Malvika’s Ramblings

I have many photos from college. Each showing an unruly group of friends pell-mell, over each other and pushing their fingers forward in victory signs.

Or for FC, its a studio shot with the model trying to feel and look gypsy-like or fragile or a wildchild or naughty schoolgirl in diffused yellow spotlight. She is set at all kinds of angles, legs upwards or legs apart, lips pouting as she rests her hand on a jutting pelvis (n (pl pelves) (anat) bony frame with the hipbones and the lower part of the backbone, holding the kidneys, rectum, bladder etc. pelvic/ adj of the ~)

Do you remember those class photos in which no one would flinch?

Solemn occasions when the badge on everyone’s blazer was at the same angle.

The day when all teachers wore sarees.

The only day everybody wore snow white knee length socks. We patted down our hair and folded our hands in front of us, stood upright and awaited the cue.

“Front row, cross your feet right over left”. The photographer would give the class teacher a compliment to catch a genuine smile and blush, and a ‘cheeeese’ later the camera captured 40 moviestar smiles.

And it was only one shot, the copies of which were made available to all the students of class 10 B. Too bad if a certain person had decided to tilt her head and break the military correctness of the snap. So many personalities, identities ironed out. Unless you were an insider, you never knew the class truant from the class monitor. This girl never shared her tiffin and that one regaled the class with her imitations of the teachers. This one was the compulsive liar and that one was straight As. The one in the second row would look back at this picture and wonder how she could have been such a frump and this one would look for the best friends she ever had in that picture. And to a stranger they all look as indistinguishable from each other as ever.

Next year, another class, another day, another haircut, the same shot would make a day THE day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 6:30 am and is filed under Random Runaway lines, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.