A Trip to Chentrappinni
Chentrappinni, a small village area in Trissur.
The wheel of time rotates back – 5 years ago. The GOLDEN ERA
Akhil, at that time – wud b hard to believe- entirely different from the one today.
Whom shud I thank fr the changes? Have to give it a thought. Anyways…
It all started with an essay. Was looking fr a reason to bunk a class. Suddenly announcement – “Essay writng competition in Library”. Lol! While running to library, I cudn evn find time to thank God.
Ah! Essay writing … Lolest thing ever. They gave some topic on nuclear weapons. Sat there thinking about India and America. All i could think of was Bill Clinton, A.B.Vajpayee n ICBM(Inter Continental Ballistic MIssile). Thanks to an excerpt from some survey I have read that day morning. Didn think a second time. Started with it! Words came from all around as if it was dictated. Didn know wat i was writing. All that I knew was wen the time was over I had some 9 sheets written in an hour. Now I call that an essay. I was proud of myself to b the person who has taken most number of sheets. Thanks to my writing speed and thanks to that spirit which dictated the whole thing.
I was delighted. Not because I have written long long pages of stories filled in with gas – The same active tense converted to passsive and written as the next sentence – But that I was able to help myself out of a boring Social Science class. No questions tomorrow as I had my excuse in hand.
Two days later the results came out. I was selected to represent the school in essay writing as wellas in Mridangam competitions in the All Kerala CBSE Schools’ Youth Festival (South Zone). That was just a week from then. Cudn even believe wat was happening.
Read through some papers, some relevant news materials, articles n some science and fiction. Gave much preference to mridangam practise. Was studying the same also at that time. Took guidance from my teacher n everything went well n fine.
All Kerala CBSE Schools Youth Festival (South Zone): Bagged third prize in Mridangam n First prize in Essay Writing.
Both were not expected. Was disappointed with the former and thrilled by the latter. The first prize winners were to go to the State Level Youth Festival.
Got really excited. What really started witha class bunking has resulted in a State Level Youth Festival.
Three weeks later.
The State Level Youth Festival was to take place in Sree Narayana Public School, Chentrappinni, Trissur. We were a batch of 50 students represnting our school – I forgot to mention the school name, My beloved school SARASWATHY VIDYALAYA – in the festival.
We set off from our school on one fine morning. All of us together,including three faculties, in a huge bus. There was a lull in the beginning, inside the bus. Later the noise inside became so loud that on the way a policeman had to stop our bus and warn us. In fact, there were two groups formed, one of females n one of males, both trying to win over the other. The girls were more in number n we found that it was an abortive attempt trying to win over them. So we abrogated the challenge there, for the time. We reached Chentrappinni by that evening. Got down of the bus to see a school spread over acres n acres. Three huge stages setup abut the main buildings. The football nets on one side of the ground and a basketball court on the other. Long coconut trees, their head ends touching the clouds – It was a nice eyeful scene to see how well each of the fauna types were protected.
We were allotted two big rooms. One for males and one for females. Females were more in number and so turned out to b good fr us unlike what happened inside the bus. We all went fr a walk around to see the whole campus. Food coupons were distributed and we all had our dinner. I found a place to lie down. Day1 ends. The battle was to begin on Day2.
Day2 morning 9 am.
Essay writing competition started. Topic: “The role of students in building up a new society”. Thought about the topic fr sumtime. A common topic, but spread over a vast area. Started off with Education…
Gita excerpts added flavour :
“Vidyadhanam Sarvadhanath Pradhanam”
“Vidyaya Labhyathe Sarwam
Vidwan Sarvathra Poojyathe”
Finally ended off finishing it in 9 pages again. Thanks to the excerpts and famous sayings. The judges fell for it. Akhil S. emerged as a State level Winner for the first time(probably the last time) in his life. Thanks to the thought of bunking the Social Science class.
We had a girls’ team performing thiruvathira too. The team consisted of Sreeja, Ranjana, Rasmi, Lekshmi Pdmkr, Arya, Amrita. All of them being my classmates. Gokul, with his amazing voice bagged many prizes. And all this contributed to our school ending up in the overall second position.
We left SN Public school by arnd 4 in the evening on the third day. Again we knew that the bus was gonna turn into a battlefield. But this time we were prepapred, prepared to attack. It was real fun, the fight using words and songs. Finally everyone started drooping. We reached our school by late night.
Thinking of my past, I learnt many things – to create friends, to fill joy, to wipe tears, to love, n to b loved, but above all the lesson i learnt is quite valuable:
“Gone are the days which have flown past,
Never to return ever in life,
Its the moment that we live now,
That is cherished for a life-long”
Its hard to realise that the Golden Era has ended. The new reign of the new phase of life has started. And the only thing that urges to move forward is the sweet memories of those Golden times.
This is dedicated to all my friends, whom I am in touch with, whom I have lost touch, and whom i loveth most.
Thank you firends,
Love you all.
PS: I keep bunking classes, with the thought that fortune awaits, and am waiting fr it to knock on my door!
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Tags: Chentrappinni, School life
