N S 1

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 N S The Beginning
SCHOOL’S NEVER BEEN SO COOL
Story & Script Pencils & Inks Colours Letters
Aparna Sundaresan Tarun Kumar Sahu Varda Kumrotkar & Pranay Bendre
Tarun Kumar Sahu
{SIGH} Boarding
schools sound
like so much fun.
I wish I could
Wow! be in one.

I love
the Callory
Towers books!
And all the
other boarding
school series
I have. What
adventures!
OL!
SCHO
BOARDING
WITH JOJO

Ma! Papa!
That night… Please, Eh? Most kids
please, please ask not to be
send me to a sent away.
boarding
school! What are
you on about,
Nadia?

Nothing! I’ve You want to be Shush, Didi*! Ma, Papa,

just realized their around teachers think of the number of
importance. I’d be ALL the time? extra-curricular activities
around teachers all I could do!
the time! I’d learn
so much! And all the
friends I’d have
adventures
with.

*OLDER SISTER
 All the discipline
and responsibilities
I’d learn from living
by myself!
And not
being recognized YES!
as “Shazia’s little
sister”. Or compared
with her all the
time.

You always tell me how important it is to build

character. Won’t a boarding school like, say,
Nilgiri Orchid International School, do that?

All right,
all right!
We’ll think
about it!

If Nadia’s mother ‘thought about

it’, she’d most likely agree.

Meanwhile... So Aadi, now that you’ve

passed to class five,
you will be going to a
new school, NOIS-

What? NOISY
school?

Y-you want to
NOIS. get rid of me?
The boarding
school. Not
noisy!

What have
I done?!
 You know that
It’s not a {Waaah} going to NOIS is a
punishment- family tradition.

{Waaaah}
You don’t love me Even your brother
anymoooore! How could will go there in a You’re
youuuuuu! You’re my few years, when making me liiive
paaareeentsss! he’s old enough. alooone!

Correct. No
I’ll be under a Not horrendous. Jorhu to wait
teacher’s eye all It’ll teach you on you hand
the tiiime! How to be focused. and foot.
horrendous!

And I’ll have to

do allll my chores that Should
by myyseeelf! teach you to be
responsible.
You’re going to NOIS and
that’s final! Your crocodile
Fine!
tears will do you no good.
But I promise
I won’t be happy
there.

Elsewhere...
Did you Yes, me
get the letter, too!
Sahir? I did! We’re both
prefects for
the class five
students!
 Not only will we get
to boss over them…

…but we’ll also

have the power
to make them do
our chores!

You remember
when we were
in class 5?

Yeah, our prefects

were brutal! All those
demanding tasks. And
punishments!

No more! Now
we get to make our
class five runts
run around!
Yeah, and
show them what
it takes to be a
NOISian!

This is going
to be one heck
of a year!

S N

S N

Indeed! Be sure to check out Nadia and Aadi’s adventures as they face off bossy
prefects, scary teachers, unruly rivals, and more in their new school-NOIS!
 N
SCHOOL’S NEVER BEEN SO COOL
S THE TREASURE HUNT
Story & Script
Aparna Sundaresan
Letters
Art
Tarun Kumar Sahu
Pranay Bendre
The first day at Nilgiri Orchid
International School, or NOIS...

Are you sure

you’re ready for
boarding school,
Nadia?

Stop being a
worrywart, ma!
I’ll be fine here.
Plus, it’s student
orientation time,
so let me go.

Finally,
my very own
boarding school
adventure is
about to
begin!

CLASS
So
these are my
classmates.

5
To class 5,
the new NOISians,
welcome. To the
rest, welcome
back!

CLAP
CLAP
Are all the CLAP
class 5 imps here?
And you-crybaby!
Stop bawling your
lungs out! CLAP
{Waaaah}

I want my
mommy!
 As Head Girl and Boy,
we welcome Class 5 with the
traditional NOISian treasure
hunt. This year’s hunt has
been organized by Freya and
Sahir, the class 5 prefects.

That’s right!
Sahir will first split the
class 5S in pairs. Whichever
pair finds the treasure
first, wins the
orchid throphy!

Okay, so {waah} I miss

you can partner my mommy! I want {Ugh}
crybaby aAdi… to go home! Grow up!

Sahir is giving each pair

their first clue. Each clue
is different and will lead
the pair to a unique
location in the school.
There they’ll get their
next clue. Good luck!
Stop being
such a drama
“First stop-where queen! I intend to
books are never a {Ugh} shut win this hunt, So
flop.” That’s got to up already! pull yourself
be the library- together!
{SNIFF}
You wouldn’t
say that if
You your parents
don’t leave abandoned
me tooo! you in a
{Waaaah} school!
{WAAAH}
 Soon, at the library…

Here you go,

kids. The next clue.
Uh, is your friend
all right?

{SNIFF}

Ummm…
he’s just
homesick.

“The resting First

place of the Mommy
staff, where they
relax and have
said... STAFF
a laugh.”

CHEMISTRY
LAB
And then
Oh, Daddy said...
mommy!

...and {waah}
now I’m here! {grr}
{SOB} stop it!

Shut it!

enough! You’re not

holding me back any
Finally… more! That trophy will
have my name on it!
Yes! Our
final location!
Let’s go in, grab
that treasure
and be done
with all
this. CHAN GING
RO OM Hey! A girl in
BO YS our changing Uh-oh…
Uh... you might
want to check room!
the boar- How dare
you enter?!
Out! OUT! Get
out!
 Haha!
out!
Stinky towels and
socks! What fabulous {Argh}
treasure from the boys’ I’m sure
WOOSH changing room! there was a
mistake. Let’s
go tell our
prefects.
H
SWOOS
EEEEEEK!

Hahaha! Look at you!

Nitwits! As if we would
Whaaat?! All the give away our Best
Class 5S stink as Dorm trophy for a
badly as I do! stupid treasure hunt!

So you
set us up to Tradition, imp. A little
be walking ragging* is all part of
trash cans?! tradition. Don’t be so Tradition, huh? Then they
Why? upset, crybaby. should enjoy the smelly sock
I Propped over the trophy.
Their dorm will stink up and
they won’t have a clue! What?!
haha!

haha!

Whoops! What will the prefects and seniors do

once they find out? More on that in the next NOIS!

* A practice of making new students undergo playful or embarrassing tasks

 Welcome to the world of Nadia and Aadi’s adventures as they take on bossy prefects, scary
teachers and unruly rivals while boarding at Nilgiri Orchid International School. Also known as NOIS!

N
SCHOOL’S NEVER BEEN SO COOL
S PARTY ANIMALS
Story & Script
Aparna Sundaresan
Letters
Art
Tarun Kumar Sahu
Pranay Bendre
One night in Nilgiri Orchid
International School (NOIS)…
Get up,
you louts!

I SAID,
GET UP! EEK!

{CRUNCH} Us
seniors are having
a dorm party and SO YOU NITWITS
our music system WILL PROVIDE US
broke down. Enough talk.
WITH MUSIC! I know that, Nadia! You, Thangam,
You imps will sing follow me.
for us. You will be NOW!
{UGH} our music system!
We don’t
have a music
system,
Freya. We What?!
aren’t
allowed
one.

So?
Freya’s
going to make
Thangam sing?
Ridiculous!
 Maybe the senior
girls are tying
Thangam up…
To throw
her out of
the window!

Nadia, can you Can’t hear

hear the seniors? voices… only
foot treads.

They can’t
tolerate her
awful singing
anymore!

Tone down the And keep it down! We

tragedy, guys! don’t want Warden
Rohini hearing us! Pathetic!
Such a horrible
singer!

Oh, you’d be
Nadia, stunned by what
You’re next! you can accomplish
B-but I under pressure!
can’t sing.

Why are
you doing this
to us?
 After you imps messed
about with our Best Dorm
trophy*, you think we’d
spare you?

but... but... enough!

that was...

Thiiis iiislannnnd…
Hurry up and We all want leett’ssss gooo…
start singing. I to dance. feeeel the wiiiinndd…
want to dance!

AAAH!
Oh no.

This one is worse!

My cat howls more I’ll get
melodically! someone
else.

What a useless lot!

Either you sing properly
for us... or fix our
music system!

I can fix Of course. You’re

your music always fiddling
system. around with that
screwdriver
behind your ear.

Rayna! No!

*Aadi snuck a smelly sock into the seniors’ Best

Dorm trophy, which stank up their entire dorm!
wait, this could work.
Just bzzz… bzz…
Soon…

Rayna, are you

coming or what?! sounds like Rayna
fixed their music
system. {SIGH} I
guess they’ll leave Oh, that’s
us alone now. not all.

Is it just me, or is the

music upstairs getting
louder and louder? It IS getting louder!
Thanks for the idea,
Nadia. Quick! Follow
me, all of you!

SENIOR GIRLS
HAVING A DORM
Turn down the volume! PARTY! PRINCIPAL’S
Turn it down! OFFICE, TOMORROW
I can’t! The MORNING!
volume knob
makes it louder,
whichever way I
turn it! Rayna
must have-

Then unplug it!

Before Warden
Rohini hears-

Bet they’d take

that smelly sock
Hehehe!
over this now, eh?
Soon... How-how did you Wait a minute…
imps make it back to Where’s Aadi?!
your dorm?! He was right
what?! behind us!

Joke’s on you, Yesss!

Sahir! We ‘imps’
are smarter
than you think!

Ooh, the warden’s not Meanwhile…

going to be happy when I
tell him one of you is
out of bed.
AAH!

{HUFF} Guys!
{PUFF} Wait!
{HUFF} I’m an
actor, not
{PUFF} an
athlete!

{uff}
stopped
finally.

AA
AA
AH
!
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