The boy was confused, really mind stuck after listening to his sister’s titanic speech about “love”. He was curious to know what was gona happen next. He also thought if he should do anything about this.
And that’s when, in the middle of all this story it was raining “love” outside, yes, it was raining heavily. Well if you have been to Kerala, it still feels like love is in the air when it rains. That’s how you feel when you experience rain in this land, there will be a fresh sweet smell of red mud, drumming sound of thunder, pitch charcoal dark background with lightning-like camera flashes, and if you have a red umbrella plus a girl next to you, it would be a perfect frame finish for a love scene in any mushy movie. But I am sure a third-grade schoolboy wouldn’t have felt the same way I have just narrated rain here.
The boy was haunted by this feeling, so he decided to tell the girl(GF-1) tomorrow at school. He was curious to know if she also felt the same. He slept really well that night, which normally doesn’t happen in other love stories, hmm?
In his normal routine, he got up in the morning, ate the nutritious large breakfast that his mom made with her magical palms.
God, mothers are still the best cooks in the world, they really know what you should eat for breakfast. Missing my mom’s morning tea right now while writing this. That tea was like a high electric energy drink.
The boy was unusually 7mins early to school than his usual arrival time, he went right to his classroom, and laughed, as it was a Friday and none of his buddies have arrived, for a minute he forgot about his GF-1 while he looked around at his beautiful classroom. Wow, was an understatement, the classroom was looking very alive. It had a lot of beautiful pictures hanging around, that’s when he realized that it’s been 7 months in class and he hasn’t ever checked out a single picture, why? How did he miss this? Education can push you to look into one direction only at times!
The boy then stood up and took a stroll inside the class, while browsing through all of this, he came across a crayon drawing. It had a black horse and a red warrior with a sword standing next to it in a brown dry desert. What type of drawing was this and who drew it? It had no name nor a signature, and what was the drawing all about, was this warrior lost?
And a bell rang, he then realized that he was staring at that picture for some time now and that his buddies have reached the classroom and was getting ready for the morning school assembly.
The morning assembly was the best positive way to start off school those days; which was later set as a strategy by the big corporate companies, and they started out a not so positive morning assembly/huddle for the employees which later failed in 2020. When they figured out that, these not so positive early meetings before the start of work actually decreased productivity as the team leaders nor bosses couldn’t/didn’t possess the required positive skills to motivate the employees to kick start their day’s monotonous routine.
But the boy didn’t see GF-1 in class, so he checked for her at the assembly being short she was in the front of his class’s line made in the height order of kids (from shortest in front to tallest at the back). The boy thought that she might be late, so he waited till the assembly was over and to meet her in class. And getting back to class after the teacher coming in, the kids wished her with the boring “Namaste teacher” song. The boy was still unknowingly waiting to see her even after the teacher marking her attendance as absent for the day. He was a bit sad, only a bit sad today.
That day he didn’t talk much to his friends, as for him it ended the way any bit sad movie could, but till the interval, as there was another day coming.
Waiting for someone is an unexplained feeling, it is a color blend of sadness and happiness, it doesn’t have an end, unless and until time stops, it keeps ticking to that moment which decides everything, and once the wait is over, you realize one of these colors, so it’s good to be color blind.
fROM MY verse 27:07:57
The boy was only a bit sad since he had the weapon of hope and the shield of time in hand.
The next day also ended the same way and also the days which came after it. Seven days passed by, now the boy was anxious and wanted to know what happened to the girl(GF-1). All these days he waited for her and actually didn’t had the guts to go around and ask people. But today was not that day, he went up to one of the boys who used to sit behind her, there were other few boys around him. And they were discussing really hard about something. Since their conversation was of high energy and exciting, our boy gave an ear to it, those boys were saying Cowabunga dude at times. Wow, that was cool to hear, well what does that mean? he then asked them. Everyone laughed out loud and booed, one of the kids even yelled out stating “don’t you know that, how come, which part of the earth are you from”?
Our boy was stunned, how come he didn’t knew it when the entire class was bragging about it. The entire class laughed on him again, and this made him upset really badly. He even forgot about GF-1 and even forgot to ask that boy about her in all this confusion.
That day after school, before boarding the school bus, he saw that boy(Boy:1) again and rushed up to him, god he was again with other boys this time too. But our boy didn’t hesitate to ask this time. Before he could open his mouth and throw out that question. The Boy:1 stopped him.
Boy:1 – well well well, look who is here to ask me the meaning on Cowabunga.
Our Boy– hey I don’t want to know that, but I want to know where is GF-1?
Kids right, they like playing games all the time!
Boy:1 – okay, I will tell you that but you have to tell us the meaning of Cowabunga by tomorrow.
Our Boy– why should I, moreover I don’t know it.
Boy:1– well that’s the game stupid, I will give you a clue, find that and I will tell you where she is.
Our Boy- Deal then, shoot me with the clue.
Boy:1– Watch the show at 7’o clock today in cartoon network that’s your clue.
Our Boy- huh, alright, whatever, but you better be ready with my answer tomorrow.
Oh god, kids can at time be very challenging at situations, phew!
And the wait was on for the 7’o clock show, but the boy was nervous again. Unlike recent times, in those days there was only one prime news at 7 pm for the fathers, and this was trouble, but the best part was his mom told him that, his dad was coming home very late that night. Phew, problem one solved.
Then comes problem number two, big sister wanted to watch “hit me baby one more time” song on MTV at the very same time. Well as always the last resort an emotional “hurt no one lie” to the mother helped with a resolution. The boy told her as part of a new school project he wanted to watch cartoon network for 27 minutes at 7’o clock. Do you really buy that, the boy’s mother was sure that it was a lie and he was up to something. But wanted to find out, hence gave him a chance. Lol, the big sister was really pissed!
The clock did an unusual walk up to 7 PM, breaking its normal run/fly to time. That night was slow, well that’s what happens when you wait, you are always ahead in time and time walks behind you!
And the show started off with a song “teenage mutant ninja turtles, (repeating a couple of times), darn what was this, was the other boy fooling our boy, was it a joke. Our boy decided to patiently watch the show. This cartoon show had four turtles, one rat and one cruel-looking samurai warrior in an iron suit. Whoosh, ninja fight all over, the storyline was interesting the four turtles and the rat was mutated in some green fluorescent stuff and they grew up to be human-like standing on two legs and doing karate ninja style. Wow, the cartoon was too good; our boy felt happy and was thanking the Boy:1 in his head for this new interest. But wait, what the heck is Cowabunga and why was he watching this cartoon for that; our boy couldn’t understand a thing.
Again in those days, most shows were for 30 minutes wherein 27 minutes was for the story play and 3 minutes for advertisements. Unlike these days for a 30-minute show, the story play was for 10 minutes and 20 minutes was for paid advertisements, tiring right?
Back to the screen, the show ended, but with the credits rolling down and at the fag end of it a turtle with an orange eye tie came up to the screen and said “Cowabunga dude”. On hearing this, our boy was extremely happy and he was so proud that he figured this out at ease.
Now the wait was for the next day for school.
“The feeling of finding something after waiting or searching for it, is still unknown, as for a second after this, it could make you happy or sad at the fact that it is now over, the wait/search is really over and done with forever”.
Our boy reached the school the next day, this time, not early but late, he then looked around a bit for GF-1, darn but she wasn’t there, instead found Boy:1, gosh at least he is there, the answer!
Our boy caught up to the Boy:1 straight, told him about Cowabunga which was a lingo used in TMNT and had nothing in meaning. The Boy:1 was thrilled to hear that and said welcome to the gang, now it was his turn to tell our boy where GF-1 was.
Our boy asked him again “buddy tell me what the hell happened to her”, and Boy:1 replied friend she left our school a week back, didn’t you know?
Our boy was upset, angry, furious, and extremely sad, but didn’t cry yet. He then ran off pushing away Boy:1 saying – “what friend are you, you made me do all this to hear this at the end”.
Boy:1 couldn’t understand what was happening but was feeling sad at the fact that he just made and lost a new friend in a split second.
Understand and note this please, “when you are angry the best thing to do is to just, first, leave the damn place you are standing at, because at that moment nothing works as your body would start doping itself with a specific chemical that blocks your brain and heart connection first, and then next it ensures that your boneless tongue starts speaking unwanted stuff and hands start raising up undesirable actions”. It’s seriously true happens to me all the time!
Our boy needed time, the time to sink into this scene, accept the fact that, boom, GF-1 was gone and he couldn’t tell her that, he……
The scene here was to accept the truth with an incomplete action, it was tough.
The next day school for our boy was looking different. Different in a way that the classroom, teachers, classmates, the building, the ground, the school bus, his uniform were all the same, but the bench in the classroom that his GF-1 sat was empty and that was the difference, the difference only he felt for sure that she was not coming back tomorrow.
They always say in tough times do not worry God is looking at you from the top. Well, I just want to add something more, not just god is looking at you from the top, what about other directions around you, why do you only look above, there are others looking at you from all directions, your friends, your family and especially your teacher is checking if you are daydreaming in class. So was Boy:1, he could understand that our boy was unsettled here and wanted to help, but wasn’t confident if he could speak to our boy after the latest incident between them. But for sure wanted to try, so went up to their teacher; request if he could sit near our boy in class as he had a short sight problem with his eyes and couldn’t see the black math board from the distance where he was previously sitting. The teacher did the right thing of allowing Boy:1 to sit next to our boy.
A couple of days went by and the ego of our boy blocked him from listening nor speaking to him.
This can’t go on for a year, how long would I not speak to him, the year at school is gonna end soon, our boy though. Since our boy was not bad at heart and always had a spike in curiosity, one day he decided to kill the “E” and to this, the “GO” ran away.
Then at school one day our boy told Boy:1 what he went through and how he felt about GF-1, love, and everything. Great now Boy:1 just like our boy couldn’t understand a thing he was confused too. But came up with an idea, he told our boy to call GF-1 from a landline phone, wow, this is why a “friend in need, is really a friend indeed”.
Boy:1 – buddy why don’t you give her a call.
Our Boy- how, I don’t have her number?
Boy:1 – what are you saying, the school telephone index given to all our parents will have the number for sure.
Our Boy- is it, oh yes I have seen my sister using it, huh, would that be for the same purpose that I have?
Boy:1 – so what, your goal is to call GF-1, right focus on that dude.
Our Boy – yeah true, well thanks buddy, and, and am really sorry about what happened that day. We friends, now?
Boy:1 – that we already are buddy, see you at school next week, all the best with the call.
Back to his elder sister at the house, our boy went straight to her room and asked her for the school telephone book. And she said why do you need it, uh, I want to call an old friend replied our boy.
On getting this book, our boy waited for the right time, the coast was clear now, and he did it, he dialed GF-1’s number, finally, “tringggg tringgg”, kept ringing for a couple of seconds and then a sweet voice answered the phone. Our boy was suddenly thrilled to only understand that it was an auto-recorded “no answer” regret call message on landline by BSNL, hmm, who was that, still she had a very sweet voice though.
He was disappointed as this ended really fast unlike a scene in any suspense thriller movie.
Our boy didn’t give up, he went back to his elder sister, and told her that the number mentioned here is wrong. He then told our boy that this book was a year old and the latest hasn’t been published yet. Damn, our boy lost hope here in a jiffy. Seeing his expression change, his sister gave him another hope to check the “yellow pages” public telephone directory.
Dang, who said sisters aren’t sensible, well his was!
Our boy did just that, he checked the yellow book, looked a bit and found it there it was the black printed on white telephone numbers of his GF-1, which was to his eyes written in golden color. He picked up the landline telephone and rang that number. Hope tringggging this time and after a couple of rings the same sweet voice answered the phone again, that was the same auto-recorded “no answer” regret call message on the landline.
Our boy was deeply hurt and depressed.
Did you know that a couple of seconds before the start of the depression, our emotions get neutralized, the body becomes numb at various places and then the eyes get filled up with a slow gloomy sea.
This was almost happening here, but since our boy was an Aries star-studded fiery ram at heart, he turned the scene and just tried reversing the picture and went backward. That is when he realized that God was watching over him all the time, also in the form of a “best friend”. He realized that he got till here because of the Boy:1 who in the first place told him the bad news and then helped him with the solution to it. And the wait is now on to meet his GF-1 someday and tell her what he couldn’t say then, will that happen? , let’s see as this globe is a small round and the time is short, hence they should meet someday for sure.
Our boy also figured out that the solution to all his problems always ends up with another problem. So his problems were never really a problem, but its solution was the biggest problem. In fact, the solution was always there at the beginning of all his problems, only the time taken and the journey to find it was the problem.
Now while writing this I just realised that; friends happen for a reason, they teach you a lesson, they help build your life story with their life, they push you to unimaginable limits, kicks your ass when you are wrong, stands invisibly strong behind you even without you noticing them, while you need them bad and most frankly; a friend who picks you will ride miles ahead with you in life. Well ain’t I blessed with this for sure, since am a rider myself!
So you, still </Waiting> for that someone?
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