School Notebook

However, there was a narrow golden line to remember during the third grade. Like every storyteller started the story in the olden days, it was a cliché start. He started opening the concentric memory circles one by one. First, the bigger circle of memory, then the next circle, jumped from one to another. Once upon a time, while in 3rd grade, Linsa was the best student. That was always the case during those days. Someone alerted him,  “Not those days, that’s the case always.” Girls outscored boys. Ether, a Linsa, a Princy, a Jincy, and the endless list goes on.  Maybe that was only prejudice Lona acquired during his childhood days. He accepted that as inherited prejudice, though never announced it as prejudice. He was comfortable with reality.

One day, it happened. It was a big compliment for him. Nobody knew it was a big compliment. During the class break, the best student Linsa stole his notebook from his school bag without telling him. There were three or four good studious girls and boys. He was not sure why she had to steal his book. The topper of the class need not take notebooks from such a low-scoring person.  He was proud that she took his notes.

But the story took a turn. A naughty boy Yohannan found out about her stealing act. He came near Lona, “See Lona, she has stolen the book from your bag. I have seen with my naked eyes. This is not right. She could have asked you.” Lona kept silent as if he did not hear, though, from the school veranda, he noticed Linsa stealing the book. It was fun to watch her childish smartness. Lona continued the silence. After some time, the same naughty boy came again with four other naught boys to question her actions. “After all, she is a girl. She should have asked you before taking the book.” Lona kept silent like former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, not any sign of maturity, but boys never knew, the class topper stealing his notebook was like getting a special jury appreciation, nor those boys would understand that feeling.

They kept on pressuring Lona to question her uncultured act. “After all, that’s not right.” After continuous pressure, Lona acted angry with the iron slate in his hand swinging above her head, as if he may hit her anytime. While speaking about something, the thin edges of the slate made a blood-red mark on her forehead. Suddenly the scene changed, she started crying loudly. Celia-sister came into the class, Lona started arguing about the accident. Somehow she escaped from her guilt by crying out loud at Lona’s mistake.

After a few days, a quiz competition was conducted in the class. The batch was divided into two groups. One person from a group can ask a question to a person from another side. The tactic to win that game was to ask a question to a weaker student from the opposite group. Sister Celia gave Lona the chance to ask the first question. He asked one of the easiest questions on the planet and selected topper Linsa to answer the question. He pointed the fingers in her direction; she jumped out of excitement and answered the question, scoring a valuable point for her team. Sister Celia looked at Lona’s face. The meaning of glancing was evident. “Are you stupid to ask such a silly question to Linsa?” At that age, he could not make her understand the happiness of his heart. But after a minute of sarcastic look, it seemed sister Celia learned the naughty trick of innocent love of making another person happy, especially after a hitting incident.

The notebook incident repeated after many years. This time, it was the tenth-grade topper. But she asked that politely.  There was no stealing. She wanted the notebook from him for the days she missed the classes. He reminded her to get it from two other usual toppers, if she wanted to get good notes instead of his notebook, his handwriting was never better than a medical prescription by most doctors he had seen. But she was sensitive in asking for his notes. Somehow she was clever and found out a confidential way to request for his notebook in a place that nobody in the school would notice. He was happy about that great achievement. But, Lona was surprised, why she took the difficult route of finding him alone in a place where he never expected her to find him. The answer to his question was simple. One word. “Paparazzi.”