You never know when your brightest moment may come by. Like I never did, but those days have got imprinted in my mind and yet I failed to realize its significance at that very moment.
I talk of the season of winter, when a beautiful charm tends to linger in the air. A fragrance better associated with old man winter and Mother Nature (you might find it familiar with Father Christmas). Our school was going to celebrate its annual day. And everyone was busy in the preparations. So many things were to be taken care of, the music, the venue, the food, and all the shows. The work was quickly distributed among the faculties by the principal. The venue and food was the responsibility of the vice-principal. Each teacher was allotted responsibility of different shows that were to be performed by the students. The music dept. was to deal with the chorus and music. Now that this was done, all of them indulged themselves in hard work and preparations. The first step was to find the children for their respective acts.
The next morning we heard an announcement from the head office about the annual day preparations; it further stated that if somebody was interested in participating in a particular performance, he or she can approach the teacher responsible. We heard intently to the list of acts and teachers being recited through the speakers. I and my friend’s ears froze to one name though. It was regarding to the teacher responsible for the ‘English skit’, Suresh Trivedi. My friends were exited because they knew that he would seek them for ‘the job’. But I was ‘freaked out’. I knew that he would certainly fetch me to work with him in this play. After all, I was his favorite script writer, I never found anything special in them but he seemed to adore them. The last time he made me work for it, I had a tough time writing and re-writing the scripts, because they never ran out of ideas to add in the play. Always adding more of that or more of this to make it completely moronic in the end.
Everyone was psyched when he entered the classroom in the next period. My friends always thought that he thought of them as great actors for the theatre, that is why he always approach them when some play comes his way. But the truth was that that he only found me and my best friend Abhinay, suited for his plays. Abhinay was the best actor in the entire class and believe me when I say that he was the only one who did the right justice with his part. As a teacher, suresh sir wanted to give us an opportunity to our talents.
Anyways, when he entered the class he started talking about this brilliant opportunity and etc that we have been given by the school. On the occasion of annual day we can show our talents to a reasonable amount of public. After talking about this for long, he came to the conclusion, “whoever wants to take part in the annual day’s English drama please give me their names.” Abhinay raised his hand along with others, while I shrunk back to some darker corner. He noticed me, and smiled mischievously. He was about to tell on me, when suresh sir himself asked “Bakhtawar is not present?’’
I raised my hand slowly and silently “here sir”
“What are you doing? Cowering at the back.”
Abhinay piped in “sir? What about the script?”
“Well of course, Bakhtawar would write it”
At least ask me first I mumbled under my breath but then again I wouldn’t have dared to refuse, if he had asked. So there, my destiny was written. A month of vigorous hard work over a play, a month, which I would have rather enjoyed to spend while watching TV or reading a good book.
The following day I thought of putting my foot down, I didn’t wrote a single alphabet for the script. When he asked me at the end of the day
“Where is the script?”
I meekly gave him the prototype which he had asked me to edit (which I didn’t) and said “sir, actually I hardly got enough time (as I was busy watching cartoons)” I went on in spite of the fact that his face was turning red “besides, I don’t think I’d like to write these scripts anymore. I should better not participate”. That did it. He blew up. I spent the next one hour and thirty minutes listening my life’s longest lecture. A lecture that included something like this “a play is a joint effort of a group. When one of them screws up, the whole thing gets screwed up. All of these people around here are ready for working together on a direction that the script would give them. And you mean to say that I should have their talent wasted for a whole day all because their spoilt and lazy script-writer (that isn’t supposed to me?) says that he feels not like it. Tell me, I have auditioned so many students to get the best actor for the best script that you were supposed to write. NOW! What you tell me is that you want to quit. Let me tell you one thing, kid. We were sailing in the same boat the moment we decided to be in this play. And I won’t let you run away after boring holes in our boat. Either you cooperate or drown. And only a coward and selfish fool dares to drown and that too with the whole crew.” How I remember it exactly, well my fiendish friend Abhinay had wrote it down on my notebook after it all finished. Fortunately he wasn’t able cope up with the speed of his talking and that is why so little of the speech has been copied. When all that ended he gave me my copy, with an impish grin, I should have understood by that then.
That long lecture had awakened the writer inside me. I spent two and a half hour to write the next script. It was a masterpiece, ornate with Shakespearean language and emotional dialogues. The next time we all had a conference. I read it to all of them, they loved it. Suresh sir loved it so much that he arranged a special award for me for the final prize distribution.
The day was 29december’2012, When my play was performed. The crowd was enticed in the mesmerizing performance. Abhinay stole the complete limelight and earned the title of the school’s best actor. He and I were deep in ecstasy. In fact, I was on top of the world when I was standing with him, in the queue for prize distribution. It was one of my best moments of life when I received my award for school’s best writer. That was the moment when I really realized that my true love was literature. I really loved writing, to express myself through the means of my pen.
Later that night, I had a long walk to the central square with Abhinay.
“It was really great, wasn’t it?”
“It was beautiful.”
“Yeah, true”
We wandered together for a long time; we knew it was the last time we are together. Abhinay was leaving the school and this was the last time, we best friends would ever meet.
While parting from the central square, he said “good luck! With your life”
“Same to you”
“So are you thinking of being a writer, now”
“Of course not”
“You should. You would make a great writer”
“I don’t know. I am not sure about that”
“I’d miss these moments forever. All this was so much fun”
“Yes, I would too. These were surely the best moments of my life.”
We laughed together when we at last parted. So here it ends, as it becomes brighter and brighter still, whenever I look back at these memories. For now, I dedicate this one piece to suresh sir (the names changed, but he would know when he reads it), and my best of the best friends Abhinay.