He woke up to another dreadful day. There was nothing wrong actually; the sun had risen over the horizon with its trademark golden glow, the sky was a beautiful blue, the birds of the spring were singing and there was an occasional cool breeze blowing too. They say the weather plays a major role in setting the mood for the day. Sameer, a nine year old, was an example of cognitive dissonance. The spring weather always clashed with his final exams, despite the beautiful weather he felt dreadful.
His mother woke him up with the usual thud on his back. Sameer walked to the wash basin rubbing his back, the pain wasn't painful anymore, but it was disturbing. Sameer was very short for a 9 year old; he had to be picked up to reach his tooth brush. He used to take his own time to brush his teeth, but now his mother had taken control.
“Press your teeth together” she commanded. She brushed his teeth, moving the brush over every corner of his mouth. Sameer loved the flavour of his toothpaste, he always wanted to swallow it but he was scared that his mother might slap him for that and so never tried it. His early morning was full of such rigors. Sameer always imagined himself dying while taking a bath or while eating breakfast which he was supposed to but didn't like or maybe because of going to the school. He did not know what dying was; he had seen it on TV. Those who die do not have to go to school and so he came to the conclusion that he will die. But today was a dreadful day, so he will not die today.
“Sameer, go and get your book and start studying”
He walked to his room; he stole a glance at the mirror. He was short and darkand had bunny teeth (he remembers his dad talking about something called braces), his hair was neatly turned towards the right, and to top it off he had a huge pair of glasses mounted on his nose. He was very different to the taller and fair Rachit, his neighbour and class mate.
“Sameer... your book?”
He rushed to his bag and looked for his English class work book. Beads of sweat started flowing from his head when he couldn’t find it. He went through the books again and again and he started sweating profusely. This would only make his bad day worse. Every day the sound of the horn of the school bus was frowned upon by Sameer but today, the school horn meant an escape. He tied his shoe laces and ran towards the door with his bag. The bag was heavy, but his fear was heavier. His feet moved faster than they ever had.
His bus was waiting outside his society gates. He jumped into his bus, and tripped over the last step of the stairs. His knee was bruised. The bus warden, caught hold of him.
“How many times should I be telling you kids not to run in the bus?” she said sternly.
She grabbed Sameer by his shoulder and pulled him up. She saw his knee; it was bruised badly and was bleeding too. She took out the first aid box from the top, and poured an antiseptic over the bruise. She rubbed off the blood and tied a bandage roll on his knee. She pats him on the back
“Sameer, you don’t start behaving like other boys” she said in a soft tone. Sameer was in pain, but he did not want to show it. There was day when he cried in the class and the entire class was calling him a girl because he was crying. He dragged his leg slowly towards the seat he was supposed to sit on. He always wanted to sit near the window, but the big boys had the seats reserved for themselves. Sameer was for once tempted to sit on one of those seats but he was terrified of the big boys and continued walking towards the last row in the bus. He saw Rachit sitting there. He was holding Sameer’s book.
“You have my book?” he asked
“Yes I have your book; my class work was not complete so I took yours”
“But...but I wanted it, to study” he stammered.
“Ok, I have one answer to study, I will study that and then I will give it to you”
“Please give it to me now, I have to study, otherwise my mother will beat me”
Rachit giggled “then do one thing, you have heard that song of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?”
Teenage Mutant Ninja was a cartoon series, where four mutant turtles were the lead characters. Sameer loved watching them, he liked Raphael because he could fight better than others
“Yes, I know the song”
“You know; when I hear that song, and then I can learn faster, so sing it while I study”
“How can you study when the song is on, my father says that we cannot study with the TV on”
“That's for you dumbo, I can study like that, so start singing”
Sameer started singing loudly “teenage mutant ninja turtles....teenage mutant ninja turtles”
“You need to sing faster, otherwise we will reach school”
Sameer became louder and faster. The bus warden heard that and whacked him on the side of his head. The kids in the bus broke into laughter; Sameer tried laughing sheepishly to hide his embarrassment. Rachit gave Sameer his book, while still laughing. Sameer took the book from him and walked hurriedly towards his seat. His knee hurt, but he wanted to hide so he rushed towards his seat. He covered his face with the book, hiding his tears from everyone. He kept wiping his tears but they never stopped.
The bus reached the school on time. Sameer got down the bus the last and dragged himself to his class. The teacher started assembling them for the morning assembly when she noticed the bandage on Sameer’s knee.
“Are you ok?” she asked
Sameer was only breathing heavily, he wanted to say that it hurt; he had gone through a lot of trauma since morning. No words left Sameer’s mouth. The teacher asked Sameer to stay in the class which he did. His tears kept rolling, his knee was hurting and he hadn’t studied either. The test was going to start in a few minutes after the assembly. His mother was very peculiar about Sameer scoring well. Last night his parents had gone to Sameer’s grandparent’s house. They left Sameer with a cousin of his, his cousin was supposed to teach him, but she slept and Sameer spent most of his time watching cartoons.
The assembly was over and the entire class started walking back to the class. The class teacher walked in with the test questions. The class took a couple of minutes to settle down, after which the teacher started distributing the test questions. There was pin drop silence in the class and Sameer had nothing to write in the answer sheet. He tried reading the questions again and again, trying to remember what the answers where but he couldn’t. Sameer looked around him and everyone, even Rachit, was busy writing. Sameer pressed his teeth together, focussed on a question and started saying in a slow tone “Teenage mutant ninja turtles.... Teenage mutant ninja turtles....” His tone and volume kept increasing, he closed his eyes, and became even more louder “Teenage mutant ninja turtles....”, Sameer clenched his teeth and the volume increased even more Teenage mutant ninja turtles....”. Sameer was the centre of attention of the class now. His voice started choking but he kept saying “Teenage mutant ninja turtles....”. When he realized the entire class was watching he pressed his face on the table, and kept shouting “Teenage mutant ninja turtles....”, slowly his voice faded and so did the light for Sameer.
The day was dreadful, he woke up today for his daily rigors, he broke his knee, was beaten by his bus warden and now the test. He did not die, that’s why the day was dreadful.
Footnotes:
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Our school teachers always encouraged us to participate in elocution competitions. I got selected through a preliminary round, ( how the hell did I get selected?) despite having no experience of public speaking. I got a speech written by a senior friend of mine on a piece of small paper. I carried it every where I went, and made sure I remember every word of it.
