Most often we just read about such antics in our favourite books like the hilarious pranks that Fred and George Weasley (from the Harry Potter Books) play on their friends and enemies. Metrolife found that us Muggles are not too far behind in playing pranks.
Says RJ Rohit Barker of 91.9 fm Radio Indigo, “The best pranks are the ones that have the highest element of surprise. I play pranks all the time. Once a friend of mine refused to get out of his apartment so we went to this five star hotel and took away the big blue tubs filled with garbage and knocked on his door. You can imagine what happened next.” But Rohit Barker isn’t the only one playing the pranks. Someone seemed to like his number plate a lot and decided to steal it recently.
“I’d love to give someone a black eye with the punching telescope the Weasley twins invented. That should be a lot of fun. Once on Orkut I wished a friend of mine ‘Happy Birthday’ even though it wasn’t really his birthday and everyone started doing the same and were demanding a treat! I think we all should look out for people’s greatest weakness and exploit it while playing a prank. Otherwise it’s no fun.” says Vivek Madan, a theatre artist.
Vani Mahesh, owner of EasyLib.com recollects, “One of my members is a huge fan of Lord Of The Rings and she thinks that the Potter series has taken all the ideas from LOTR. She’s anti-Potter but her son loves Harry Potter. He and I gave her a real big shock by saying that J K Rowling is planning to write another five novels about Harry. She was so aghast. The whole thing was so funny.”
So, are we all better at taking a joke? Quiz Master, Giri ‘Pick-brain’ Balasubramaniam says, “Kids and adults are a lot more sportive now than they were before. Nowadays kids actually accept jokes and enjoy them. We used to be wary of playing a prank in my times as we all were discomforted by it. If someone played a prank on us it struck us hard.”
Rita (name changed on request), a teacher at a prominent school in Bangalore says, “We teachers always have to put up a stern facade with the students when they’re upto something mischievous but we actually enjoy it. The best pranks are usually the simple ones. Imitation is one of my favourites. Some kids imitate us so well. This hasn’t changed over the years at all.”
Vidya Virkar, owner of the bookstore Strand, says, “I want another series of Potter books. There’s such a joyful nature about the books. Once when I was studying in Cathedrals, Mumbai all of us placed a stink bomb under the chair just before our teacher entered. We were giggling so hard he obviously knew it was us. All these little moments add a fun dimension to life.”
“I love the pranks in the Potter books. Especially in the first book where Hagrid gives Dudley a pig’s tail. That is so hilarious. If I could I would definitely want to become invisible and go around startling people. But I have my own stash of pranks. I have a collection of fake chocolates that I give people here at work and it’s real fun to see their reaction.” says Lemuel Herbert, General Manager of The Park and a huge Harry Potter fan.
We Muggles may not be able to invent Wildfire Whiz-Bangs (magical fire crackers) or hex a sworn enemy with our wands, but we can add a little magic to our lives fooling around with our friends and foes alike.