Chapter B
ORIGIN OF THE BROTHERHOOD
3)LIGHTING THE FLAME
2005 aug
I wasn't a topper in my class like dad used to dream, wasn't an idiot like my mom screamed that night seeing my progress card. The house was calm after her storm had settled down. I sat fed up with my twelve years of life on earth hearing mom's opinion that she raised a moron.
Suhra my dear sister was peacefully watching the serial as she had a better number on her card. I felt like killing her with a stretched hand as she has been stealing my show.
'Wait.' My own might spoke to me 'Every dog must have their day.'
I wanted to get up, move the television and watch my favorite movie but I can't since I scored B in maths. Mom would scream out from the kitchen scolding again for the question I didn't attempt in the quarterly exam, hours I went outside to play with mumtaz and of course start narrating the story of her favourite student, Madhavan.
"Sana come here." Dad called me in to his office room spontaneously and I woke up from my strangled thought.
'Looks like his turn has come and I am alone to bear all these.' I grinned without voice.
"Angel, you look so disturbed. Come sit on my lap." He asked widening his merciful eyes.
I was relieved that at least he had no plan to scold me at the top voice.
"Sorry pa. I couldn't do well." I spoke bringing all innocence over my face.
"That's alright. Have you ever thought why you don't do well always?"
"No dad."
"Think.Because we never enjoyed exploring new things. When you do that, you won't feel disappointed."
"Dad I am trying my best. I am not that intelligent to top the order." I justified myself.
"You are lying. If you were,you won't have survived ICSE syllabus till fifth. Look it is the toughest among all." He smiled. That made me think retrospectively.
Yes I bought good results before our school changed their syllabus. I became lazy when my books thinned and exams become liberal.
"Are you in a mood to listen to a story?" He asked interrupting my thoughts.
"Of course I would love to." It has been years I sat on his lap listening to his wonderful stories.
"A boy was born to a happily married couple after years. He was smart, heathy that he acquired all his milestones earlier than everyone could expect. To say he started walking at an age of 7 months."
"Dad, when did I?" I couldn't suppress my anxiety to compare.
"Usually a kid start taking steps after 9 months,even you did. At the age of three he met with an accident. The shock of that abuse turned him dumb, he started having tinnitus and started to show unexplained fear when people were around him. His family initially thought he was mentally unwell and consulted a psychiatrist after knocking every possible medical practitioner.
Months of therapy helped him to gain back his voice but the unknown whisper which he heard remained a standing problem.
He couldn't manage when people are around. He says he hear the ghosts speaking to him and he can't see them.
The whole family was depressed by this issue. He was put out of his KG classes telling he wasn't sound. He was put in home for a year until his sister who was a teacher found a solution.
She started training him to manage his ghosts. She thought him to focus on simple things as complex things were going around. It was difficult at first but loud surroundings often suppressed the unknown whispers. Kid had a huge urge to know new things, ask doubts, raise questions against those which aren't palatable.
She prepared him for two years for an exam which would get him entry to the best school in their town.
She taught him how to ignore unnecessary so by apprising the necessary drives for knowledge. What she did was making him read aloud, louder than the whispers he heard.
She succeeded in getting him through but still he lacked the pace to catch up with his pears. He needed pure solitude to learn. Anything worse used to make him disturbed. People often made fun of him calling him moron. But he wasn't willing to give up.
He had a determination to learn things his mind always found difficult. He fought with his mind and succeeded one day. The same friends, teachers and family who graded him as a regressed were shocked to see his change. He built up a fashion of try learning what is most difficult and it grew in to a hunger.
Can you guess who this boy would be?" Dad asked winding up his advisory story ultimately. I knew he was trying to motivate me but things went reverse in mine.
"Albert Einstein." I replied proudly as I had heard he wasn't a good student in school.
"Good guess, but Einstein wasn't afraid of ghosts. The boy I mentioned is of your age now. He still have the Crowd fear, unexplained tinnitus and lot other problems, but still manages to do well in studies.
Your mother use his name a hundred time before you all." Finally I could get the name of that rascal who always spoil my holidays.
'Madhavan' mom was fascinated by his name. When I go out to play she says "Sit and study like him." When I come with B grade she says he scored an A in all subjects. When I didn't qualify for USS exam she narrated how he bought laurels to her school. More over I was fed up with that name.
"Go sell me to some one and adopt him." Once I screamed to her when she refused to pay me for an excursion.
"Can't you do better than him?" dad asked.
"Dad you said I didn't walk like him in my 7 th month. He is different how can I be like him?"
"There is another boy whom you might be seeing frequently. Both his limbs were nonfunctional from birth. He knows he can't run around and enjoy like you guys. Even his hands were weak but he didn't surrender himself.
He does his schooling from yours and at the same time is a reknown artist by your age.
Don't you remember? I took you to his exhibition we conducted at V K community hall." spontaneously I realised he was talking about Kalidas who usually help me drawing pictures for my projects.
He is such a sweet boy and I loved spending time with him. Many time I feel sorry seeing him riding in his self made wooden wheels which is inches off the ground.
He has made a hand pedal to move around in it. I felt proud to hear his adventurous life to be the fittest.
"Haven't you heard about Stephen Hawkins?" He asked me again.
"Yes the scientist on wheel chair who unveiled secret inside a black hole." I replied proudly. "Don't you see him in your friend?"
"May be one time he would become popular like him. I pray for it." I was getting in to serious thoughts meanwhile
"Don't you feel doing inspiring things like him?"
"Yes, but how can I when I can't draw well. " However I had my silly excuse.
"Haven't you met your school leader Latika vishwanath. Isn't she a beautiful dancer?" He shifted to his next character.
"She lost her parents at a very small age and was left in father Aeso ausep's orphanage at mariyapuram. She has got a stammering as well. Still she managed to get 'The best performer' in state youth festival grabbing first in speech as well as mono act." Image of our lovely senior startled before my eyes.
We have heard that most of the boys in her class and senior classes were behind her for proposing. Each girl in my class aspire to be like her in looks and talents.
"Don't you feel inspired watching her?" he asked again.
"Yes, I think I look better than her but I can't dance like her." I replied.
"Agreed, Now tell me what you can do well? Speak from your genuine retrospection."
I was shocked that I never thought about it before.
'What do I do better?' It took a while to arrive at some conclusion. "I used to study well,I agree. I can sing better and even do speeches." I finally realised my position. I decided I should work on my gifts rather than crying because of idiots like Suhra and Madhu.
"What have you done to replenish your talents?" He put me the next, I sat further confused.
"These kids despite of their limitations have realised the flame within them.
But my daughter despite of enjoying all that they don't have, doesn't find time to think." That was the moment my Buddha got enlightment for a while.
She got out of her kingdom, in the same dress she wore, leaving all earthly pleasure behind and walked out to play with her bestie Mumtaz.
Life is that simple it's our maturity that makes it complex.
********To be continued *********
