Nimmu and Missing Friend, Page 2

as another friend, nimmu feels that he could be comfortable and strong as the senior people will be hesitant to come nearer to Nimmu.

  Nagaraj came to the class and announced that anyone who is interested to join his evening tuition can join and no need to give any money unless they can afford. Nagaraj, he looks hard and behaves hard with students, However he is the one who keeps free Ink to students and he is the one who offers free writing pads to students. Nimmu quietly understood, Nagaraj.

  It was the next week, Nimmu, malik and aarib all the three joined tuition class in the evening. The first day in tuition Nagaraj’s wife served juice to the students, and these three were very happy. The student crowd was around 20 for tuition and that was small house to accommodate. Then Nagaraj’ sister came to take English session in tuition, wait, that was his sister in law, no wait, that was his distant relative.. The students got really confused, and Nimmu slowly asked Ramesh the senior of all, that who is the other one. Answer was, that’s Nagaraj’s second wife and both of them live along with him. Nimmu really got upset; he felt morally that was not right. Other students were actually murmuring and laughing within each other. Nimmu went and told his mother, that his teacher shouldn’t have two wives. That night he had less sleep, as he couldn’t digest that Nagaraj his teacher, whom he thought was a good person, has done that.

  Nimmu’s weekends were simple, he spent half of his time in watching television, and then he takes any old paper and folds it like a ball and throws to hit stacked empty soap boxes. Otherwise he likes to play cricket with his brother and his classmates. But those big boys want nimmu as substitute or umpire (referee), but nimmu never bothers about it. In fact he plays his cricket alone and he is good in book cricket, he assumes some even number and tries to open any page in that book, and if he gets that same value then they were runs he scored. He can accommodate himself in any crowd and could manage any loneliness.

  Nimmu was good in most of the subjects, except English language. Nagaraj has started teaching grammar and on past tense and present tense, and was asking questions to everyone, whereas Nimmu felt his future seems to be tense. Charles he was the best in that class in English, his father works in Bangalore in a multinational company, in fact some children have told nimmu that they all speak in English in their home as they were Christians. Nimmu was thinking that all Christians would speak English. Nimmu knows that he shouldn’t get much lower marks than Charles in English; otherwise coming first in the class would be difficult for him. In fact, he started concentrating in English, not much to learn but not to lose many marks.

  One day the next class teacher came to meet the History teacher and was asking, how is this year students? The history teacher replied that, last year batch was very good, this year all the students are worthless, hearing those words nimmu felt ashamed, and he asked ramesh (pupil monitor) were they really very good? Ramesh replied, this was the same dialogue the teacher told last year also and he also told that in sometime this teacher would go to her class and ask the same question. He told nimmu, not to worry, because he had seen these for the last three years.

  The first midterm came and typically the exams were for an hour and for 25 marks in 5 subjects. Nimmu carried 2 fountain pens, 2 pencils and 1 sharpener and 1 Ink Eraser. Nimmu always ensures there was enough back up, so that he doesn’t spend much time in resolving the problems at the exam time. He attends all the big questions first and writes bigger answers to them, so that the teacher who corrects will get happy, then the smaller questions he attends, which basically needs one or two line answers. His brother gave him that technique and nimmu follows that always. Beyond that the truth was, Nimmu don’t have a good hand writing, as the time progresses his handwriting in the exam changes and goes to an extent, where no one can read. So he knew, if the teacher gets good impression with decent hand writing in the beginning, it would help him. Students in that school have to carry their own answer sheets and School will provide them only when it’s semi-annual or annual exam. In one of the exam, nimmu and aarib was sitting next to next, nimmu noticed that aarib had a fountain pen, which was like a wrapped Mummy, it was leaking in all the sides, nimmu gave aarib his pen to write. The exams were over and aarib returned the pen, but nimmu started to have a soft feeling for him.

  The Midterm results came and the papers were distributed. The paper distribution happens normally with a bamboo stick, anyone who was scoring less than 60% would have to undergo grade wise counted beating, normally for 40 to 60% its one hit and 40 to 20% will have 3 hit and less than 20% score means the person will get 3 to 8 beatings, in fact the teachers wouldn’t be able to finish that process in one day, so it would continue on next day also. As the results were coming, everyone was expecting Charles to come first in the class as he was good in English, however it was Nimmu who came first. Nimmu did manage English to maintain his average. The Rank card was prepared and Nimmu’s rank was written as 1. The rank card has to be signed by one of the parent for acceptance and agreement. Normally it has to be submitted back within a week, but Nimmu submitted back it in the next day itself, as his father was happy and signed it immediately. On the other hand it was hard to believe for Charles.

  In the next few days, there came Gopu, he was studying in nearby town, now his father was transferred to this school as one of the teacher for higher grades, so Gopu also joined in this school as student in nimmu’s class.

  Quarter 2

  Gopu was average in height but little shorter than nimmu (at least by 2 inches), he had long face, and same like nimmu in color, and had thin but strong body. Gopu was neatly dressed and wearing leather belt, in fact he was wearing leather strap watch and black shoe. Perhaps he was the only student wearing shoe in that class. Gopu was having a very good bag with Bruce lee picture in it. The first day when he came, aarib was absent in that class, so the place was vacant and Gopu went and sat in that place. That’s how nimmu and gopu met each other. Gopu asked few questions and about the different teachers in that class and about the time table. Nimmu shared some of them, in parallel they both felt there is some level of understanding that they could establish. It seems to be a natural ally between them. Gopu was intelligent and could grasp things quickly and since his father was also from teaching, his ability to pick up things was good. It was the afternoon time and there was an almond tree from which few almond fruits had fallen. Gopu had taken one of them and he hit it hard with stone, finally he was able to bring the almond out of it, nimmu was surprised and asked him, what was that? Gopu replied that its almond, its very tasty and it gives lot of strength, by this time Gopu understood that nimmu haven’t tasted it many times, so gopu asked nimmu to taste it. Nimmu don’t want to take that, because he saw gopu working hard. Gopu insisted and finally nimmu tasted half of it. Somewhere nimmu felt that he got his friend.

  That day night at least 3 to 4 times nimmu went in front of the mirror and checked his muscles in hand, he folded his arms and tried pulling his stomach and so on, he felt that there was few millimeter growth in his muscles because of that almond. Next day he asked his mother, that he needs almond daily and got the request accepted. But this has nothing to do his urge to find a spider and show his hand nearer to it. It was his last 2 years wish that a spider will bite him and from then he would get webs from his hand. Many a times he used to show his hand nearby house spiders, but they were running away. Nevertheless his belief never reduces, he checks at least once in 15 days by pressing his hand, if no web comes, it doesn’t hurt him, because he could imagine that web was coming out.

  The next day aarib came back to school, but it was nimmu who recommended for Gopu to sit next to him. Aarib initially felt bad, but it was nimmu who requested so he decided to give it off and took the next seat after gopu. The students like few teachers in every class, and it was something difficult to explain, sometimes it was for their behavior with students, sometimes it was for the way they explain things in simple manner and so on. Nirmala teacher was someone who never scolds any stu
dent, and she encourages students to study well and improve their basics. It was a surprise for students to know that she was replaced by a new teacher Devaki, whose husband is working in the same school and they could influence a transfer. The students in the class were very upset, though nimmu don’t get attached with anything that much, he also felt it was bad. The students went and cried to the teacher not to go, but she had no choice left in front of her, she wished them all the best and went. The students now became very upset, and that turned in to anger, the seniors in that class decided to take a revenge and they discussed with the clever boys in that class, obviously nimmu was also in that revenge group. They thought of keeping needle in chair, but that was a wooden chair, so dropped that idea. They thought about buying crackers and keeping under chair, but in that season getting it and hiding under a chair and firing seems to be difficult, then finally they decided that they will keep a broken chair, because the school had lots of broken chair in nearby room, so they had brought a broken chair and kept ready for the teacher,