my friends

I just had to tell about my childhood friends who helped me to enjoy the growing up process a memorable one.
Vanaja,the poor one,Panja,the poorest one,Normah,the beautiful one,Salmah,the fatty one,Raju,the coward,Poobalan,the cry face,Krishna,the tailess monkey,and Moorthy,the nerd or 'tiga suku'(he had a history of mental illness even from day one at school). These were my classmates whom i grew up with in that estate school.

And i was 'the Boss' who led this group on the road of a colourful childhood!

We had our own 'friends gang' as did the others. One can join any 'friends gang' just by crossing one's forefinger,a process signifying ripe fruit,to join a group , and if one wanted to leave a gang,one has to cross the little finger with the leader,signifying unripe fruit,and one was free to join whichever desired rival group!

No words were needed,nor explanations sought,but this simple process of crossing selected fingers made or broke a 'friends gang'!

Once one joins a group,he or she was supposed to remain loyal by guarding group secrets,game plans,'war plans' against 'enemy' groups etc..etc...

To become an enemy of these 'friends gangs' one just had to stick out his or her tongue at the rival gang,shout expletives such as,fat pig,orphan dog,cunning cat,coward chicken, and spitting on the ground when one comes in eye contact with the 'enemies'!

We made sure to look out for the the 'enemy's weakness at all times and used it to instill fear in them lest their weakness be revealed publickly!Likewise,we made sure none of our weakness got to them for fear of being ridiculed publicised!

The weaknesses we had to look for were,namely,one's thieving habits,like snatching sweets from the young ones,stealing vegetables from the sundry shop,copying homework from friends,being belt lashed by parents,getting a knock on the head by teachers,getting a taste of the HM's cane,bathing naked in the river, winking at senior girls,writing love notes with spelling mistakes to juniors , acting out scenes from MGR and Shivaji movies ,having a secret girlfriend or boyfriend,and wearing clothes with unnoticed tears and holes at 'prominant' places!etc..etc.. What a wonderful childhood that was! To all my childhood friends,i thank u from the bottom of my heart for making it a memorable one.Wherever u r today,i hope u r as happy as i am today,god bless u all!