The Most Bizarre Project Ever!!!

School life was full of fun, frolic, friends, tests and projects and when it came to projects I was a maverick. I would call my friends daily and talk to them but somehow for strange reasons I would never take their help for project work. It baffles me even now when I think about it. I shifted to a new school when I was 12 yrs old and here they gave a lot of importance to project work which is a very good thing as it diverts a child’s mind from the routine and makes learning more fun. To make it a little more competitive our beloved teachers would also allot some percentage of marks that we could secure in the usual tests to project work. Since I was a new student here, I wasn’t very equipped with how to go about with these projects as my old school was not really into all these things. It was during this time that an incident happened. I would cringe whenever I thought about it in school and college but now when I think about it, I can’t stop laughing my head off. I really proved that I could be a maverick and a very strange one at that.

I was 12yrs old when this happened and we were learning about Civilizations in our History class. You know civilizations like the Aztecs, Mayans, Indus Valley etc. Our History teacher was terror personified to most of us. She was your typical teacher, old with a curt face which was adorned with spectacles, all out to get you if you didn’t do something right. While teaching us about Civilizations she chanced upon a brilliant idea for our project work. She asked us to make a model on any one of the Civilizations. Quite frankly it didn’t bother me much, I thought it was a pretty lame idea back then and I was almost dead sure that she was a sadist and was doing this on purpose to torture us. I didn’t understand the concept of making a model on a civilization, what could we possibly show and what use is it off??? Several questions in my tiny head but no answers to make them go away. Me being a maverick at that time obviously did not take the help of family or friends so much that I didn’t even bother to find out what my friends were doing.

The days were closing in on me and I was least bothered. It fills me with envy when I think of how I was back then. I used to lead such a chilled out life, no tension of anything, totally contrary to the kind of life I lead now. I remember some students discussing about what they would be doing, I didn’t overhear it, they were just too loud. Just a day before the submission of the models, I had a panic attack. I suddenly remembered the teacher’s face, her anger, her wrath, her gaze and it all made me weak in my knees. I did not know what to make and besides it was too late to make anything elaborate and beautiful. At that moment I remembered one very important point from the Indus Valley Civilization. Any guesses??? You are absolutely right, Indus Valley Civilization had an almost impeccable drainage system which was a radical thing back then as it kept the surroundings hygienic and saved people from diseases. I saw the picture of the Drainage system in the History text book and believe me I couldn’t make head or tail of what I saw. This was when I decided that I had to awaken the genius in me and put her to work and fast.

Just a couple of days ago my dad had brought this table fan cum emergency light cum radio and god knows what all was there in that thing. My eyes hovered on the thermocol mould that was used for protecting that multi utility equipment. The thermocol mould had a circular depression towards the left and there were various grooves all around it. I decided that the Big circular depression would be depicted as the ‘Great Bath’ (I’m sorry if I got that wrong, not very strong in History right now) and the other grooves could be depicted as canals and channels. There was one problem, the depression and the grooves were all too neat obviously because it came out of a machine. No one would believe that I did that even in a hundred lives, so I had to make it look more hand carved than machine cut. I took a pen knife and started scraping the edges so that it would look a little shabby but no matter what I did it still screamed ‘I CAME OUT OF A MACHINE’. After the ill luck of trying to make the thermocol look more handmade, I decided upon coloring it. It was a bad idea to even think of coloring it as the paint was just not sticking to the surface, why you may ask, the answer is because I was using water paints. At that time that was the only thing I had and it was too late to buy oil paints as the shops were all closed. So I had a pretty messed up Indus Valley drainage system in front of me and I had to do something to make it look presentable and you won’t believe what I did. I took a transparent blue colored plastic sheet and pinned it on all four sides of the thermocol and my magnum opus was ready. It wasn’t pretty but at least I could sleep in peace.

The D Day had arrived and my class was swarming with students and their models. I saw some fabulous Mayan pyramids and the likes and I was embarrassed as hell. How on earth could I tell people that my model was on the Indus Valley Drainage System. I maintained low profile till the History teacher’s class and the rest was history. She came to my desk and I showed her my work. Her expression was priceless. The Conversation was something to this effect.

Teacher: “What is this??” (Read: What the hell is this crap??)
Me: “Miss, this is a model of the Indus Valley Drainage System.”
Teacher: “How do you know it looks like this?”
Me: “I saw this in a History reference book.” ( Read: It was my imagination at work)
Teacher: “The cuttings are very perfect. How did you get it done?”
Me: “My Uncle helped me out, he is very good at these things.” (Thank God I had the presence of mind to not say it was me)
Teacher (with a disgusted expression) : “I hope you referred to the right books to get this model.” ( I’m sure she had no clue on how it looked like. I really don’t think any text books will have detailed images of the drainage system of any civilization).

She scribbled something on her notepad and walked away to review the next student’s model and I breathed a sigh of relief. Later I got to know that she gave me 2/5 which was a lot better than getting 0/5. When I think about it now, I can’t believe that I came up with something as bizarre and absurd as that. After that incident I was ashamed for a while for being so careless and for not having paid attention and I decided I would not talk to anyone about this. Now when I think of this, it makes me happy. How many people can brag about such memories? Its memories like this that you can think back and laugh about and that is what prompted me to write this post. I always say never underestimate a child’s mind, it’s not as innocent as you think it is. At least mine wasn’t.