Feeling One's Oats

=====================================================

I first read this idiom in Feynman's quirky autobiography dictated to a youngster about one-fourth his age. Feynman did something unusually naughty even for him one day when he was 'feeling his oats'.

I didn't have access then to a Dictionary of Idioms and so guessed that it referred to one of those days we all feel unusually 'uppish': Like the day I rashly decided to get married at 36 with two PF loans running concurrently in 1979 (I had to postpone the wedding by 8 months after engagement till one of these was cleared).

All of a sudden tonight it occurred to me look up Google. Here it is, the official Free Dictionary:

Entry: "Feel one's oats" means 'to be very lively'. Examples: "Careful with that horse. He's feeling his oats today". "Mary was feeling her oats and decided to go out dancing".

For a few weeks after I joined IIT KGP in 1965 as a Junior Faculty, I was asked to stay in the B. C. Roy Hostel dedicated to Research Scholars, many of them FRS (Frustrated Research Scholars). After our weekly 'Special Dinners', a couple of them feel their oats and come out of the Hall which is just across the Main Gate Rickshaw Stand. They would howl "Station Jayegaa?" . The first one in the queue would jump up, get down and pull up saying, "Jayegaa Saab!". Then the naughtier of the two would shout "Jaao, Jaao!" while the other would laugh boisterously. The other Rickshaw chappies would laugh uproariously and there would be bad blood and foul muttering. Then the FRS would give the stricken Rickshaw chap a Tenner and ask him to sit in the back seat, get on to his driving seat, and drive the Rickshawala hither and thither till everyone around feel 'their oats'.

I tried driving a rickshaw once. It is not at all easy. The driving wheel is on one side and it pulls to the left and lands you in a ditch. Requires lots of practice.

One of these FRS went to the US and became a millionaire despite B C Roy. He returned after ten years and did the same thing. Only this time he gave the stricken Rickshawala a Rs. 500 Note.

Since then I was waiting for a day when I would be doing something like that.

When I retired 4.5 years ago, my take-home fell suddenly from Rs. 40K to 13K. It was a shock and landed me in Deep Depression for a while.

4.5 yeas later I was stunned with the TV announcement that my take-home now will be 28.5K. More than doubled in less than 5 years!

That night I was for once feeling my oats.

I saw my son off at the Secunderabad Railway Station at 11 P.M. and came out empty-handed with no baggage. A bevy of autorickshaws tailed me asking me to board. They were all on their way home and were in a hurry. I haggled. Generally they charge 1.5 times the meter rate after 10 P.M. I refused to do that and said I would pay just the meter rate. They asked where I wished to go. When I said Khairatabad, one of them grudgingly agreed (his home was in Chinthal Basthi near ours). I boarded and within 2 minutes asked him to stop saying I would get down. He asked why. I said his meter was doctored and it is showing 1.2 Km when I knew it had run only for 0.5 Km. (I know the entire route like the back of my hand). He turned back and howled at me but I insisted. He calmed down and asked how much I paid usually for the trip. I replied Rs 58. It was no bargain for him and it was he who was feeling cheated. He grumbled and we settled for Rs 60. He shut off the meter and by the time we were on the Tank Bund we got chatting, me sympathizing with the plight of autowallahs in general.

I got down at my place and gave him a Rs 100 crisp note fresh from the ATM and said: "Keep the change and buy sweets for your kid son".

I felt like that Foreign-Returned FRS for once in my lifetime.

=====================================================================================