"Laugh At Me" - A Narrative By Aishwarya Lakkakula, BA, Final Year
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| Picture Credit : Aishwarya Lakkakula |
LAUGH AT ME
"Hmhm hahaha" I heard the
group laughing. "Hehehe" I laughed too.
Those were the dog days of April
and no dog was seen on the roads. I was done with my final exams of class five,
ready to beat back the holidays. But, the ball is not always in our court, it
was my father who played the game then.
My dad had never seen me as a
growing baby but as a girl ageing, running towards her grey hair. It made him
so anxious, that he never wished me on my birthdays. He wanted me to be
acquainted with all the education in the blink of an eye, as if I would sleep
on my ‘Ampashayya’ the next moment. An antique material he was
for me.
On the first day of my holidays,
I was, as usual, jumping on the bed with Sai and Deepak, in front of the
mirror. I didn't remember why we began to fight suddenly, but I hit Deepak hard
on his chest and he started to cry with a popcorn face. My dad rushed and gave
me a bear's look, knowing who the culprit was. He pulled my arm and threw me into
math tuition class. But he didn’t know that I was not alone. While his right
hand was pulling my left arm, my right hand pulled Sai's left arm and we both landed
in the tuition class. Sai glared at me, as if I were a terrorist on a suicide
mission. I laughed at him.
My tuition was not a typical
homework- mugging up- beating up business. It was a cage-free class with no
divisions. The same chapter was taught to all the students, irrespective of
their age and class. We not only had our classes taught by the teacher, but
also by the students. It was fun being there.
I was the same wherever I landed.
No dad, no sir, no tuition class could control my talkative mischief. I always
talked and talked and talked and questioned and questioned and questioned. One
crazy morning, sir was teaching trigonometry and I was as busy as he was,
disturbing my bench-mate. Sir turned around and pulled me out of the first
bench, not to limit my talking, but to teach the class on behalf of sir. I
pleaded him, not a no. "Hehehe" I laughed. I liked talking about anything,
anywhere and to anyone.
I grabbed some coloured chalk
from him and drew a square, to derive the Pythagoras theorem. The moment I
started to talk, everyone in the class cackled at once. I wondered not, because
I knew they were laughing at my language. I was a Telugu medium student, so I
explained them, “On drawing a ‘Karnamu’, the ‘Chaturasram’ is
divided into two ‘Lamba-kona Thribhujalu’”. I didn't feel bad at
all. I too laughed with them.
Sir turned bitter at their
behaviour, but was surprised by my response. He was the only one who understood
my dialect and looked at me, placing his dry hand on my head and pronounced
"I congratulate you my dear for doing the toughest job ever. Do you know?
It is easy to make people cry but it is very difficult to make them laugh, and
you did it. You be the same. You will be happy." I was struck by those
beautiful words and they always resonate in my mind. This time, I smiled at him
and jumped to my mischief and it continued.
I am happy for the people
laughing with me and I am happy for the people laughing at me. I am selfish.
All that matters to me is your laughs.
Come to me, to laugh.
Laugh and laugh and laugh!
~ Aishwarya Lakkakula (BA)
