They were three girls in my class. One was a teacher's kid, so she was something of a VIP. I didn't know the word then, but somehow I could sense that she was more important than rest of the kids. I was one of the frontbenchers and sitting closeby, so wanted to be friends with them all. I don't know why they disliked me, made faces at me. Once we had a 'my dad's bigger than yours' contest. My rival said her dad was Karunakaran (incidentally K. Karunakaran was a minister in the Kerala Govt back then) and could send my dad to death by hanging. I had nothing to counter that- I was on the verge of tears. I'd always thought my dad was above it all.
On another occasion it was the term end tests, and I got fifty out of fifty. Rival got only 49 so it was her turn to wail out loud. All the teachers assembled around to console her. One hid the five on my slate and told her, see, she got zero. That made her feel better indeed. I hated it.
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It seems like you learned a lot from this experience. Nicely written.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Margaret for the kind words.It means a lot to me coming from someone with such a rich inner world as you. I guess every experience leaves its mark on our psyche-the Universe wants us to learn from it which is why it was sent our way in the first place. For me, whatever learning took place is still at an unconscious level, because I was too young back then, a five year old girl..lonely and one against many. Am trying to figure out :)
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