Wonder Years !!

Amidst the hectic life I am living these days, I somehow try to catch an episode or two of Wonder Years which I have downloaded on my laptop. Not surprisingly I have become a huge fan of the show. I had only heard and read about this show earlier, was finally able to catch hold of it now, thanks to broadband internet connection!!

Wonder year seems to have a huge fan following and not undeservingly so. What I liked most about it that the main characters are hardly any heroic sort, you see an episode with a very familiar situation and you expect it to end it a certain way, but it doesn't. Nothing extraordinary happens and I end putting myself in Kevin's or Paul's(and sometime Winnie's too) shoes simply because it is so easy to relate to them. Can I pay a better compliment to the director of the show?

I like Kevin and Paul the most in the show, as their friendship is something which reminds me of my school days, they are just two people living one life, which happens only when one is kid.

Not to mention, Winnie Cooper is the most adorable 12 year old I have seen, so fragile and vulnerable and yet so divine, It's difficult not to fall in love with her. Though when I was in Seventh grade, I hardly thought of girls, I was too busy with my studies, friends and the next episode of Shaktimaan (Just kidding I am not that young ;-)). In fact I thought that this 'thing' is only for IDIOTS. I mean who had money for it. In 9th grade all we cared about is our endless supplies of Samosas & Jalebies and some other things unmentionable in public space. What a fool I was :-)

It’s hard to think about those days and not smile, somehow all the spanking and scolding we got when were kids is all forgotten and all we remember is something we all will cherish throughout our lives.

Running down the boulevards of life, though we hardly find time to catch our breath, we tend to slow down sometime when life permits us and take a look back; what we see at the far end of the road we travelled once is some initial darkness and then we see the growing years, learning years and even formatting years as they have labeled them . We shake ourselves a little and try to see them for what they actually were and it suddenly hits us, though we are all grown up that we always wanted to be and have all the money wads bulging out of our pockets we somehow feel a little pang in our heart for all the years that they were, the innocent, the untouched, the unblemished and peaceful years ;as they aptly call them, they truly were our wonder years. Though we know they will never come back, we’re simply glad that once they were ours and with a wry smile we keep moving on, it’s time to catch the bus to office :-).

When I look back I see many people I’ll always be glad of meeting. Here are some of the protagonists of my "Wonder Years”: (In no particular order)

Suman: My best buddy till 5th grade, he left for Rourkela and since then we never met.He was so fast in writing he always ended up doing my home work too :).

Rana: She was my classmate in Nursery and Kinder Garten, always came first ..a reason good enough for me to remember her and mention her name. By the way I never talked to her (atleast as far I can remember :-)).

Puja: I first got to know her in 2nd grade, remember the girl who will always do her homework in impossibly neat handwriting and also will come first in the class ??....that's her for me.

Ravi Joshi: The small guy who didn't voted for me in 6th grade student council's elections,I never forgave him for that, He was such a dear friend. I stopped talking to him till eternity.(Though we were bickering as usual again after 2 days)

Bharti: He was my friend from 2nd grade and saved me from a bully in 7th grade, I owe him my life for that.

Aashish, Aaditya: The 1st, 2nd rank holders in 6,7,8 . Why are they so important ? I was the only one who came within a striking distance of 10 marks to shake their throne.Gees din't I tried hard for that ?

Aaditya now works in my company and Aashish is currently in Bangalore.

Goldi, Prakash: I had a trio better than DCH(Dil Chahta Hai for the uninitiated) way before it was released.

Goldi is now untraceable and Prakash is in Indian Army these days.

Ekta, Rajni: 2 girls I absolutely adored at school. Why ? They always scored more marks than me. Simple.

There are quite a few notable omissions here, let me keep them inside the warm blankets of my memories.They don't seem to mind.

Stay Beautiful,
Amitabh