Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Double Decker Pencil box

My little cousins(Aged 6 and 7) almost rolled on the floor in a shopping mall asking my aunt for this double decker pencil box which looked hideously green and had a Donald Duck squawking all over. I guess they are in the phase of life, where their social status is determined by the coolness of the pencil box. The more decks it had, the higher you go up in the scale of respect.This double decker pencil box also had a hidden "half decker",if I may say , and guess what, a separate sharpener for crayons as well. There were four tiny buttons which when pressed made secret compartments to pop out. No wonder my cousins grovelled before my aunt to get them one as it would make them as popular and cool as Ajith Kumar and Ilyathalapathy Vijay in their respective classes.

Only in the bill counter, we found that each one was priced at Rs. 300 which was outrageous by any standard. Oh, yes, we had to get each one a separate box, because the concept of sharing would spell death knell to the pencil box. As it was impossible to remove the boxes from their iron clutches, we had to get them.

After toppling a couple of mannequins,my cousins were practically thrown out of this dress shop we went next. After a while we heard a sudden ear splitting scream, only then to realise that the kid had walked through the immaculate glass doors and had smashed his nose. Note that this nose had raised huge concerns in the womenfolk of my family who were desperately waiting for some kind of mass to emerge from his face while he was a baby. Our family is pretty nosy, literally; apart from the fact that we go out of our way to poke our rather big proboscises in all the things unconcerned to us, we also use it to smell food from a kitchens, miles away to fantasise how perfectly it should be cooked. Considering that the nose has played such a big part in our evolutionary adaptation through ages, no wonder a button nose raises a huge concern among the elders of the family. Coming back, the kid hadn't really broken it, but the impact had quite shaken him to remain silent and shocked for a good five minutes. And then, he went back to wailing for a packet of Jelly.

In just two days, my cousins had the double decker boxes; only difference was that the decks were dismantled in to parts. They claimed that the boxes had a little accident. They tried to reason that that they can still use the box, each deck of it, as a sort of open shelf, to store crayons and paper bits.

I simply love the feeling that these days I am not the one who gets the smacks in an outing and there is this pair of destructive siblings who can be instigated to go for each others' throat exclusively for my general entertainment.

I love my cousins; especially when their motto is collateral damage.

11 comments:

Such said...

Childhood treasures are more precious than the Kohinoor diamond; to the kids that is. When I was a kid I used to collect stones. Pebbles of all kinds and shades. I could tell apart igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks when I was six. And guess where I kept them?

I had a tiny blue desk (which I have convinced my parents not to sell, and it's still sitting in my house) which had a table top that could open. It was to store things like pens and pencils and crayons, but I filled it up with rocks.So many of them, that the desk top would refuse to close and I would happily sit on the floor to do my homework.

I had a double decker pencil box too (plastic, 30 rs only) It was kind of long, and me and this friend of mine called Varun would have sword fights with out respective double decker pencil boxes. Mine was shiny pink, his was bright blue.So one day we were unmindfully practising fencing when his blue box knocked my pink one out of my hand, and the next thing I knew, the second deck had broken.

Varun (who was incredibly sweet back then) saw me crying coz my favourite box was broken, and took his box apart and fixed his blue second deck on my pink one, saying a thousand sorries. And for a long time after that, I had a queer double decker box; pink on the outside, with an anamolous blue second deck!

Madman said...

hahaha When I was little I used to be crazy about double decker Dragon Ball Z and pen pencil. I also a cousin kids these days very smart, she never speaks her age. You have really good writing style. I am gonna follow your blog :-)

Madman said...

oops forgot to mention even everyone in my family have quite a big nose and I am no exception. Having a big nose really hurts when it hits something hard :-)

Srivatsan Varadharajan said...

Nice :) I can't remember any favourite pencil boxes, but I do remember my first pen. We were allowed to use pens only from 3rd standard, and as soon as the 2nd standard annual exams were over, I remember driving my mom up the wall till she bought me a pen.

Anonymous said...

hey cool post.. nice humour.. :)

Anonymous said...

You are right about the nose. When I reach home in the evening, as soon as I open my Garage door I would know what is going to be on the table. Yes we have a peculiar nose in our family. Rs 300 for a pencil box (gosh that used to be my monthly expenditures including mess bill in 1986 in REC Trichy). But since their father is a physician, they can afford.

I have to beg my children to break something. Gosh some of my daughter's toys bought in 1998 are in pristine condition. They got it from their mother side Genes I guess. The whole basement is full of toys, accumulated over 12 years.

I keep telling everyone we do not bequeath anything to our children, except the genes.

Anyway your narration is good.

Your Uncle

Rajagopal

RamNarayanS said...

Enna oru villaththanam (or is it villiththanam?) chinna pasangalai un pozhudhu pohkkukku sandai poda vaikkaraththukku. :-) :-)

Tell the truth!!! Did you not meddle and break one of the decks of the double-decker pencil box by using your 'engineer'ed brain

:-) :-) :-)

Uttara Ananthakrishnan said...

@ Venki and Aswini - Thanks! Glad you enjoy it!

@Vatsn- Pens? Obviously

@Mama- You keep comparing everything to 1986 fees structure :) It is 2010!

@RamMmm- I swear! No meddling.. It was too complicated for me to figure the compartments out! :)

Sarath Ramakrishnan said...

Hey , I had one of those double decker boxes when u studied in my 4th class i believe. And trust me, I treasure all of my childhood collectible, so much so that i have got a few pencil boxes with me even now, and I carry a particularly favourite one with a Harry Potter theme to my COLLEGE ;) Who cares what other thinks , its ur wish :D



P/S/ - The bos is a high valued commodity for the Hall Supervisors since it has got a hologram which alternatively shows Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson with a strange quote beneath - ROMANCE !!

Ajoy said...

Was quite bored, sitting in front of computer, typing programs when I suddenly remembered you. Came to ur page, got drifted to my childhood fantacies. Sat a little time, eyes closed, thinking of my childhood in this busy shedule. Thank You & Good Work.

The Thoughtful Philosopher said...

"this pair of destructive siblings who can be instigated to go for each others' throat exclusively for my general entertainment."

You are pure evil. :D