Deskmate or Deskhate!

When I was young ( the age of class 3 to 6) sitting next to a boy was a nightmare. Before I went to boarding school, I was in a mixed day-school up to class 6 and most of the time the teachers had the final say when it came to the class sitting arrangement.

Its like they had a mission of mixing us or forcing us (girls and boys)to share even desks! So for the better part of my early school days, I had to sit next to a boy, share my books with him and never be seen outside the class with him.

We rarely spoke to each other and seated 'mixed' beat the whole idea of a deskmate and it became a deskhate! Instead of developing academically, most of us concentrated more on how to make sure you don't rub each other or your book does not touch his desk. If you ask me that was torture but maybe the older students in class 7 and 8 did not have a problem with that.

unfortunately, I never got to that level since I had to go to boarding school maybe I would have found out how mixed sitting was like.

But that was then and this is now or maybe not... I recently bumped into one of my forced-boy-deskmates and all I could say was "You have grown!"

Then he went ahead to remind me how I was 'Allergic' to him! I quickly reminded him that he was also 'Allergic' to me and being the man he is with his ego he defended himself and said that he was scared of -1- me and -2- being branded my boyfriend by the others. That is how awkward it was and I hope never to meet him again.

"Yeah right!" That is all that went through my mind but with time as he reminded me of how life was back then, I realized it was a stage that we had to go through. Liking the opposite sex comes much later in life and maybe the deskhate thing was too much for our age.

Maybe the teachers of today are not so old fashined and would never force their students mix-seat since there is no good coming from it!

Dealing with a familiar-nameless face- Survival tip

In life you meet all sorts of people. As you walk down the streets you see new faces everyday. Some are smiley, others are grumpy others are droopy while others a scrappy or Scooby-do-ish! Once in a while we identify a familiar face from somewhere and the name just clicks while others you just stare at blankly hoping that they have also forgotten yours! Well I have found myself in such a situation and all I do is smile through it all. Well here are some ‘Mish ideas’ that might just come to use when it happens:

When you spot the face smiling at you from far and ignore it and try to pass it absentmindedly. Now if the face says “Hi so and so” now you are in trouble because obviously the face expects you to call t by its name. For ladies maybe you can stumble through it with a “Hi girlfriend” thing or for jamaas you can use the “Niaje Boss or Buda” greeting!

If by chance you are with a friend and you spot the face you can work with the “Hi girlfriend” thing and the when she expects you to introduce her to your friend…ask them to introduce themselves since they can all talk for themselves! And by luck you will get a name for the familiar face!

The easiest way is to start a conversation with the face and pretending that you are old friends from somewhere. The best conversation keeper is asking about how his/her life is, are you in facebook? blablabla!

But the killer one is just passing the face without even showing any familiarity!