The formidable Urs
Annual sports days were always part of the MCC school curriculum. We were classified into juniors, subjuniors, seniors and the like based solely on our weights. The 110 kilogram Jayachandran was then a measly 38 kilograms and I remember the figures because I being 40 Kilos barely qualified to be a junior, while Jayachandran went into the Sub junior category. Heavier guys like Xavier, tipping the scales at a massive 47 kilograms were seniors. I am now 82 Kgs. How lovely it would be to weigh 40 Kilos now!
It was in the winter of 1979 that the sisters of MCC decided that we should be celebrating the Annual Sports Day in a very professional manner like the opening ceremonies of modern day mega sporting events. There were to be group Hoopla dances and the like and yoga demonstrations. The venerable sisters, one doesn’t know from where, picked up a person called Urs from somewhere in south Karnataka, who was a dark wiry character retired from the Indian Army to train us for the big event.
One day after the school assembly, Urs was introduced and formally took over training. He taught us basic Yogic asanas and there were group drills. There were girls and boys practicing together and even those as uninclined in sporting activities as yours truly, were drafted in. Urs in the real Army tradition, liberally used harsh and bad words when a student didn’t perform to potential. He liberally used the word B*****od to girls and boys without gender bias. He pronounced it in a curious manner saying Baan for Behn. It was all mirth and fun for us boys while the girls giggled and squirmed.
Everything said and done, the annual event was a great success as they say and the time came to bid Urs goodbye. He was to board a bus from Shahabad to Gulbarga and then on to the depths of Kodagu or wherever, one morning in December 1979. There was a road running along the other side of MCC which went on to Gulbarga and we were waiting at the Bus stop, some of us seniors to see Urs off. A tractor with a trailer came chugging up from Shahbad side going towards Gulbarga with a lot of men and women sitting all over the tractor and the trailer. The driver was chugging merrily and when the tractor passed us, one woman who happened to be sitting on the connecting yoke between the tractor and the trailer dropped down between the wheels and the tractor went past. The woman escaped unhurt and got up walking towards the tractor which had stopped in response to the shouting and screaming of the occupants.
Urs was properly agitated and caught hold of the driver “B******d saala, tractor chalata ki helicopter chalata re? Kya be sochta?” he screamed and shook him by the collar. Everyone joined the melee and soon there was a crowd, during which time, the bus to Gulbarga came and went away without Urs. When the realisation that the bus has gone by, and there was no bus till the next day dawned, Urs abruptly abandoned his militancy, the tractor drove away and we came back to MCC. Urs left alone the next day with no escorts to see him off. The days of excitement were over and MCC went back to its academic ways.
It was in the winter of 1979 that the sisters of MCC decided that we should be celebrating the Annual Sports Day in a very professional manner like the opening ceremonies of modern day mega sporting events. There were to be group Hoopla dances and the like and yoga demonstrations. The venerable sisters, one doesn’t know from where, picked up a person called Urs from somewhere in south Karnataka, who was a dark wiry character retired from the Indian Army to train us for the big event.
One day after the school assembly, Urs was introduced and formally took over training. He taught us basic Yogic asanas and there were group drills. There were girls and boys practicing together and even those as uninclined in sporting activities as yours truly, were drafted in. Urs in the real Army tradition, liberally used harsh and bad words when a student didn’t perform to potential. He liberally used the word B*****od to girls and boys without gender bias. He pronounced it in a curious manner saying Baan for Behn. It was all mirth and fun for us boys while the girls giggled and squirmed.
Everything said and done, the annual event was a great success as they say and the time came to bid Urs goodbye. He was to board a bus from Shahabad to Gulbarga and then on to the depths of Kodagu or wherever, one morning in December 1979. There was a road running along the other side of MCC which went on to Gulbarga and we were waiting at the Bus stop, some of us seniors to see Urs off. A tractor with a trailer came chugging up from Shahbad side going towards Gulbarga with a lot of men and women sitting all over the tractor and the trailer. The driver was chugging merrily and when the tractor passed us, one woman who happened to be sitting on the connecting yoke between the tractor and the trailer dropped down between the wheels and the tractor went past. The woman escaped unhurt and got up walking towards the tractor which had stopped in response to the shouting and screaming of the occupants.
Urs was properly agitated and caught hold of the driver “B******d saala, tractor chalata ki helicopter chalata re? Kya be sochta?” he screamed and shook him by the collar. Everyone joined the melee and soon there was a crowd, during which time, the bus to Gulbarga came and went away without Urs. When the realisation that the bus has gone by, and there was no bus till the next day dawned, Urs abruptly abandoned his militancy, the tractor drove away and we came back to MCC. Urs left alone the next day with no escorts to see him off. The days of excitement were over and MCC went back to its academic ways.
posted by Ramdas Iyer at 9:39 AM
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