It was the day that changed my life forever
I was a very very young boy
May be a little taller than someone’s waist line
And I was walking as usual to hunt my prey
A prey who was prepared to listen to me talk and talk and talk
Ahead of me
I found a group of senior school boys circled together
Big tall guys.
Being a small boy
I peeked in
I was more like a rat entering a herd of elephants
I saw them listening intently
to what a bearded black turban covered Punjabi guy was saying
Every time he said something
There was either a chuckle
Or deep sense of interest
And everyone was listening to him
As he was pretty popular
I wondered….
And then I walked away…
The next day as I was passing by the same spot
I found this same guy surrounded again by a group of people
Once again he was talking
And everyone was listening to him.
I wondered again….
I walked away….
Then lightening struck me
Wait a minute - I asked myself
Now why is it
everyone listens to him when he talks
And everyone runs away
when I talk
I decided to find out
I went back
Listened to whatever I could
Standing at a safe distance
As I didn’t want to attract attention.
From then on
Everyday as he kept talking
I went to listen to him speak
While keeping a safe distance.
Why the safe distance you may ask?
Now you have to understand
If you are a 6th standard student
You cannot just go and join the 12th standard students group
Because that was a ‘cool’ thing you had to earn
Those were privileges
Not everyone could be blessed with.
It was only possible to get into this ‘senior group’
May be if you had a brother in the 12th standard class
And you belonged to the 11th standard
May be
Just may be you could sand there
But my problem was I was in the 6th standard
I was really tiny.
And even worse
I had no brother in a bigger class.
As I came to stand there again
This time I didn’t prove so lucky.
As soon as I came to stand there
One guy who used to keep an eye on me
Looked at me
knocked me on my head
And asked me
What the hell you are doing here?
Get out.
I looked at him
Walked off
And in a few minutes, came back
And stood in a different location
Trying to be safe
Without being very obvious.
I guess my disguise was not very effective
As the guy spotted me again
And asked me to get out
I ran off
Only to try again
This time
I thought it was a nice game
I decided to come back again
And have him chase me
But as I came to stand on yet another ‘secret’ spot
Little did I know
He was waiting like a tiger to pounce on me
As soon as I came there
He grabbed me by the hair
And where I thought it was going to be fun
He whispered some word that I guess
Was considered ‘super bad’ for my age
And nearly smashed my face against a near by wall
It hurt
All of a sudden
I realized it was not a game
And he was hurting me even more
I began to cry
The other boys saw him bullying me
And then this guy with the turban and beard
Pulled him off me
And stopped him from hurting me even more
He told me to go away
But as I stood there
Tears and wall dry paint all over my face
I stood there
Not moving
They ignored me after that
But as the bell rang for us to go to our classes
As I picked up my school bag to walk toward my class
He tapped me on the head
And asked me
What I wanted
Happy that he spoke to me
I told him happily
I just wanted to stand there
And listen
I guess he found it flattering and funny
Seeing the new small fan club he had now attracted
So he said
Chal, okay...From tomorrow come there
No one will trouble you.
So it began
For the first time in our school
I was the small one
In a crowd of big guys who was allowed to hear others talk
Though everyone wondered what I was doing there
A indication from the bearded chap
Was enough to let them leave me alone
The would continue their talk
While I would sit wondering what they were talking about
To be honest
Most of things they would
Didn’t make sense
But I would try to pick up whatever I could.
And it became a ritual
Everyday during school
Or during the break
I would come there
And join the big boys.
Little did they know
The one question I was thinking of asking this guy for day
The very reason why I had joined the group….
Which I presume, no one had ever asked him before
Was going to be asked today….
And then as I came to meet them again
I decided to ask him the question.
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