Outlook Editor Expelled for Making a Pass at a Girl

This is a kind of headline that is sure to grab a few eyeballs. Had I added a word scoop/exclusive before that, the effect might have been even more sensational (quite like our television news channels).

Excuse the tabloidish headline but that is not entirely untrue. Only that Vinod Mehta was not the editor of Outlook (and was in primary school) when whatever mentioned in the headline happened. A confession in his own words:

I was expelled from Loreto Convent for making a pass at a girl! She wanted to borrow my rubber (that's what we called it then), I asked her to be my girlfriend.

We too called erasers rubbers, because they were made of that stuff and at that age we weren't aware of the other rubbery stuff around. I too was once, actually twice, suspended from school. Could've been expelled too.

The first was when I was in the eighth standard and being the class monitor led a rebellion against a teacher who had made some baseless allegations against a classmate and our class teacher (details in some future post) and the second time on charges of aiding someone bring a fake guardian to meet the principal. That I was a house vice-captain made matters a little worse as I was supposed to be an example for other students.

Though not much damage was done on both occasions, it definitely gave me some tales to narrate to my grandchildren and write some posts on this blog.