My friend Jagdeep Mann

He would make me want to punch him every day in class.In class 2, it still hadn't dawned on me that girls didnt punch boys and that girls didn't fight back even if she was being pushed to!!So I punched him and saw drops of blood across his face.He had called me a 'Chinese doll' and I still dont know if I understood what was real discrimination back then,but that word triggered anger!We ended up raining blows on each other having lost count of how many punches he got and how many landed on me!Miss Aruna Jamwal, our class teacher and a bit biased towards me(sisters in arms, have you heard of this genre?) walked us to the Principal's office where we were told to call our parents.My mother arrived 10 minutes later than Jagdeep's mother.We both were whisked off home.Mother was silently sobbing to herself and said, she was ashamed to have a daughter who resembled a boy had it not been for my ponytail.

All the while I was counting how mant times I hit Jagdeep and took pleasure in the knowledge that I had hit him more!!

I bumped into Jagdeep in Guwahati airport on my way to Delhi( I was working in the United Nations Organisation) last year and his mother said, " Jagdeep, she was the only girl who ever beat you up!", to which he said, "She wouldnt try it now!!".Jagdeep is a Major in the Indian Army posted in Chandigarh.