Childhood Treasures

A pencil box, a geometry box and my favorite Hero fountain pen. These were my most prized possessions. Apart from these, Natraj pencils (good for drawing), Apsara pencils (good for writing), a green ink rubber, a sharpener, a blade for sharpening pencils (in case the sharpener did not work) and of course the white pencil rubber. I wouldn’t leave home without these.

Back those days, there were two kinds of students. Ones’ who would bring all the above mentioned items (pencils sharpened, pens filled with ink) and the ones’ whose sole purpose would be to borrow all the above said items. Unfortunately, I belonged to the former category. Most of the time, I ended up begging those students to return my stuff back, only to be labeled – stingy.

I used to do my homework religiously, revise and prepare for the lessons everyday. But somehow it did not translate into marks/ranks after the exams. I remained an average student, despite all my hard work. Strangely, I was never a teacher’s pet either.

I was kind of famous though, in my own right. I never used to talk in class. Not even a single word, unless the teacher asked me to read from my book. Snide remarks were passed, when the teacher asked other students to emulate me. I was labeled as a “dumb boy.” I did not bother because I knew they couldn’t be like me.

My record at school was almost clean, except for a couple of incidents. In the first case, I was sitting next to a very talkative student (who was also my namesake) and was punished because he was making enough noise for both of us. Even the teachers’ were shocked on hearing this. In the second case, I was punished for sneaking an extra textbook copy of a textbook to a student who had forgotten to bring his own, without the teacher’s permission.

I was below average in sports. My parents were very obliging (at that time I was their only kid and was pampered a lot, until my brother came along) and got me a doctor’s certificate declaring my inability to participate, the cause would be somehow different ever year. Funny no one noticed it though.

This would pretty much sum up my childhood in a nutshell. On a second thought, the trend pretty much sums up my life till now.

Damn!

What a waste!

I wish that I was a naughty boy who would forget his homework, borrow stuff from other students, play pranks, get punished a lot, talk in class (especially with the girls), excel in sports, bully other’s.

With the knowledge of knowing what I am now, I wish I could go back in time and change who I was.

I could have been someone else.

But, I guess I will never get to find out.

I also promise that I will not write another post that will contain so many repetitions of the alphabet ‘I’ (29 in all).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!