Me - “I want the corner seat”
Him - “No I want it!”
Me – “You sat there yesterday. Today it is my turn!”
The teacher entered the class. I gave up! I Glared at him and grudgingly occupied the place next to him.
Me – “You are encroaching into my area”
We had drawn a thick line with chalk to divide the area between us. Strictly business! The partition line we had drawn on the “sitting table” had got partly rubbed off and there was a clear chalk piece line on his blue school uniform.
“Okay” he said and moved his butt a few inches
I still envied him, sitting in the corner seat, a seat that was rightfully mine that day and I couldn’t accept defeat simply. The social science teacher continued with her boring class. I pushed his pen down the table and pretended like I did not know how a pen looked like! But he knew how his pen fell down and he was someone who would not accept defeat easily either. He glared at me. I gave an innocent look and started sleeping in the class as usual. After the teacher left the room, he took my pen and threw it down. Now that was situation there! I reached out to the nearest property that was his and threw it down. A book was lying on the floor. He did the same. I saw my pencil box in the air. As a looked at my items (a piece of rubber, one pen with a broken nib, one tiny pencil, one BMW car photo, one shakthiman photo stuck to the inside of the box cover, a roadside pebble that I thought had a unique shape), anger started boiling inside me. I took his pencil box and threw it against the wall. It an impressive move as his things went flying in all directions. A few minute of verbal abuse followed this incident and very easily we had to arrive at a concurrence. If I was the bright one with the sympathy of all the teachers, he was the tough and smart one who knew what should be done and what should not be. We parted with dignity-outwardly. After a lot of contemplation, I took back my contents from the floor. He did the same I guess! He changed his place the very next day. Fortunately, after two months he got shifted to another section! I decided I should never see him.
10 years later..
“Mom! No mood to go to office.”
“So you are taking leave? Can’t you tell this yesterday? I wouldn’t have got up early to prepare your lunch”
“I am going! I cant afford to take leave. I’ll go in bus”
“What kind of a shirt is this? You look like you’ve been unemployed”
“I told you no mood! Can’t search for a better clothing!”
“Atleast comb your hair”
“Mom, forget it, please”
With mom’s love in the lunch box as three boxes of lunch and snacks and an old shirt and unkempt hair, I started to my office that fine morning. I knew I looked like the typical unemployed graduate.
As I was standing on the bus stop I saw a very attractive bike. It was a Yamaha Fazer, a rich blue, with the words “Yes, I’ve got an attitude!” at the rear. I got my bus and it was very crowded as usual. I could not get into it and contented myself by standing on the second foot-board. At the next stop I did the typical “erangi erardhu”. Here again, I saw the blue fazer. He was trying to overtake the bus from left and had to stop as passengers started getting down. As I looked up to see who was riding the bike, I saw someone in a smart t-shirt and nice jeans. He gave me a very strange, curious look and hearing the “double right” I hastily got into the bus. The bus had almost started moving. The fazer man somehow looked very familiar to me. Only when I was nearing the office did I realise who it was! Yes, he was same person who had thrown my pencil box down 10 years ago.
What a bad way to encounter someone whom you had decided never again to see in your life. For a moment I imagined myself running behind him trying to prove that my present situation was not as bad as he had seen me in! I was living a decent life and was studying to get a degree that would be the highest for an academician! That day was just a wrong sample. By the end of the day, my mind had imbibed the incident.
At such a helpless situation, I cheered myself up saying that thing which losers, criminals, those with a vain-attitude would often say.
“What I am going to prove to him. I don’t care a damn about what the world would say! It’s only my attitude about me that counts”
Ennathha senju tholaikkai?!?(What else can one do?!?)
Nice episode of life... Just console yourself that probably he would have been in his bestest moods to go to office... or else even he would have like you only...!! ;)That is all you can do!!!
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