CHAPTER-3
Back to school...
I thought, making roads into
the school building. It was almost after two and a half months that I had
entered school again after the summer holidays had finally ended. But the usual
reaction after the vacations end is-"How did they end so fast" and no
one wants to go to even loiter around the school . I had wasted my summer
vacations watching great United matches of the past much like the 1998/99
European cup final against Bayern and also the semis against Juve, the 4-3 game
against City(Shit-ty) in which Michael Owen had scored late and 2008/09
semifinal and final against Barca(0-0 and 1-0 to United) and Chelsea(1-1 and
6-5 on penalties to United )respectively, I played some video games, read some novels
etc. I felt somewhat relieved and still reluctant to come back to school. But I
was still glad to meet my mates again after talking to them only over the phone
or through Facebook. But, the thing I looked at as an achievement was the fact
that I’d completed my Holiday Homework and the irony was that I had not been
able to complete the project we were working on that day . School started at
half past eight but since my mother, who was employed as a receptionist,
arrived at half past seven we had to hop in. Some kids were trying themselves
out at badminton in the court ,only a little amount of population seemed to be
around that early. The School had 3 floors and the ground floor and basement.
There was even a terrace but it served a nominal purpose as no kid was supposed
to go any way near to it . It just goes to show how much the school authorities
cared for us, even if we spoilt the school property. My class was on the third
floor whereas my kid brother's class was on the first. My brother as usually,
stormed off to play badminton without even bidding a proper goodbye. I
continued my monotonous and habitual walk up to the third floor. I turned left
towards the ramp, and started climbing upwards. It gave a clear view of some of
the areas around. Many cars zoomed past on the currently less populated roads,
maybe heading to schools or offices. People were out to stroll around in the
fresh air, even I was always desperate to have some because I had some sort of
a respiratory problem called- Bronchitis...or something like that.
The ground was made of gravel and on the sides
were green colored tiles. The ramp was a sort of a graveled pathway instead of
stairs, it was too damn tiring, especially for me. But it helped increased my
stamina but sometimes I'd wonder that why don't the school authorities open a
Fitness centre titled from “Fat to Fit” on the ramp for people. Just to curb
down obesity problem in an overpopulated country. But the problem in that case
would be that there would be more appliers for the center rather than the
school admission.
Phew
I heaved a sigh of
exhaustion. I almost surprisingly, saw to two kids running past me and almost
clattering into me. How can you run around here on this ultra long ramp way??? The
energy of the two kids reminded me of sprinting around on a football pitch.
Finally, I entered my classroom
and it felt great to see the tampered label of VIII-B stuck on the upper window
of the classroom. It was spotlessly white when I had entered the classroom before our
8th standard classes had begun but you know,there was no shortage of
notorious kids around.
No one was in the class yet,
which was octagonal in shape if seen from the top or seen properly from Google
Earth. I walked into the room, which had windows right in front of us as we
entered and the big blackboard beside the windows. Beneath the blackboard were
the same green colored tiles which ran throughout the school. I dumped my bag
onto the second desk of the middle row ,where I sat with Srijan. Raghav and
Kunal sat behind us ,and never stopped tapping on our shoulders to ask for a
thing or two.
I pulled out my water bottle
and drank some water, panting frantically. Relieved , I once again recalled how
I’d spent my holidays. My eyes fell on the brownish desk and how good I felt on
seeing what was scribbled on it.
It was titled as
-"Unnerving the rivals". I felt good on seeing this. I shifted my
gaze outside, where the huge water tank stood beside the school. I looked at
the old structure which seemingly contained hell lot of water. Several honey
bee combs clung to the lower part of its circular area. Being alone in the
class, I felt kind of bored and lonely by only staring out of the window at the
birds which flew by and hearing to their noisy chirps. The format of a Notice
was scribbled on the black board with the date of 2nd May 2010 which was
actually the last time we had been in the school.
I was still a little upset
just because Barcelona had defeated United in the Champions League final by a
convincing margin of 3 goals to one. Only Wazza (Rooney) had managed to beat
Victor Valdes whereas Pedro, Messi and Villa had beaten VDS (Van der Sar). And
that was the very last game he ever played for us and I couldn't see him retire
as I considered him to be the best goalkeeper even at the age of 40. Minutes
dragged on, leaving me caught in unnatural trances and by that time kids had started
streaming in slowly, almost everyone stopped to remind me of that Barca loss just
because everyone knew how big a United fan I was but this thing was almost embarrassing
for me. I saw a boy resembling a rabbit making his way into the class, I
realized it was Kunal. His two molar teeth stuck out of his mouth reminding me
of a bunny inch perfectly . But the irony was that he didn't tease me about the
final, unlike the non-soccer fans.
He strolled past me silently
and dumped his bag behind my seat. "Have you completed the project?"He
asked in an interrogative tone as if I was in a police custody for a crime I
had not committed. "Well..."I realized I had completely forgotten
about the project." Only...some of it is left to be done but I'm sure I
will complete it today in school" I managed to utter. His expression distorted
a little and he gave me an-"I'M GONNA EAT YOU UP” look."Why the hell
did you forget it?"He asked again." It flew out of my brain just like
Usain Bolt does past his opponents" I said , using a decent piece of
imagery. “Be sure to complete it today or we're gonna get an ostrich egg for our
efforts" he spoke his face wheeling towards the window. Raghav and Srijan were
also spotted entering the classroom, together ,surprisingly because they
weren't into good relations. "Well, it was inevitable..."Srijan said
sounding certain. "Yeah, it was ...never easy to beat 'em" Raghav added
on. I fell utterly silent and was clearly not in any mood to argue regarding
soccer related issues. I pulled out the project file from my bag along with
some pages of the information which was "ought" to be written and
completed today. I also pulled out a trimax pen of course to jot things down.
And set them on the desk, readying myself to finish the project, at last. Ignoring
all three of them, who were busy discussing something I was not cared about,
and they stared at me as if I was a martian.
I opened the project file, searching
for page I had stopped writing from the last time which was almost a month ago.
I only tried to pretend that I had written or attempted to complete it some 2
or 3 days ago. I pulled open my pen and found the page. I glanced at the
information page-"Found in Trinidad , New Zealand and some parts of the Caribbean"
I read out what I had to write. And began scribbling it down on the sheet .I
looked at what I had written, but there was nothing at all written on the
page."Looks like the ink refill has emptied" I said turning towards
Kunal. I demanded some kind of empathy from him, which didn't offer "Then
go to the book shop and purchase a new one" he ordered. I was ready to go
to the bookshop downstairs under overcast conditions only if somebody
accompanied me downstairs to the long walk towards the ground floor. "Will
anybody come with me downstairs?" I asked expecting someone to keep me
company. “Heading for the jugular? Are you ...I am coming" Srijan said,
getting up from his seat beside me. There was nothing new in this ,we used to
take a stroll down the bookshop almost every day with new people.
“I’ve got the money, “he
said taking out a Rs.50 note from his chest pocket.”Let's go-" he said.
And that was how a refill changed everything...
