This is a story of a very ordinary boy. Everything about this boy is so ordinary that the term ordinary itself will lose all its meaning. I advise the readers to proceed no further if they are expecting something magical. I will assure you that the boy is as far away from extraordinary as a fool is from cognizance.
The world came into existence into the tiny eyes of this boy on the 7th of September 1988. His mind was flooded with pictures, bizarre and mystical. Before that all he knew was the shade of red and some muffled noises (inside his mothers womb that is...). He was revealed to three set of intent eyes, three sets of eager ears and two mouths and a green patch for a mouth to be precise and a pinch of pain from the holder of the green patch. He started crying. His bellows were heard throughout the small nursing home in palayamkottai, in the remote part of the district of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, in the land of mystics and mystery - India. He was conferred with the name bestowed to lord Hanuman on the successful revival of Lord Laxman with Sanjivani herb (Epic of Ramayan). This was because of the procession of monkeys from the house to the nursing home and the monkeys at the window sill of his mother’s room in the nursing home. Well come to think of it this is not just ordinary but ordinary with a twist of superstition.
Well, given his godly birth the boy was expected to be religious but he was as far off from that as human brain trying to achieve full potential. He was unbelievably naughty, I can tell you that. He was a self proclaimed rhinoceros. His mind would be so active searching for his next prey. His grandmother had to buy slippers every week, grandfather replace his glasses every month, mother a new set of utensils every quarter of a year and father, had to clean up the mess with involved every field from electrical to plumbing. This continued for three, grueling (for his caretakers) and fun-filled (for him) years. Then he was introduced to another member of his family. A baby girl so fat and chubby, you could replace the sofa for next to nothing and what a good replacement it would be. Well there was a hiatus in his activities but he resumed full operations, once everything was settled. Now he had one more victim to vex. And he did it with such boisterous vigor and might I add he continues to do so till date.
His childhood was short lived like all the good things in the world. His next challenge was his schooling. Well what can I say it was ordinary! He was much into a sport called cricket. He loved it so much that he played every day of the year. He played when it was sunny even when the trees showed fatigue, he played in winter even when the street dogs shivered and hell, he played even on rainy days, when the Indian drains were transformed into full-fledged rivers. The thing he sacrificed to play was his studies. His parents were against this line of thought and coerced him towards the mental activity, which in India is not actually an activity for the brains and rather an activity for the memory, if you get what I mean. But, he refused to change religion. His religion was not studies and he was an iconoclast. Good for him I say…
Then arrived the crucial juncture, of the transition from school to college. This is marked with a very competitive exam. Everybody either chooses Engineering or Medical fields after this point in India. The little genius (do note the sarcasm here) did the same and followed the rat race into Engineering, ordinary though he was. But for that he had to surpass the greatest challenge-the exam. He somehow realized its importance and went full-on with it. He started studying hard as opposed to his philosophy of hardly studying. His sporting hours began to diminish. What could not be accomplished by weather or by parents was accomplished by the infamous Indian education system. Well, not surprising though because he was an ordinary boy. He did qualify for National Institute of Technology in the field of Mechanical Engineering. The institute is second only to Indian Institute of Technology (but he never brags about it).
This is how he became an Engineer. Engineering was a great experience for him. He learnt a lot. He learnt the good effects of alcohol, conversion from a pure vegetarian to a non-vegetarian, and so on and so forth (I dont want to get into the gory details). He learn everything except that which was necessary.But, ordinary as he was he did it with just a first class certification. Here on, began his career with a company. Ordinarily an ordinary boy would have something extra-ordinary about him; but this boy is as ordinary as one can ordinarily get.
At this crucial point I will interject because I was describing his past and have come to the point of his present. I am this ordinary boy. So I will end this in an ordinary manner, which ordinarily is not the case with stories. So, this in the only part of the story, that is not ordinary. The extraordinary part of this ending is that it is not the ending!!!!
It is infact just the beginning because someone great once said; “The purpose of life is to End” and I am still hale and hearty. Someone else who is also great (in my perception all are) has said;”If you try to achieve something from the bottom of your heart, then the whole universe conspires to make that happen”. I believe in this and have embarked upon a mission to achieve a particular goal. It is not just money or fame (who doesn’t want these. Someone who says they don’t actually do and are the biggest hypocrites) but something bigger and would certainly like to share it with you all but not at this exact moment. But until then…………….
No comments:
Post a Comment