The Marimallappa - files (Prologue)

The Marimallappa - files (Prologue)

For people who never went to school, people who are oblivious, newbies, new born or still born, or not in the Know of what a Marimallapa is, then well ..er...I am one. To be real honest, I never really was one. To me, the pre-jurassic building was more of a "kudre laaya" than a 'world famous in mysore' school. The apparent contribution of the school seemed more towards poultry farming than education itself. . Poultry farming, putball and 44.7% of the world's production of pigeon poo apart, our school did leave an indelible mark in history (apart from the pigeon poo marks, that is). Our school revolutionised SSLC rank production. 20 to 30 ranks a year was no sweat for our head master (He seemed to be given (all) credit for it more than poor sods like Bharath who actually busted their ass over it ). This was, as you can see, a mind boggling phenomenon......not our minds of course.
My first day in this school was somewhat a revelation. You see, I had come from a school where the "ideologies" or the lack of it was quite different (Suda, back me up here). In Marimallapa's though, there was no space for ideologies. In fact, there was no space.Period. The benches were simply amazing I never could deduce how 6 of us could sit together. But this didnt go unnoticed by the ever alert teachers (Sleeping beauty, anyone ?). Pointless punishments were given out regularly where students had to sit on the floor, get out of the class etc. This, I admit, considerably eased the bum-space conundrum. I spent the first few days muttering "You can't be serious". and the rest of the year was spent muttering "What the f**k!??". Of course the f-word was not known yet, but I am sure I would have invented it sitting there anyway. When it comes to the teachers though, I have mixed opinions. One man inspired, some taught and the rest farted. For that one man I am very thankful and glad that I was where I was.......and no it was'nt MNK.
This school had a knack for cracking me up. On the first day, we were given an (dis)orientation speech about how excellent the school was and how they'll help us achieve greatness by getting swashbuckling results in 10th (Nobody seemed to bother that we were 8th grade kids, some of us just out of kindergarten). How I have restrained myself from bursting into small bits with laughter. No I was not being high brow nor was I being "smart" nor did I have a blooming superiority complex (Far from it I think). In the process, I did make a fool of myself. I always woke up either standing outside the class or on the bench. I never seemed to understand the complexities of education; what exactly were you teaching me by asking me to answer a million question papers. Clerical acumen !!?? Now this was painful. Each day in the class was getting as miserable as having a Titan V rocket up my 8th standard arse.
You see, there was a problem. I was a teenager. Teenagers dont need problems, teenage itself is a problem. My teenage years already had me dazed, confused, angered and I had no clue what's goin' on. I didnt need a carbon dated school teaching me half assed tricks. When I looked around, I found myself isolated. For me it looked like I was the only person who did not understand the rituals. Everybody else seemed to nod like it was all known when they were born. I must've been the dumbest lame ass. To add to this chaos, we were the "elite". One logic which I never could believe nor understand nor forgive was the existence of the mighty "B" section. Why should there be a "more equal" class !? How dare they segregate us students like swines !? " This here is our export quality pork, this here is the slightly lower quality and these are the rejects". There has been no body-count on the number of young minds humiliated and crushed.
To make matters no better, this nonsense had spilled even out of the school. You always had guests at home asking " Yenappa ? Yaav schoolu ?". Me: Marimallappa. Guest: Howdaa. yaav sectionnu !? Me : Nimmajji.