Forgotten Days

Quite recently, I received couple of friend requests in my Facebook....one of them was from a person called 'Clara' (name not changed in the interest of larger audience). It took me a while to figure out who is this girl and how do i know her.
The story goes back to my young school days....
It was in grade 6th. Back then, our class teacher used to nominate toppers as class leaders who had authority to keep the class noise free, write down names of mischief students (usually boys) on the blackboard and at times mend the talkative ones using a stick. This girl was our class leader and arch rival of boys. however, I found her intelligent and attractive - one who was first in raising the hand for every question teacher asked and also because she used to be strict and furious with boys.

One day, it so happened that me and some of my friends were playing this game of trump cards (WWF wrestlers pics with their body characteristics printed on a small card...remember ?? ) inside the class while waiting for next teacher.
She noted my name on the board and rest is foregone conclusion....
Today, she is an MBA grad working as HR executive at an MNC.

Another request was from a guy called, Emad Shafi who used to be one of those very naughty boys in the class doing things like never completing homework, sneaking underneath the bench and eating lunch in the middle of the class, coming late from PT classes etc. During tests, sitting right behind me, he used to copy my answers. Poor fellow, little did he know that he is following a bad example...
It worked fine for few months until one day when we both were caught with same answers in humiliating fashion. Last section in question paper i.e Essay (common topics included "Population Explosion in India", "Hazards of Pollution" etc ) played the spoilsport. Back then, our marks for essays used to depend largely on the size of content rather than quality of the content. So our objective used to be fill up the paper with lengthy writeup...
One day I completed all I knew about the topic within 2 paragraphs and I ran out of words to write anymore...while time was running out, I needed a solution to lengthen the content to at least 2 pages. Just then a brilliant idea stuck my mind from a TV programme i used to watch every Saturday called "Ek se badkar ek" in doordarshan. I decided to sneak in some popular hindi songs inside the main body of essay and then concluded it neatly.

I went home jubilant thinking who would have patience to read entire 2 page essay of 60 students. Trouble started because, this boy was copying all my answers....he went on to copy the songs also in essay..
Teacher sensed smoking gun as she hadn't expected shafi to fare so well in test, so when she read his paper carefully...it was all over.
I remember he was asked to read his essay loud in front of class. One of the song was Jackie Shroff's ..
ammaa dekh haan dekh teraa mundaa bigadaa jaa e
bebe dekh haan dekh teraa mundaa bigadaa jaa e
ammaa dekh ammaa dekh dekh dekh dekh teraa mundaa bigadaa jaa e
ammaa dekh

Today, Shafi is managing a electronic store in Dubai. For the first time since I used fb, I realized its potential to connect old forgotten friends and people across the globe.