ABOUT A BOY

“if you can fill the unforgiving minute, with sixty seconds of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that’s in it; and what’s more you’ll be a man my son.”

- Rudyard Kipling

It came crashing down with a thundering noise and we girls in the back bench couldn’t contain our giggles…our plan had more than worked! It had excelled!

And Thomas sir still thought it was him; he was staring at him very intently almost as if determined to psychokinetically gouge out those extra large, scary eyes.

‘Scary eyes’ was always like this. He wanted to prove to every teacher that whatever they had in store for him, whatever they wanted him to do was bad for him. And he did not hesitate to show it in every which way.

He kept getting pulled up for numerous reasons about thrice every working day. And he didn’t tire of irking the teachers, believe me, his energy seemed to grow by leaps and bounds after every reprimand.

That fateful morning my friends and I up to our usual antics – we made mischief, though not all the time, and not so blatantly, like we were proud of it; there’s a podium that the teachers usually keep their registers and chalk boxes on top of in our classroom. Before the clang we arranged the podium so that it would fall down if a teacher put even a slight bit of his/her weight on it. And from the time the teacher entered we kept our eyes on his movements but he didn’t look like he was even going to touch the podium.

Meanwhile, ‘scary eyes’ was doling out his wisdom to the rest of his clout, how sir was dimwitted and how bored he felt in class, not in the least bothering to keep his voice low. (I’ve asked him many times why he attends classes if he doesn’t want to listen at all, but he looks at me patronizingly as though it’s something beyond my understanding)

He got pulled up by sir, admonished and was called to the front of the class – at that precise moment he chose to start chewing his gum ferociously; (and through some sudden movement on his part, the podium fell) he was told to go to the library if he wasn’t interested in the class, and scary eyes began to stride back to his place to pack his bags. He was somehow forgiven and made to sit in one of the front benches.

It seemed like the most normal day.

After the lunch break, we heard that ‘scary eyes’ was in the principal’s office – he’d been caught taking a girl’s snap with his friend’s camera cell-phone. That evening, outside the college, he was relating to us what had happened, and his voice was filled with mirth when he laughed and bid us goodbye. Apparently, this was the causa causans after everything else he’d done (after a tiff with a classmate, the classmate had bitten him, so he’d beaten him up) and they’d asked him to leave.

-x-

“The frustration born out of futile complaints must be omitted, and if that isn’t possible, you must channelize it in some manner so it doesn’t prove detrimental to your lifestyle.”

Scary eyes reserved gallons of energy in those eyes, which could scare even professors into recession. His gait would force people to create pathways for him.

I can’t put my finger on it; but he had a Hitler like fanaticism about him, which only a few cool heads could get through. He wouldn’t bedazzle you with pearls of wisdom, he didn’t have ‘a way with words’ – but he made an excellent ringleader.

I just had to write this down. If I would ever write a controversial petition, make a dangerous guarantee – his would be the case.

Mainly because he dared to be different in a world wrought out of originality, delved into boredom, populated with clones; because he chose to give himself a voice, a loud one at that, and scary eyes, instead of directing them at his shoes everytime a teacher made against him a causeless accusation. I’m not saying everything he did was utterly sensible and deserved all the plaudits that can be gathered. Rather, I laugh at this hyperactive tendency of his. But still, he had his trademark, and he held on to it.
If I made an appeal, it would look like this, “We always look for opportunities all over wherein we can be the bigger person, magnanimous and condescending – well, here it is. A passionate, directionless soul daring to question your guidance instead of obsequiously accepting it without a whimper. Answer him. Don’t shy away in fear of the fact that you haven’t bothered to find the answers yourself. Give him the respect that he, by all means, does not deserve. You wouldn’t be talking to a boy any longer; you’d be looking at a man.”

‘Scary eyes’ left on Tuesday.