Rama Falling Out of His Window
From The Extended Group
Spread by Terry as a legendary example of Rama being Rama, Rama Falling Out of His Window is a clear example of the heroification that group members receive for being ridiculous, or, at the least, novel (similar to The Lukas Incident With the Pipebomb).
The Legend-Building Process: What We Think Happened
One day while messing around in his room and having an extended chat with Terry on the phone (presumably about girls, or magic cards) in 8th grade, Rama began making loud noises indicative of effortful physical exertion. Wondering what was going on, Terry repeatedly asked Rama what was the matter, but Rama failed to answer for several minutes. Instead, all Terry heard for that time interval was grunting and the shuffling and shifting of the telephone input with Rama's face and clothes.
Concerned, Terry began yelling into the phone to make sure Rama was okay. When there finally was a response, Rama merely said: "Shut up! Stop yelling! I just fell out of my window." Now, at this point, it is important to note that Rama's window is about 12 vertical feet above his cement driveway, and it seems like a fall of that magnitude taken unprepared would illicit some kind of semi-serious injury or fear response, but Rama seemed relatively unfazed. Instead, once the shuffling and grunting had stopped, Rama resumed the conversation about girls or magic cards or whatever, never mentioning again his fall out of the window.
Incredulous, Terry was taken aback at the ridiculousness of the event. Rama had just fallen out of his window, and instead of taking care of his wounds or being scared or concerned or anything like that, he just kept talking about whatever inconsequential thing they had been talking about before. But, one thing was for sure - this would forever be etched into Terry's brain, and he would subsequently go and basically tell everyone about it. These re-tellings of the events would, of course, illicit huge amounts of laughter, disbelief, and sometimes even outrage. But nonetheless, once word began circulating, the event became much larger than what had actually happened (explained further in this article) and, arguably, became a suberb example of Rama being Rama - a defining anecdote.
What Actually Happened
Rama never really fell out of his window like he said. Rather, he had about half of his upper torso hanging out of his window because he was cleaning the outside. Rama never really took the time to correct Terry's misinterpretation of his words until their senior year of high school. By that point, though, the incorrect story had been circulating for so long that the damage was already done - Rama was already associated with ridiculous and there seems to really be nothing he can do about it.
