A walk to my birthplace Day 7 (33 Km covered so far)

Sometimes when I look back at some incidents in my life, I wonder whether those are real! Today as I walked 4 more kilometers, something from my childhood popped up in mind. So far, my school friends were the only ones who knew this and after a little hesitation, I decided to share it here.

I studied in one of the reputed schools in Mumbai. This school was known for churning out about more than a dozen students in merit list in the state-board exam every year. Couple of divisions used to be looked upon as possible pool for this merit list and we were supposed to study more. Also, there was a certain behavior expected from us. There were also some kids who used to be sports heroes of the school. These two categories mostly used to be mutually exclusive. Some of the sports heroes used to be dressed in a relative rowdy manner by the school standards – actually nothing much – they used to wear a T-shirt inside the shirt (mostly colored!) and handkerchief around the neck on the playground! I was hugely attracted to this dress-code. In that system, I was supposed to be the studious type and even my personality suited that profile. I was short with a lovely paunch during my school days!

After years of resisting the temptation of that dress-code, one day I made up my mind and dressed up for school. I was in 9^th standard that time. I wore a yellow sleeveless thick T-shirt inside the white shirt. That yellow T-shirt also had red borders - even better. My mother looked at me skeptically and said, “Don’t do this; you sweat like an ice-cube (mothers can be so mean!) – you will feel stuffy”. I simply ignored and confidently marched out. I got some weird looks from my classmates which I accepted as compliments – this is a blessing I am born with – whenever there is any ambiguity about anyone’s reaction, I safely take it as a compliment!  

As the time passed by, my mother’s prediction seem to be perfect. I felt stuffy and miserable and could not take it anymore. When the teacher had given us time to study on our own, I slid under the bench, took off my shirt and then the T-shirt. Just as I was getting ready to put on my shirt I realized how priceless friends are in life. Patiently waiting for me to be perfectly topless, someone shouted, ”Teacher, Yogesh is sitting without shirt under the bench.” I put on my shirt with lightening speed and got up to see teacher shell-shocked! I confidently replied, ”No, he is lying!” The bell rang and thankfully the teacher went away muttering something!!

Why did I do it? I don’t know. But I am aware of this streak in me to try out something new. What does it do to me – well, actually this has been quite beneficial sometimes – I am always ready to try out something new, taking myself completely out of my comfort zone. I quite enjoy it and know when to get out of any trouble just in time!  Some mad traits always help and if nothing else it has given me a joy of sitting topless under the bench in midst of discipline!!!!