My Dream

Am going to narrate a dream my school mates will understand this better than anyone else

Saraswati mam was distributing Hindi papers. One by one people where collecting their paper. Maddy, Faheem, Janakiraman and my roll number was in some sequence. First Janaki was called. As usual he was giggling and went to collect the paper. To give a brief idea about how this guy looks, if you have ever been to some IIT and come across a nerd with long hair and shabby clothes, well you have nailed the appearance of Janaki. Mam caught hold of his giridha and told "ithukku onnum korachal illa ana mark thaan valarave matinguthu Nee lam ethuku schoolukku variyo" (There is no shortage of hair, it keeps growing for you, but the mark doesn’t grow a bit. Why do you come to the school?). She threw the paper on his face. He got back smiling at me and Faheem. I was curious to know his marks because Hindi was the only subject in which i got beaten every time.

While i was scrutinizing his paper Faheem’s name was called out. That guy was so tensed and he approached towards Mam. Mam was wearing typical school teacher attire to go with her spectacles. She was turning the papers and her spectacle was on the tip of her nose. Faheem announced his arrival with a contrite cough. Mam saw the slender figure superciliously. She asked Faheem "How much do you think you have got?"(This conversation was in Hindi and as am poor in our national language am interpreting it in the universal language). Faheem replied "Maybe 70 mam". She started admonishing him and handed the paper. Faheem was wondering what happened. He understood the reason for her weird behavior when he saw the marks. Poor guy missed the pass mark by 3. His face turned red. Meanwhile Janaki and I was laughing at Faheem as he walked towards our bench. We were so happy that he was scolded in front of everyone. I Am twisting the famous dialogue from the movie 3 Idiots “You become sad when you get low marks but you become double happy when your close friends get lower marks”. As he sat down and leaned on the table i snatched the paper from him to check out his marks. We, Janaki and I, were literally tearing apart the paper to look at his score. Finally I assented to him seeing it. A loud burst broke the silence in the class room. Our dear Janaki was euphoric as soon as he saw Faheem’s marks. He conveyed the same to me and I became anxious. When Faheem, who in my opinion was very good in Hindi, flunked what will my result be? I wasn't willing to participate in his joy. My hands and feet became cold. My number was next and I almost stood to walk towards Mam. Instead of my number Maddy’s number was called out. I was kind of abashed because almost everyone in the class saw me stand up and amble towards Mam. I had to take a corner seat in another row temporarily. I avoided eye contact with others and acted as if i was enquiring my friends mark.

Maddy was nervous. I always used to wonder why a guy, who always tops the class and was the favorite of the masses become so tensed when it is so clear that he is going to top again no matter how much others try to bring him down from No 1 rank. Anyways, his fair face became red as he was inches away from grasping his paper. Mam announced that he was the top scorer again and she even chastised us by telling that all others are unfit and had to learn from him. I wasn't able to hear anything and it was as if i became deaf momentarily because I knew I was next. Just before the exams started I had challenged someone that i will get better rank than him in that exam and Hindi was my weakest point. I started aggregating my marks in other subjects whose papers were already given. I was 10 or 12 marks ahead of that adversary. I think it was Krishna with whom I had the challenge. Minutes of waiting were like years. Finally my number was called.

As i nimbly walked the pictures of me writing the exam passed in front of my eyes. I knew i had screwed it. I knew i hadn't prepared well. I hated that subject so much. I stood next to her and she gave me a look. The look personified everything. It told me that am an utter waste, a nuisance to the class. Her look was so disparaging and i didn’t have the guts to see her in eyes. I put my head down and was gearing up for the ride, ride which i didn’t want to happen in front of the class, in front of the girls. She handed the paper to me and shouted at the top her voice. The decibel level was in such a scale that i was sure that even people playing in the ground could hear the grunt. I started shivering. Even though i was weak in Hindi i hadn't failed even once. My worst nightmare was staring in front of my eyes. She started the rhetoric.
I heard nothing. All I wanted was to get the paper and check my marks because I knew Tamil papers were also being distributed simultaneously in a different class. People were laughing at me as i walked towards my bench. Faheem was still lying on the table with his head down I could hear that he was crying. I seated myself comfortably and opened the paper. At that very moment I could see the sky was beginning to turn red. I sensed that people at home had risen from their sleep. I was in a state of semi-coma, a term which i coined now. A state which everyone feels when they're about to wake up early in the morning. I didn’t know if I was awake or still in the dream. I wanted to know the end of my dream so I voluntarily shut down my eyes. I started to concentrate on my sleep. It was like a T.V when you have a dish connection and it is raining heavily. The screen was flickering and I had to fine tune it to get the motion picture running flawlessly in my mind. I knew that I had only a little time before I entered the real world.

Finally there I was holding the paper and addled why everyone was laughing like someone was dancing nude. I slowly opened my paper. Tragedy, in fact it was a heart break for a teacher who teaches Hindi. My paper didn’t have a letter in Hindi. I had written the entire exam in English. My god what had happened to me. Seeing the paper I couldn't but give a smile in the real world. I slowly got down from the bed and saw my reflection in a mirror thanking God that nothing like that had happened when I was in school.

Still I feel that a dream is better than a movie. A movie will just give you a vicarious experience but in a dream you live the character. No wonder why Christopher Nolan took a movie like Inception.