When they get an opportunity to hit the girls, they would do it so gentle and the girls liked such boys. They would reciprocate their gratitude by helping those boys in class tests by showing their answer papers to those boys. Then from class 5 to class 10 I attended a boys only school. Then for class 11 and class 12, I came back to the coeducation school in Chennai. I saw Tamil Selvi Once again. I realized that I had done the greatest mistake in my life by hurting her in the past. If only Moly Ma'm had given one more opportunity, I would have also become a Black sheep and would have entered the good books of Tamil Selvi. But that never happened.

During my recent trip to Coimbatore, I met Tamil Selvi in a train with her two kids. She is now the mother of two lovely kids. She told me that she reads my blogs along with her husband. Now this post would be a(n) (un)pleasant surprise for her.