You know how when you're in school one little incident can change things forever? Well, I heard the word "Oklahoma" in a TV programme that I was watching today and my mind went into flashback mode.

But this is not about me. This is about Anoop. He was a big duffer, but also one of the toughest Mallu's in our class, so nobody messed with him. During an English lesson in Class VIII, our teacher Mrs. Shankunni (also a Mallu) asked our boy to read part of a short story set in the background of the early twentieth century oil exploration days in a place called Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now though Anoop didn't have as bad an accent as some of the other Mallu's, it so happened that when he said Oklahoma, it came out as "Awwgla-hawma". Well, you can just imagine the laugh riot that broke out after that ... even Mrs. Shankunni couldn't help herself; poor Anoop was most embarrassed. But soon the whole episode was forgotten - that is until the next day when we were on the football ground. One of the guys was looking for someone to pass the ball to, when somebody shouted "...pass it to Awwgla!!!"

His life was never the same again. Because from that day till the time we finished school 4 years later, he was known only as Awwgla; and I'm pretty sure that those people who didn't know the story presumed Awwgla was in fact the name his parents had given him (many Mallu's have funny names). And no amount of effort (or musclepower) on his part could do anything to change that.

And I was thinking: If we had a class reunion today, I bet every single person present would still call him Awwgla!

... I couldn't help laughing out loud :)

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end