I decided that I would not blog today. At least the first piece I write today would not be a blog. So, this is not a blog!

Did you buy that? Well, that was meant to be an April Fool gimmick! Did I manage to fool you? If I didn’t, here are a few instances when I managed to fool others:

I have been a prankster all my life and there is no end to the number of pranks I have played on my unsuspecting victims over the years.

When I was a school boy, the monsoon used to start in March or April and gather steam in May and carry through to August or September. Those days, environmental problems were unheard of.

Once it rained on the April 1^st. It wasn’t just a drizzle. It rained a good two or three inches from the ground. I had just changed the tyres and tubes of my bicycle. So, I had two sets of discarded tyres and tubes with me. I pulled out the tubes, cut of the valve portion of it and ties twines to the tubes and left them at two different places submerged in water.

When the Auntie next door returned after shopping, I waited until she reached the tube nearer to me. Then I pulled it fast. She got scared thinking it was a snake. She turned around and starter running screaming simultaneously: snake, snake, snake….

Then, when she reached the other tube, I started pulling that one. So, she turned around and started running towards the other tube. I pulled them alternately and she kept running between them. Finally, she was so scared that she dropped the vegetables she had bought. That made me let out a loud laugh. She shouted at me asking me why I was laughing. I told her that those were no snakes…that it was just an April Fool prank!

In school, I was equally naughty. I tied a one rupee note with the hair from horse’s tail. The horse’s tail hair is almost invisible. I dropped the note on aisle. Every time a student passed by, he or she would bow and try to pick it up. Just then, I would pull it. They would look at the moving rupee note in disbelief and then bow again to pick it up. Again, I would pull it out of their reach. This would go on till I could no longer hold my laughter!

The Managing Director of the first company I joined was a jolly man. There were two doors to his cabin. One door opened into the main office hall and the other one was a private entry to his cabin. On April Fool day, I pasted a note on each of them saying: This door is under repair…please use the other door.

My boss arrived sharp at 10. He walked through the office corridor. When he reached the door he stopped all of a sudden and read what was written on the note. Then, he turned around and walked up to his private entry. There he found a similar note. Unable to decide what to do, he rushed into my room demanding an explanation for the two notes I had put up. I burst out laughing.

“What’s going on?” He asked.

“Nothing, Sir,” I replied.

“Then, why are you laughing like this?” He asked.

I simply pointed to the date on my pen stand still laughing!