Skip to main content

Rewind into the past - the story about the frog's leg...

As soon as I reached home from Office yesterday, Manoj Lal, a friend since School called up. Always the one to take the initiative to get old school buddies reunited, he once again had a surprise in store. He had invited Rajesh Chopra and Vivek Sanyal , both School mates, and wanted to know if I could join...

My mind went back into the past, 32 years ago. The year was 1978. Rajesh and I were the only two students of the class who appeared for the NDA examination to join the 60th course starting July 1978. I was medically rejected, and Rajesh made it. He left School and that was the last time I saw him.

We met up about an hour later, at the restaurant owned by Manoj. We talked about old times, enquired about other friends especially those in the 'fauj'. We also talked about the present and future. About families, children careers - almost everything. There was so much to catch up on in such a short time.

Rajesh now - Colonel Rajesh Chopra - and soon to be called Brigadier Rajesh Chopra, became famously or infamously well known by that one single act that he performed in the Biology lab one day during practicals. And this was to become the folk lore amongst the present School kids as well as Alumni.

Here's what happened.

The class was learning to dissect frogs. One of us who wanted to have fun at Rajesh's cost, challenged him to cut off a frog's leg, put it in his mouth, chew it and basically eat it ! And the bet was for Rs. 10/- a somewhat princely sum thirty years ago. The bet money was obviously collected as contribution from all those who wanted to watch the show. No one was worried about the money going anywhere, because Rajesh wasn't going to eat a frog's leg....

And then - he did it ! He cut off a nice long leg from one frog. The skin had already been removed. And then, to every one's horror, he put the frog's leg in his mouth. While everyone stared at him in shock, he seemed to enjoy biting into the meat, chewing the leg and finally swallowing it..(After all, frog's legs are a delicacy in some parts of the World aren't they ?).

To cut a long and 'sickening' story short, Rajesh walked away with the ten rupees, and his body had some extra protein that day.

Thirty years later, when our classmates reunite and try to jog their memory and recall who Rajesh was, the one clue that works without fail is - "the guy who ate the frog's leg"

And thirty years later, I am still wondering -how did he do it...?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Memories of the 1971 War.....

1. Flight Lt. Vijay Kumar Wahi - 10144 F(P) Vikram Wahi was my class mate in Class V, in 1971. When the Indo-Pak war broke out in December 1971, our Class V final examinations were on. Many 'fauji' families had to grapple with the stress of these exams, with the war as a backdrop. There were two papers each day, and between them, during the break, I remember seeing the Air Force's fighers landing close by at Palam, after a Combat Air Patrol sortie... On the 7th of December, 1971, we - all 10 year olds were busy writing whatever we had crammed, in our answer sheets, when all of a sudden, we noticed some commotion at the back of the classroom. We saw Vikram Wahi, breaking down, and sobbing away inconsolably. We ten year olds did not quite comprehend the problem, and got back to our answer sheets. That was the last we saw of Vikram Wahi. Till this day, I do not know where Vikram went, and where he is. On the 6th of December, Vikram's family received the news t...
12 comments
Read more

Lawless Delhi

So we saw two instances of violence in Delhi the last two days. One resulting in murder and the other related to a police officer actually breaking the law instead of enforcing it. In the first case a young brash teenager was accidentally knocked down by a DTC bus. The resulting road rage was of such extreme proportions and further heightened by instigation by the kid's own mother, that he violently attacked the driver in the most gruesome manner, resulting in his death. The man was in his 40s, head of his family and the bread earner. Obviously, the kid flew into a rage virtually losing his mental balance. His intent therefore was not just to hit but to kill. His actions partly were translated from a thought process that he could teach the victim a lesson, and get away with it, in a Country which is virtually lawless. While he has been arrested, we all know how long it will take our criminal justice system to punish the murderer. In the second instance, a lady scooterist is att...
Post a Comment
Read more

Terror strikes cricket...

Today, cricket lovers, particularly Indian cricket fans sat and watched with a sense of renewed confidence, the Indian team redeem quickly their prestige glory temporarily lost when they lost the '20-20' series against hosts New Zealand. Redemption coming through a good batting innings in the first ODI at Napier, leaving the hosts to chase a very ambitous, if not an impossible target to achieve to secure victory. But early in the morning, this feeling of euphoria was soon replaced by a sense of deep shock, when news came in of the cruel terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team currently touring Pakistan, in Lahore. Six players were injured but are thankfully safe. The unthinkable and the unprecedented has happened. Never before were sportsmen targeted in such a henious manner as this. Questions and concerns that were raised about safety of players who toured Pakistan, have now probably been comprehensively answered. And no Country will be keen on sending their teams to p...
2 comments
Read more