Courage

Our school had the biggest campus in the whole city. It would be
somewhat wrong to say that it 'had' for it still stands, proud as ever.
There were two huge buildings-the boys' school where I was student. The
other building was the girls' school. Between these two structures was
a huge open field. This field was actually divided into two by a
concrete road. On the left of the road was the girls' school and to the
right the boys' school. The field had two cricket pitches, a hockey
pitch and a football ground on our side. The girls' area had a concrete
basketball court and a volleyball court. The two schools had a common
skating area. The sad part was this. The girls could cross the concrete
strip and visit the boys' school whenever they pleased. But we boys'
had to apply for an admit slip with latest mark-sheet to even step into
the girls' school. As if we were criminals who always wanted to do bad
things. But there was one place where the segregation rules were not
enforceable. And this was the school bus. There were about ten buses
each covering a certain area of the city. I don't know about other
buses but ours belonged to the prehistoric age. Nevertheless it was all
we had. I was in ninth grade when I joined the school and I was a
student there for the next two years. In that sense I can hardly call
it my school but such was my age and the prevailing atmosphere that
those two years became the most memorable time of my life. And at the
centre of all this was Nina.
Nina was not great-looking. Nor was I. But this girl, who was a year
younger to me in age and education had many admirers. Already, I must
add. And the reason for this was her boldness and saucy, acid tongue
and her lies. Now by boldness I mean she was afraid of nothing. Not
even herself. She could do something that she felt strongly about even
if it brought her harm. Again, she lied a lot. She would often tell her
friends stories about handsome college hunks vowing to lay down their
mortal lives for her. Of course we would be nearby and would hear the
whole story. In fact she told these imaginative tales only when we boys
were around. At times she would pretend to be this damsel in distress
and command us to rescue her. And the way she said it made it appear
like a story-book challenge. If we couldn't help her we would feel
ashamed. Nina travelled in the same bus as my cousin and me. My cousin
of course was in the second grade.
I first spoke to Nina a month after I joined school. In fact, she spoke
to me. In those days I used to carry a fancy water-bottle. Summer was
very much in evidence and my bottle was in great demand. I was looking
out of the window near my seat and our bus was speeding. Suddenly Nina
came towards my seat and said, "Give me the water." I was a taken aback
and said, "Which water?" Without bothering to clear my confusion Nina
snatched the water-bottle from my hands and gulped down all the
remaining water. I was half-expecting her to thank me. Instead she
nearly hit me with the bottle on the head and said, "Do you fill this
bottle with ditch-water?" I was really very angry for this and did not
speak to her for many days. Then, she came to know that I could sing,
from someone. Let me confess here. I can sing a little and whenever
someone asks me to sing I really go berserk. So when Nina asked me to
sing a favourite song I forgot all her past rudeness. Well, the song
was good and we became good friends. Then I bought the autograph
book.
The autograph book is quite the rage with school-goers. They are
usually made from fancy-looking paper and are expensive too. For people
in the eighth, ninth and tenth grade the autograph book is a handy
weapon to fire the imagination. You buy the book and ask your favourite
person to write a few words in it. Believe me, autograph books were
what elegant dreams were made of when we were in school. We spent hours
looking at and analyzing what the special person wrote in the autograph
book. We tried to determine whether he or she loved/liked us or not. It
seems so ancient now. But, to my story.
The academic year was ending. We didn't know where we would be in the
next year. So I bought a really fancy autograph book and asked Nina to
write in a few words. There was also a quiet request to include her
address. But when Nina returned the autograph book I was devastated.
She had written, well, standard highfalutin stuff-"If you can't be a
star in the sky be a lamp at home-From your sister Nina." So much
preparation for this. She was now my sister! Well thank you, I had a
sister at home. I didn't need one in school. But I couldn't change what
she had written. I decided to concentrate on the final exams.
The next year was my last in school. I wanted to make it really
special. I was lucky that it was the two-hundredth year of our school.
The whole academic year was filled with celebrations of all kinds. And
both the boys' and girls' schools participated in the festivities
together. There was a huge carnival, a joint sports day and finally, a
truly spectacular drill display. The carnival came first. I was the
president of the boys' computer club and we put up a huge stall in the
carnival. The stall had numerous computer games, a draw of lots and a
web-designing competition. I had let Nina know quite indirectly about
the stall. And when she came with her friends I welcomed her grandly on
behalf of the computer club. Ten minutes later I was summoned to the
carnival office and scolded for bothering girls in our stall. I later
learnt that Nina had lodged a complaint about me with the
authorities.
I have never run a race in my life. Naturally I was absent on the day
annual sports were held. But I was part of the drill display. The event
aspired to be a display of freestyle dance that looked like exercise
routines. We practised hard for months to get everything right. On the
day of the event the girls' school did an aerobics routine just before
our display. As we were about to take the field I recognised Nina among
all the well-dressed girls. She was with friends and so was I. I
mustered up all the courage I had and said, "That was good. Wish me
luck." To my shock Nina actually said, "Best of luck Ian" The drill
display went like a dream.
The last paper in my school board examination was Geography. I am
somewhat poor in that subject. After having done all I could my
performance was only mediocre. As I slowly walked to the school gate
with my head held close to my body I felt rather disappointed. And then
a voice saucily said, "It's ok there is always next time." It was Nina
dressed in pink. She extended her hand, smiled her best smile and said,
"Friends for life, are we?"