The Science Congress, The Elixir And the Opportunity

That's right.I can exaggerate well.Let me tell you what really happened.Today I went to school after an eight-day vacation to Muscat after debating whether i was really tired after the journey or i was just pretending too hard. It was by far the best day at school-partly cuz we weren't really at school.We went for this joy ride and nearly got us killed in this stampede and nearly lost the one of our classmates.(can't i ever stop?----no)

I trudged heavily to my classroom still sleepy from the day before.Groggily I helloed n hi'ed everyone.My ever-eager-to-know-more-brainy-stuff friend Kirthana was ranting on about this Indian Science Congress held at the College of engineering,Kariyavattom.She badly wanted to attend the thing and had gone up to the princy for permission a couple of times to take the 11th grade for the exciting science hungama packed with oily nerds.

hmm....was all i thought about the marvellous idea.Finally in the second period they sent for us and hurray we were off to the science fair. I wasn't so sure about the whole idea.But i enjoyed the excitement as people hopped onto the bus.The girls all crammed together into tiny seats and laughed and joked and talked about careers happily.God knows what the boys were discussing but they too were all smiles.We reached the place and parked the bus a mile away, not that we had any choice because all of Trivandrum's high schools had come along and unloaded their smarties right here.When I stepped down from the bus all I could feel was the excitement, the heat,the noise and other humans pushing past to get there first.

The sun put on his best show shining away from right above.Each school tried to look better than the rest showing off their uniforms,their notebooks and files,id cards,stupidity and whatever else they got.We first attempted to visit the Kerala Gramam inside a little thicket of trees around the campus.Looked like a great mystery and we could hear drums beaten to death.The crowd was thronging to the tiny one-man-wide gap into the awesomeness going on inside.It was madness!!We held hands but not too long.Half of my classmates got sucked into the key-hole shaped mob.It vibrated and wriggled restlessly till someone yelled through the mike that the Gramam was gonna be temporarily closed.Someone had brains.

Next we headed to the tent that housed all the amazing stuff.This time i mean it.Some of those things were really cool.Agaiin the girl-caterpillar wound around the stalls just to catch hurried glimpses of space machines and awesome gadgets or read a line from a presentation about Satish Dhawan.The caterpillar broke off from the tail and the middle often when other schools stepped over us.When we got out of the tent we were all gasping for air and dying for water.

When we had collected everyone we headed back to the bus that was missing.We stood in the sun as he beat  down on us mercilessly.Some of the girls were explaining how they were going to faint if they stood longer in the sun( some were worriedly covering up their arms and legs and faces to avoid being tanned).There was a tired wind blowing reluctantly.It didn't help much except dehydrate us all the more and chap our lips.We had not much money on us.Just a few coins and a 10 rupee note.We crossed the street to a little tea shop as big as my cupboard where they sold drinks.We planned to buy a bottle of water for all the girls but hadn't enough.So we bought two or three cold drinks for 4 rupees each and drank away to glory.It was the best thing i had had in my whole life.It was the Elixir of Life.

When everyone got back on the bus there missing was Tony.We waited and waited.Some boys went out to look for him.Some of the students were getting impatient waiting for  their lunch, other were getting worried about the lost boy,some could still crack jokes and guffaw insanely in such an occasion.After half an hour of waitng Tony was retrieved and we headed back.

After lunch i went out to meet Aparna and Jessita.They were going for their interview for the post of Headgirl.
Anyone could go for the interview.It was about to start in 10 minutes time.As I stood there in the afternoon sunlight on the breezy balcony who should come along but him! Mr Opportunity.There he walked towards me, smiling,and so irresistible.He asked, "Do you wanna go?".My mind battled furiously with my complexes and pessimism.I wanted to say yes.Ms Ego in me just grunted.From inside me Ms Pess said "You won't get it anyway.You're not fit for it...you're not much of a leader..not a great academic...you're english won't get you anywhere..so why even bother?".Opportunity was still smiling,charming as ever, and so inviting..."Do you wanna go?You have 10 minutes to decide.Or else I have somehere else to be.Tell me." Ms Pess the wretched fool egged me on..she is much bigger and stronger than me.And the next moment i made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.I slapped Opportunity right across the face hard.He didin't turn back and I knew he was never going to return.


Later Kirthana told me "don't regret.Its okay"

Some day i'll see him again i guess.But that day i swear i'll shoot Ms Pess and grab my Opportunity.