The Untold Story of Loy's Ability to Talk - Part 4

So that day

When the black bearded turban covered tall guy began talking

I paid close attention

I noticed when he would say something

Everyone would laugh

If not laugh their ears would be glued to him

He somehow said exactly what people wanted to hear.

Or he had some magic in him

That everyone wanted to just hear him

So finally, after a few days of listening to him

Trying to make sense - Which nothing was

I decided to pop the question

So when the bell rang

Signaling for all of us to go back to our classes

Me the 6th standard boy

Followed the 12th standard big guy

As we both walked ahead

I patted him on his arm

And I asked him the big question.

I asked him the question I was dying to ask him since day 1

And I asked him with all honesty

And I felt a great burden lift from my heart

When I asked him this question….

“Why is it that when you talk everyone listens to you

But when I talk everyone tells me to shut up”

He stopped walking

For a second he looked surprised

Not surprised that I asked him this question

But rather the surprised look that said…

Really?

He looked at me

He looked at me strange

And then looking at how sincerely I was asking him the question

He laughed a silly laugh

As if to dismiss my comment

As a childish compliment and fascination towards a senior.

He then patted me on my head

And asked me

As if blushing at the fact

That someone recognized his greatness

Why what happened?

I told him the truth

I poured out my battered soul to him

A soul, a song, a confession

As to my quest to have people to listen to me.

And why it was I came to stand there in the group.

He listened to me

With great interest

And finally he looked at me

And said

Cool.

Meet me during the break.

I agreed.

I couldn’t but get excited at the prospect

That a big 12th standard guy

Was going to meet me

A 6th standard guy.

And share this ‘secret’ secret.

So during the break

With absolute anticipation

And excitement

I ran off to his class

He was sitting down with his buddies

On the desks

Eating their snacks and talking

And as soon as I came in

All the guys burst out with laughter teasing him

Stating his son had come to meet his mother

Brushing their sarcasm aside

He took me with him

With respect and care

And then took me to the place

I least expected to get my answer

He introduced me to the school librarian

A dark tanned south Indian

With a nice round beer belly

Resting nicely on his firm but tight belted trouser

He had a beard dark face with gold rimmed glasses

And a gold watch on one hand

a gold bracelet hanging on the other

And as a matching pair

a gold cross pen in his pocket  

and gold chain hanging around his hair neck

And if that was not enough

He even had lots of gold rings with some gem stoned in each of them.

With chest hairs bursting out of his formal shirt

Making it look more like a carpet of hair covering his entire body

And a upper body frame that was bigger than his lower limbs

He had the look of a gorilla adorned with jewellery

About to entertain guests at a rich mans event.

And as I found out soon

This gorilla was the librarian

And the Punjabi guy was his close friend.

And he introduced me as a special boy

Who should be given special privileges for reading books.

The librarian didn’t seem to mind that request

Because it seemed I was the first one in his 9 years as a librarian

to have such a request

I got a special treatment and access to some nice books.

And I would try my best to read as many as I could every break time.

One day I was suggested why not take a book home.

And I was like REALLY?

I guess I was too young

I didn’t even know I could borrow a book home.

So from that day on wards

I took a book home

Every week from the library

I took them home

Read it as fast as I could

And waited restlessly for the week to pass by

And then took another book

Over here a pretty interesting incident to share.

I would try to read it whenever possible.

But this privilege was only available

When I was ‘not’ studying

(Even during study time I was reading my story books – when no one watched)

That is my free time.

I didn’t have the creativity to know

When or where else to read my precious book

And I hated being disturbed during my free time

One day as I was sitting down with everyone on the table having dinner

My grandma who always compares me to all other children

And gives me 1000 reasons why others are better than me

Informed me in front of everyone on the table

How smart my neighbours kid was

And how dumb I was

She even gave me an example

Seems my neighbour’s boy

would take a book while having breakfast or lunch and read

While he was eating

He was so smart

That he even had to read when eating.

Suddenly it stuck me

Hmm now that’s interesting

So to everyone’s shock

I immediately ran from the table

Which we normally are never allowed to do

Went and got the book from my school bag

I came back

Sat on my chair

Took out my book

And began reading

While eating.

Suddenly there was silence.

No one said a word

Everyone was staring at me

While I quietly ate from my plate

While reading my book

Now the funny bit was

Now no one could shout at me

Because my grandma had just opened her big mouth

And her word had to be honored

And the best part no one knew what I was reading

Because I had covered the book with a brown paper

Making it look like a school text book

So after a few seconds

Really long seconds

Everyone continued to eat quietly

And my grandmother decided to shut her news channel for the day at least

Then that habit of reading while eating stuck on ever since

And moved to reading while waiting

Reading while in the toilet

Reading while studying

Reading before sleeping

Reading before and after everything.

And that in turn resulted from taking one book per week

It became 4 books per week

And soon it became 4 books every 3 to 4 days.

Strangely

As I began to read more

My passion from talking became reading and talking

I began to talk more of what I read

And this in turn

Attracted a new market

Not boys

But girls!

Because the funny thing was

The only ones who loved reading apart from me in the library

Were girls!!!

And though in the beginning boys were making fun of me

Very soon all of them began wondering

How was it I was scoring more points than them

But like they say

Everything has a price to pay

This too had a price to pay

One that has impacted my life to this day.

The untold story of Loy's ability to talk - Part 3

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.

The untold story of Loy's ability to talk - Part 2

I wanted a crowd

I always wanted a crowd

So at a young age

I would think innovative ideas

To get a crowd.

And how hard is it to attract a young crowd – by a youngster?

I would get my 2 AED

Around 66 US cents.

I would keep this weapon with me

And when it was the break

I would  barter this hard cold cash

For a packet of nice hard chips (or crisps as they call it in the west)

And offer to bribe anyone who was ready to listen to me talk

And who would be able to resist

Cheese flavored chips when it was being offered?

No one could.

I would even bring chocolates

And share with anyone willing to listen to me talk

But oh…not the expensive ones.

Those I would never share

For anything in the world.

But there was a problem

The money market didn’t seem to flow so easily

So when the money market stopped

I had to arrange other forms of bribery.

I checked my cupboard.

Nothing interesting.

Until finally, after digging my entire house

I found the most valuable treasure no one could resist.

The army sticker collection.

I began bringing my sticker collection

Which I had collected for months

And I gave it all off

In exchange for a 15 minute of friendship

Strange as it may sound

My brain did work at such a young age.

But like they say

All good things come to an end

My sticker collection also ended.

So did my friends.

Soon I ran out of pencils, pens, sharpners – literally everything.

I was back to square one.

No one wanted to listen to me talk

My mom and dad would always wonder

What in the world was I doing with my stationary.

I just told them

I was careless

I tried every option under the yellow sun

I even tried playing football

And talking and running as they were playing

But that didn’t work.

As I was trying to find the answer to that great question

How could I get a crowd to listen to me….

Surprisingly one day I found the answer

Which changed my life forever.

I wanted a crowd

I always wanted a crowd

So at a young age

I would think innovative ideas

To get a crowd.

And how hard is it to attract a young crowd – by a youngster?

I would get my 2 AED

Around 66 US cents.

I would keep this weapon with me

And when it was the break

I would  barter this hard cold cash

For a packet of nice hard chips (or crisps as they call it in the west)

And offer to bribe anyone who was ready to listen to me talk

And who would be able to resist

Cheese flavored chips when it was being offered?

No one could.

I would even bring chocolates

And share with anyone willing to listen to me talk

But oh…not the expensive ones.

Those I would never share

For anything in the world.

But there was a problem

The money market didn’t seem to flow so easily

So when the money market stopped

I had to arrange other forms of bribery.

I checked my cupboard.

Nothing interesting.

Until finally, after digging my entire house

I found the most valuable treasure no one could resist.

The army sticker collection.

I began bringing my sticker collection

Which I had collected for months

And I gave it all off

In exchange for a 15 minute of friendship

Strange as it may sound

My brain did work at such a young age.

But like they say

All good things come to an end

My sticker collection also ended.

So did my friends.

Soon I ran out of pencils, pens, sharpners – literally everything.

I was back to square one.

No one wanted to listen to me talk

My mom and dad would always wonder

What in the world was I doing with my stationary.

I just told them

I was careless

I tried every option under the yellow sun

I even tried playing football

And talking and running as they were playing

But that didn’t work.

As I was trying to find the answer to that great question

How could I get a crowd to listen to me….

Surprisingly one day I found the answer

Which changed my life forever.