… A Silent Leader

      When the students rushed in their classes expecting to receive sweets from Gautam, it was all smiles and greed for them. It is always exciting and opportunistic to be on the receiving end where one gets a lot instead of getting. Gautam starts giving sweets to his friends which turns out to be his birthday. When he comes across his bosom and naughty pal, Shyam,  the wily Shyam says, “Give me two, you passed the maths test because of me… remember. I deserve it.” Gautam, a spoilt kid, is known in his class for his pride and arrogant nature and mainly because he knows he belongs to a filthy rich family. He replies Shyam, “The first sweet is for helping me cheat in the maths test, the second is the half price to help me out in the upcoming Annual Drama Competition which is going to take place next month. The next half, after we win it and that too if we really win. Every time I always come 2nd to Akshat, this time I will secure the 1st place and that too at any cost. I am second to none. I’ll talk to you later buddy.” After going on distributing sweets to his classmates and friends, the class teacher Madam Sulochana tells Gautam to hurry up and then he faces his long time rival, Akshat, a brilliant student of the class and more of an all-rounder, and looks at him straight on his face. It was an eye for an eye situation and Gautam aggressively hands a sweet on Akshat’s hands.

      The very next day, students participating in the annual drama competition of Juvenile High School start their rehearsals with Akshat sitting on a corner and thinking hard about his team’s rehearsals and tells his team, ” Something is lacking in our story…story, plot,… guys, don’t you think something or maybe someone is missing. A leader… yeah a leader is what this group wants…” Robin, a team member and a friend of Akshat, known for his keen intellect, interrupts and says, “What did you say… you are no less than a leader dude and who cares about… a… leader. From my point of view, I don’t see anything lacking. I don’t know about the rest of the lot in our team. Everything is just going fine.” Many of Akshat’s teammates did not have any problem about having a leader, many accepted him as an effective leader. But Akshat had something else in his mind.

      Everthing was going pretty well in the school. Students participating in the drama competition were seen seriously working hard for it. A student delivers a dialogue and misses a few words. This made the haughty Gautam furious and wild with anger and when he was about to pick up hands on the student who turned out to be his junior, he was stopped by the wily Shyam and he said, ” What’s the point in creating a scene here, listen to me very carefully. The time of getting the next half of my sweet is getting nearby?” Gautam replied, “What do you mean?“. Shyam continued,”Three judges will be attending our annual drama competition?” Gautam interrupted, “So what? What’s the big deal in that?” Shyam continues, “Will you let me say? You can give your taunts and expert comments later. Your dad knows them well. They happen to be your dad’s pals of his college days? The next good news for you is Akshat wants a leader in his team.” “Why the hell does he need a leader, if only he would have been in my team, he would have got a leader and thats me. I am a born leader, you know. One of the most richest student in Don Bosco School. Beat that.”

      The proudy Gautam with his crafty pal, Shyam, were all out laughing and mocking Akshat. While on the other side, Akshat came to know about a new student in his class who is in the Principal’s office having a talk with him. The new fellow comes in the class along with the amiable teacher, Madam Sulochana and she introduces him to the class, “Meet Rajiv Chaudhury. He has joined today and I hope all of you would love to be friends with him. You can have a seat now and remember there are a few naughty boys in the class known for their pranks.” Rajiv had no problem and sat beside Shweta, a chatter box in the entire class, who whole-heartedly befriended him.

A few weeks passed by and Rajiv was well-known to his friends.

(to be continued…)