Fantastic, by the way, doesn't necessarily have connotations of brilliance or magnificance. All it means is that such event(s) probably won't happen outside a fantasy. My day was fantastic indeed.
Our SS teacher, halfway through class, suddenly informed us that we're not having Chem next; we are, in fact, having her again for History, because she had swapped periods. And I said something like why is she informing us now instead of last week when she'd swapped periods with the teacher quite some time ago. And she's like, "Kannan, stop being rude." Like, what? I'm not going to say anything more in her SS class, impertinent that I am.
During Research Ed, my Tamil teacher (she's my RE mentor too) informed me, almost as some afterthought, that she thinks it better to postpone the orientation camp to Mother Tongue week. Which is when, July? August?
Dammit woman, do you know what an orientation camp is? It is to, you know, ORIENTATE? And we are going to orientate the Sec1s after every major ICC event is over?
"We can make it a language camp," she says, "and we can combine it with the usual Mother Tongue week competitions and make it nice and grand."
You think I care about organising little language games for the sec1s? You seriously think playing charades (once a year for thirty minutes) is going to improve your tamil and make you more culturally aware?
"We can even give prizes for the events like our usual Mother Tongue Week prizes. Romba nalla irukum."
You don't get it, do you? The point is not to make them play games. It's so that they can get to know each other and bond as a club so they can carry out future activities together. It's not so they can delight in the wonders of mock Thanga Vettai.
This is the second time she's postponed the stupid camp. First, she comes to me during Tamil one Thursday and goes, "The camp is next Saturday, how come you haven't prepared anything yet?"
Well, aasiriyai, maybe if you book a date for the camp, and you put it a week from now, maybe you have to give me some sort of hint that I have an impossible deadline. Nothing much, just a hint of some sort. Maybe you don't wait till it's the week before and then tell me. But nevermind, I shall work my butts off and get it done. One week later, on Thursday, she comes and tells me, "Let's not have it this week, let's have it in two weeks."
Okay, fine. I'll rework the programme now that I have a bit more time. I'll assign roles properly and everything. Okay.
And she comes to me today and says she wants to postpone it to Mother Tongue week, which is only a few millenia away.
Why not we have it on Christmas just before I leave for RJ?
"Hey, boy, what's your name?"
"[generic name]"
"Oh hi, I'm Kannan. I was your ICC Chairman this year and in all likelihood, you will never see me again in your natural existence. Have a nice day."
Near the end of RE, I saw Gerald in the library and was talking to him. He told me that for inter-house Track and Field he got into shotput or something. And he also told me that, by the way, I had gotten Triple Jump, Discus, and Javelin. What? I signed up for Shotput, Discus and 3000m. I called up someone from the Exco and found out that wow, they didn't see my name on the list. And maybe I was only the first person to sign up. And maybe I was one of the grand total of three people who signed up for 3000m.
And maybe, just maybe, I've been training like hell for the past two weeks for the 3000m event?
And they blissfully overlook my name. And to fill up the quota of 6 participants (that's the max, and the more participants, the more points a house gets), they assign other random people into 3000m. Like, hello? You are going to have a turnout of two. You simply cannot make people run 3000 bloody metres. It's not like they turn ups for half an hour and throw an iron plate or jump into a sandpit. 3000 metres is a commitment. A seven-and-a-half round, 20 minute commitment. Nobody's going to run 3000m just so the house can get a participation point for their presence.
I don't care if they pulled me out of the damn race. I'm going to run on my own time. I'm going to train on my own and beat the timing of the guy who ends up winning the race. I don't care what his time is, I don't care if he's a tracker, I don't care if he beat the school record. Whatever his timing is, I'm going to match it, and then beat it.
Morrison House can then know what they missed.
kanna wrote at
6:07 PM