Mischievous Me #2

Deepa, and I used to be really huge cricket fans back then. Not that it isn’t the case now, but there was that craze at that time, back in the early 90s. Everyday I'd bring a pocket radio (thanks to Mama for that gift) to school to listen to live commentary. We girls would go crazy listening to commentary during breaks and when the teachers weren't listening. There's a lot one can do sitting on the last bench of the class when teacher isn’t paying much attention. It was one of those days when they had the cricket match during the school hours. Fortunately, the match was going to start after the school lunch break so we both had this wildest idea! During the lunch we went over to her place, and got her mom to write separate leave notes for both of us. Goodness, I can not believe her mom actually signed for my mom. What a forgery! YIKES! We were excused from the class at lunch time and got to watch the entire match that day and in fact I still remember India won that match. It was great fun to watch that match! Later on, I realized how bad it was to have someone forge your mother’s signature, that too to ditch classes. That was the first, and last time I ever missed a class to watch a match.

Mischievous Me #1

It was the day when I called a stranger walking on the street "chamchi"। We were just playing outside and the girl who lived next door asked me to call this lady walking on the street "chamchi" and I did without actually knowing what it meant. Then I was laughing. The lady went berserk and started yelling and people started gathering around. Not until my dad came out, found out what was actually happening and slapped me, first time ever I saw stars in the middle of the day. I was so embarrassed, I cried.

Btw, the literal meaning of "chamchi" is small spoon in Gujarati. Also known as "chamcha", additional meanings: small spoon, bag with many partitions for keeping betel leave, tobacco etc.; also sycophant, toady.