The looooong leap

I don't remember when exactly this happened but I guess I was 4-5 years old. It was our karayogam's Sports day and I had to participate for the frog jump competition. I knew that I am no good at this but I agreed to do it when my parents encouraged me. I was really tensed and when I reached the starting point I was feeling as if I would faint any moment. I looked all around for my mom and dad but couldn't locate them as I had lost all my senses and found every object or person before look all the same. A whistle blew and I felt it was blown inside my ears. The competition started. First I thought of getting up and running to somewhere else but then I changed my mind. After some time, I realized that I was at the first position...... but from the last. And moreover, every other participant was way ahead of me. I thought "I won't be the last one to reach the finishing point. I have to reach at least at the third position". I took a firm decision but I knew the task was very close to impossible. I thought about it and finally reached upon a solution. Without thinking much about the practicality of my "PLAN" I sprang into action, realizing I don't have much time to waste and what more.....??? I WON!!!

But I was surprised and actually shocked that instead of awarding the trophy to me, everyone were laughing as they saw me. Few of them even gave me a look as if they wanted to say "WHAT AN IDEA SIRJI" and my uncle, who was our karayogam President at that time, came to me and said "Oh you were wonderful. I never saw such a frog jump all my life". I didn't understand why were all these people teasing me? After all, I had reached the first position from the last.... So what if I had run all the to the finishing point and jumped the last few centimeters to the finishing line? The important part was that I reached and that too first, right?

Hasty tasting

As is the trend of the present, I too joined an entrance class in my 11th grade, TIME coaching center. The classes were during Saturday and Sunday every week, except second Saturday at Greets Academy, Matrubhumi. And as our usual classes, these too were boring and dry and the only freedom from this was the lunch break. I made a few friends right from my first day and we used to have our lunch in a hurry (not really) and go stand in a secluded area near the closed canteen of the school. One day, we noticed that our place was a bit crowded in the morning. Later we realized that the canteen was open and they had a delicious looking items on their menu. We decided to finish our lunch as soon as possible and attack the canteen with our orders. But to my amazement, or rather bewilderment I didn't know a single food name on the menu. One of my friend shared my situation. We both, the unknowns, stood there wondering for long and so the other three came to our rescue. They told us that among all the things on the menu the hot chocolate was the best. So we all decided to have it. We eagerly waited while the lady at the canteen prepared it and the moment we got it, we sipped on it as if we had remained hungry for over a decade. The next thing we knew was all of our eyes were changing into red and our tongues were burning. While we were figuring out what had happened, the bell rang announcing the end of our lunch break and we had more than half glass of the stuff remaining. We hadn't the wish to throw it off for its "monetary value" and neither could we gulp it down because of the "hot" part of it. It was then that one of my friend decided to neglect the temperature of the drink and have it in one sip and when she had completed this "dangerous" act we, the two unknowns, followed suit. The rest brainy people understood that this was not the right decision and threw their glasses into the bin. We all ran back to our class, which was about to begin and sat there fanning our poor tongue and watering it at times. To add to our misfortune, the temperature started going up and obviously now we were feeling hot inside and outside our body. Somehow, we controlled our emotions and waited for the class to get over and by the time it happened, everything was back to normal. The effect of the "hot" chocolate was lessening and we felt much relieved. From that day, we used to turn in the opposite direction if we saw somewhere a board saying "hot chocolate". The only positive result of consuming it was that none of the five of us slept in the afternoon class and were pretending to be attentive while others were lost in their dreams and afternoon naps......

Mistaken appreciation

Once, while I was in my 10th, I guess, I had to travel home alone by private bus. I was not used to travelling alone and that too in private buses as I had always traveled by our school bus. If ever I had to go by private bus, I always went with my family or friends. But this time I had to go alone. I had to take a bus from Tripunitra to Vytilla and another from Vytilla to my home. As I got into the bus from Tripunitra, I was a little scared to take an ST as I had heard how "nicely" the conductors treat students who take an ST. I didn't want to get that, at least not alone so I decided to pay the full charge. That was when a chechi, a college-goer, came and sat beside me. And the best part was that she took an ST. I didn't notice it first. But I noticed it when I heard the conductor praising me. He was telling the chechi "Are you not ashamed? Look at this girl. She is still in school and she pays full charge while you people who go to college take an ST. Hmmm...." That chechi listened with half ear and after he left, she eyed me in a way that I thought she would murder me at any moment. And for the conductor? He behaved as if I was some celebrity. Whenever he came near my seat, he would give me a broad smile as if I had given him a map to find a treasure. I myself felt that I had done something really great even though I had no intentions to do something like that. All along my way home I kept thinking of this incident.