I was late to my school. Carrying all the books of class V in my unusually big school bag, I hurriedly entered into the classroom.
I heaved a sigh of relief as the class teacher had not arrived yet.
But my delayed and nervous entry into the class room made my class mates burst into a roaring laughter. A girl-student of my class that day had promptly and sarcastically commented, “Silence friends, in a hurry our class-monitor has come straight from his bed without washing his face. It is not good to laugh at somebody’s problem.” I felt a little insulted and looked at her angrily. But that day my angry looks had turned into great surprise when my eyes detected an extremely cute girl sitting beside my taunting critic.
That cute girl was obviously a new comer. Her bob-cut hair (the name of that hair style was of course unknown to me at that time), dangling ear rings, a unique t-shirt which did not match our school uniform, all sent waves of some strong hitherto unknown emotions into my whole-being. Something flashed in me. I wanted to be smarter suddenly. I wanted to show my cleverness immediately before that new girl. And I had a rejoinder to the comment, “Oh my dear Grandmother! First tell me why you came here (to the class room) without giving me water to wash my face. “
My reply caused a flicker of smile on that lovely face. Perhaps that smile had first made me understand the dictionary meaning of the word, “Beautiful”. I was invariably a good student but that day I switched to the best in me. Throughout the class I felt extremely energetic, smart and super attentive due to some strange reason. I strongly wanted to talk to that girl. It was irresistible. It became unbearable after two periods in the school. The mere sight of her quickened my heartbeat. At the end of second period when the teacher went to another class, I went near her. She was little bit unprepared for that. I was equally confused but I spoke to her in English only to impress her. Neither was that language my mother-tongue nor I had the slightest ability to speak English. But I spoke because I had to be different from others. I madly wanted to be unique in her eyes. Many things happened in me simultaneously but I was not able to understand what was happening to me.
With the last bell of the school, everyone of my class started capering happily in the joy of freedom and at the thought of home-coming. But I was the only boy who was terribly sad. I was sad because with the end of the school hours, my proximity with the girl was about to end. I felt heavy. The smartness of the class disappeared and I was on the verge of crying. With some deep pain I departed from her and consoled myself that tomorrow at the school time once again I could see her.
In home I was so different. All the time her face appeared before my eyes. I remembered her smile, her bob-cut hairstyle, dangling ear rings, her unique t-shirt, etc. I derived an extra-ordinary elation whenever I thought about her but I failed to understand what I wanted.
In the evening my parents were watching a movie on TV. I never liked movies because most movies would cause me cry. I watched movies only when there was that characteristic Dhisoom…Dhassam (fight) between characters. But that day something different happened to me. I saw a man holding the hand of a woman and slowly and slowly going near her. The woman closed her eyes and the man touched her lips with his lips. Suddenly something electric happened in me. I could suddenly understand the deep bond between the pair. I sat silently with my parents and started watching the movie. In the commercial breaks the name of the movie flashed and I remember the name of that movie was ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’.
In the end of the movie the woman dies and the man also dies but the deep bond in them slowly and slowly entered into my understanding. I took my meal with my father silently. I went to bed but I could not sleep. I thought about that classmate girl and I thought about the strong friendship between the man and woman. I thought and thought and thought and finally wished to have a strong friendship with that girl as I had viewed in the movie.
Next morning in school……….
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