“Kids, that’s How I Met Your Mother”

14th June 1999 ,

Angamaly, Ernakulam

“Hey, let’s play Lock and Key” shouted a kid. “That’s boring, let’s play ‘Mudhugu Puncture’ with this tennis ball. It would be painful, yet it’ll be fun!”, said another kid. The entire set of 29 kids started forming teams. One boy, who was puny and lean was left out. He wasn’t picked by anyone.

“Why don’t you pick him?”, asked the captain of one of the teams. “He is a weakling, I don’t want him in my team”. “Neither do I”, said the cap!

The puny little kid stood up – took the ball and threw it beyond the roof. He gave a death stare at both the captains who apparently thought ‘lean’ meant weak. He slowly walked away from the scene, where one guy was crying as it was his ball that was now lying on the roof of The Ivory Tutelage school.

When all the other kids were playing, this little kid, who was 9 years old, was actually reading ‘The Secret Seven’ series that the librarian was kind enough to let him take. The school’s library was firm on one thing – a strict no-borrow policy. Kids were allowed to read books only during their reading hour. But with this kid, the librarian was okay with bending the rules, slightly.

(When you think about it, this definitely sounds like a stupid-ass rule. Anyway, back to the story.)

As he was sitting in the cement slab under the shade, diving into Enid Blyton’s world, a shuttle hit him on his head. Thank God it was not a ball, as we all know this guy – the ball would be in the roof by now. He looked up and saw who hit him and noticed that a bunch of girls were laughing from a distance, but for this one girl who came walking towards him.

“Are you okay?”, she asked. “This is only a shuttle. You girls aren’t strong enough to injure me with this,” replied our guy. He was definitely mean for his size.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit this on you. But you don’t have to be so rude about it”, she said.

Our guy was taken aback. This girl was sweet and sharp at the same time. Now he was intrigued. “I am not rude. This is how I talk”, he said. “Well, then change the way you talk or you won’t have any friends”, she said.

“So if I talk differently, will I get friends?”, asked our guy in a very melodramatic tone. That’s it. This 8-year-old who spent two minutes with our guy had actually made him think about the way he talks and now, he’s wanting to make friends. NICE!

“Definitely. From now on, I will be your friend. Let’s shake hands.” She offered her hand and smiled at our guy.

“You are my first friend here. All the guys here make fun of me because I’m very thin and small. I know I am stronger than all of them and if I hit any of them, they’ll go crying to their amma and appa. But I don’t want to do that”, he said and shook her hand.

“Why? Because your parents will get angry and punish you?”, she giggled. “I don’t have amma and appa. I am an orphan. They didn’t want me, I guess. They left me in this home right after I was born.”

“Oh so you’re like me too? I don’t have amma and appa either. This uncle whom I call ‘Chacha’ is the one who is taking care of me. Today morning, he said that he is going out of town for a few years and I will have to join the children’s home. Looks like we can be friends there too”, she said, without a hint of sadness in her tone.

Our guy was amazed by how confident this little girl was. She was all alone and had to move to a completely different place and start living there. Yet, she showed no despair. WOW, he thought.

“Okay, what’s your name?” asked the little girl.

“Amar“, replied our guy. “And yours?”, asked Amar.

“Gayathri“, she said.

“And that’s my Chacha. Chacha, this is my friend Amar”.

“Hello uncle, my name is Amar. What’s your name?”

The dude was impressed by the confidence of this little kid. He shook his little hand and with a grin on his face, said “Hi Amar. Nice meeting you. Do you want to know my name?”

“Yes, uncle.”

“Vikram.”