TIME TEACHES TO LAUGH

I LIED FOR A PRINCESS GLITTER GEL

My mom used to advise me to study well and score good marks when I was a little girl. I heard that one piece of advice almost every day in my life. I do not know why; she used to highlight exams and marks every once in a while. I had no deep knowledge regarding all these, and I thought the best kid in the world was the one who scores top marks in exams. Literally, I was a fool, back then. Now only I realize that it was okay if I had missed a few more marks. Now only I realize that it was absolutely fine even if I had failed in class-tests and other assessments. Turning back to see my little self, I realize that I was simply struggling over nothing, and in the end, I have just ended up scoring average marks in my board exams and a degree in B-Tech, like every other clueless student out here.

That was a normal day. I got on my school bus with full spirits. We were told by our teacher that we will be having a dictation of twenty-five words and the top scorer will be getting a gift. Getting a gift from your teacher was the best thing you could receive those days and the excitement of every kid raised up to another level. Even the backbenchers became curious about the gift and the dictation. Making children work hard for the gift was one of the earliest marketing strategies we have come across in our life. Everything in this world is marketing and somehow, we all fall for those marketing tricks.

Everyone enquired the teacher regarding the topics and all, almost every day. Teacher knew we all wanted the gift and one day she disclosed to us that the gift will be a special pen. She even did an unboxing that day and it was great. The pen was indeed a special one. A princess in the body with four colors of glitter gel ink. That was the first time for many of us to witness such a special pen. Those with foreign aunts and uncles made a noise like 'oh I know this one' 'oh I have seen this' etc.

'This pen should be mine,' I decided that day. Well, I was good in studies, and I was a bit overconfident that this will be in my hands soon. So, I prepared well for the dictation. My mom helped me revise all the topics of dictation several times. I told her about the pen, and she wanted to be sure that the pen will belong to me after the test. So, she asked me to practice so many times and she even conducted sample tests twice or thrice. That made me confident, and I was all set to grab the pen. The teacher had told us to expect the test anytime. Conducting surprise tests was a trend in those days. Though this was planned, we had no idea about the actual day of the test. So, after a long wait, this day arrived. She announced the test, and everyone suddenly started the revision of words. The class became a mess, with an unusual hustle-bustle. I had no idea where to begin from. Still, I tried to go through all those within reach. Thinking about it after a decade is making me burst into laughter. How crazy, people become for a mere pen!

The dictation went on smoothly at the beginning and everyone became confident about the pen. Such a simple test and there is only one pen. Many thoughts were crossing my mind, even while attending the test. That time too, I was an over-thinker. After the first ten words, the teacher increased the level of questions, and I could see facial expressions of people giving up on the gift. That increased my chances of getting the gift. I wanted her to throw us increasingly difficult words I knew. I was a bit selfish; I know. But that crossed my mind. The only way to get that pen was, to make everyone else lose the chance and I wanted a difficult word.

To my surprise, she said 'archaeology' and I felt blessed. That was out of syllabus. I had habits of reading newspaper every day and I saw some news regarding the archaeology department that morning. Most of the people gave up on hearing the word. That increased my confidence. I knew that very few people knew this word, since that word was not from the textbook. I really thought that God was helping me to get that pen. Why else will the teacher say the word I just read from the newspaper? Okay, I started believing in destiny.