The boy was considered the brightest one in the family; not just in the current generation but for many generations past. He stood first in the class. He knew everything about everything. He did not talk much but when he started talking, he talked for a long time. He was current with current affairs. He could recite the names of Prime ministers and Presidents of 67 countries. He excelled in maths and physics. He excelled in chemistry and biology too. He did not like history and geography but consistently stood first in the class in these subjects too. He stood first in all the subjects in all the tests and exams that he has attended since he started attending test and exams. He was good at sport... No, that's not true.
When he was seven, on the sports day, the PT master forced his name into the list of high jump contestants. He informed the PT master that he had never done a high jump in his life. He should have said, he had never participated in any sport or physical activity earlier. But, that would not have made any difference to the PT master. The master was not interested in history and as a result was not aware of the beginnings of civilization and movement of homo sapiens from hunting to farming. It goes without saying that the PT master had no awareness of the renaissance and the industrial revolution. For him, homo sapiens, whom he referred to as man, still lived in the jungles and had to run and jump tall and short hurdles to save himself from an approaching tiger or to bring down a deer to feed himself. So he did not take heed of the boy's words. He responded "High jump is easy. You see that bar kept at a height. You have to run till that and jump above it as soon as you reach close to it. When I look at you, I think you can at least clear one and half metres." The boy did not seem convinced. "But I don't know how to jump". The master retorted "What nonsense! Everyone knows how to jump. Now, you jump and show me." The boy jumped a few centimetres off the ground. The master felt disappointed. "You bend your knees and then push yourself off the ground like this." The PT master's jump was ten times higher than the boy's. "Ok, you practise here." Before the boy could react the master had moved away.
Thirty minutes later, the boy heard his name being called out. The boy tentatively walked to the high jump area. The master waved at him and shouted "Run!" The boy ran slowly towards the starting point. The master asked him to take his position for the jump. The boy stood and looked at the high jump bar, which was placed higher than he expected. He turned towards and attempted to ask the master "is that one and half metres?" But the master cut him off with a "Be quiet". So he continued to stare at the bar. In a few seconds, he was startled by the master blowing the whistle. He looked at the master perplexed. The master shouted "Go! Jump!" The boy started running. The master shouted "Faster, faster". The boy ran faster. The master shouted "Faster, faster". The boy ran faster. The master shouted "Why are you walking? Run!" The boy ran faster. The master said "Run, run, run!" The boy ran faster. He had nearly reached the high jump bar when he heard the master shout "Stop! Don't jump." But it was too late; the boy had started his jump. It was not much of a jump. The high jump bar was in line with his mouth. He saw the bar rushing towards him and involuntarily pushed out his hands. The bar hit his palms and flew away. In the process, he saved his mouth from injury. Couple of seconds later, he landed on the sand pit with his hands stretched out still. He spent the next two months with both his hands in the cast. Since then, he avoided sports days, sports field, games period and any sort of physical activity at school, including march past for Independence Day.
In this manner the conversations continued. One can notice that each member of the group took feed from other members in the group but each of them was talking about a topic which had no connection with the other's topics. Every one came out of the journey with a lot of misinformation but for them the 'mis' part got missed in the din.
Meanwhile, a group of cousins crowded around the boy and listened to him intently. This was not a discussion. The boy talked and the others listened. The listeners were so awed by the boy that they did not dare to utter a word even if they had something to say or ask. The boy talked about physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, sociology, anthropology, cinema, books and many other topics. He was so confident in everything he said that he seemed like an expert in all the topics that he talked about. The boy did not talk loudly; he never talked loudly, he was always composed. Yet the noise of the surroundings did not bother this group. They sat in a circle with their heads touching each other. It seemed like the words from the boy travelled to through each person's ear to the next. A few children got bored of listening to the boy after an hour or so. But they did not move away from the group as they were worried that they might be considered not intelligent if they did so. Besides, even if they moved out, they could have done nothing but to listen to the adults, which would have been excruciatingly boring. So the boy's audience did not reduce for most part of the trip.
Three hours later, the group got out of the train and stretched themselves in various shapes. Some preferred the over head hand stretch, others the sideways hand stretch, while a few did the bending down and touching the feet stretch, but others... Well, you get the point. Their bodies had shrunk in the cramped space inside the compartment. Now, they tried to unshrink themselves. The temple was at a distance of nine kilometres from train station. The large family travelled the distance in four horse carts. The horse struggled to pull the weight of the members of the family through the distance. But the tips of the whips stinging on their backs was motivation enough for them to continue. After an hour, the horses reached the family's destination. They let out a collective sigh of relief when the people got out of the cart. The cart drivers haggled for additional fare from the family by complaining "Sir, too many people", "Look at my horse sir, its back is nearly broken because of the load", "The wheel sir, it needs fixing now". The accounts manager of the family was unmoved and did not part with a paise more. The cart owners walked dejectedly back to their carts and gently tapped their horse's back. The horses were too tired to appreciate the caring act from their owners. They hung their heads low and stared vacantly at the ground.
The boy looked at the hill and said with disappointment in his voice "That's it! This is the hill! Its small. It is nothing compared to the Tirupati hill". The elders in the family were angered by this blasmphemic statement. "Shhh! Don't say such things", "Hanuman is a powerful god, he will get angry", "Will someone ask that boy to shutup!", "This is what education does to children", "Yes, they no longer respect anyone or anything". The boy ignored the protests and continued to look at the hill disapprovingly. He said to no one in particular "Are you sure this temple is powerful? This hill too small to have a powerful temple." The boys mother held the boy's hand and dragged him towards the steps that led to the top before anyone could react to the boy's statement.
The climb to the temple was not long but the climb was slow as the family was large and old age had caught up with some of the members of the family. The younger ones got impatient at the slow pace of the climb and did not wait for the elders. But they were forced to stop when they heard names being shouted out by their relatives. They complained and waited. The boy sat on the steps and looked around. He saw a troop of monkeys close by. He pointed at them and said "Look monkeys." The children looked at the monkeys with amusements. Like their own family the younger monkeys were jumping around busily from tree to tree while the older ones sat conserving their energy. A few of the younger monkeys were bold enough to come close to the children and then run away. The boy pointed at one of them and said "This one could possibly a great great great great great great grand nephew of Hanuman." The children found the statement amusing and laughed. The young monkey seemed to take objection to the children mocking it and jumped right into the group. The children screamed and ran away. The older monkey felt threatened by the noise and approached the group to take care of the safety of the young monkey. The boy did not move quick enough to get away from the monkey who approached him from above and grabbed at his face. It got hold of his spectacles and jumped away.
The boy shouted "My specs!" The family ran upto him. His mother wrapped him in her arms and said "Oh my God! Are you alright?" A few members of the family coaxed, cajoled and threatened the monkey to give back the spectacles. The monkey ignored them for it was inspecting the spectacles with interest. It did not know what it was or what could be done with it. It wondered if it was a food item and tried to bite into it. The spectacles was too hard and it did not taste like anything it knew. It pointing it towards the ground and looked at it. The lens came between the monkey's eyes and the ground. The sight shocked the monkey. It let out a screech and threw it away. The spectacles fell on the ground below. Two brave aunts retrieved the spectacles. One of them said "One of the lens is cracked but it is usable still." The mother protested "But the monkey bit into it." The boy said "It can be washed. I can't see properly without it." The aunts washed the spectacles thoroughly and wiped it with a towel. They then handed it to the boy who wore it and said "Its not bad. Its usable."
At that moment, one of the children said "Hanuman punished him". Almost immediately the other children agreed and recited the incidents prior to the monkey attacking the group. All the adults in the family looked at the boy accussingly who cowered behind his mother. The mother took hold of his hands and walked ahead. When they were at some distance from the remaining family she said "Why can't to you avoid saying such things?" The boy protested "I was only joking." The mother became angry. "You can't joke about god." The boy said "This is all superstition. It has nothing to do with god." The mother cut him off before he could proceed further "I don't want you open your mouth till we get back home." The boy felt sad and angry. He looked at the ground and walked ahead. He avoided the group from then. The children tried to talk to him but he moved away from them. A few of them apologized but he did not accept the apologies. The older ones in the family tried to talk to him but he did not respond. When his mother offered him food and water, he shook his head and walked away.
An hour later, the family started going down the hill. The boy walked besides his mother quietly. He continued to look at the ground. The mother tried talking to him but he did not respond. When they had reached half way down the hill, the boy suddenly collapsed. The mother screamed his name and the sothers crowded around him. A number of medical advices flowed from the different members of the family. The mother sprinkled water on his face. The boy opened his eyes and looked at the people around him. He felt confused "What happened?" The mother with tears flowing down from her eyes said "Thank god! You are okay." The boy said "I want water." The mother gave him the water bottle. He sat up and drank some water. His father said "You have not eaten or drank water for a long time." The mother said "I offered them to you many times. Why did you not eat or drink?" He looked at his mother confused "You are the one who told me to not open my mouth till we reach home. How can I eat or drink without opening my mouth?" Everyone laughed. The troublesome eldest uncle of the family said "This is what happens when you make fun of God. Why did you unnecessarily compare this hill with Tirupathi hills?" Everyone looked at the boy accussingly. The boy closed his eyes and thought "Another five years, I am escaping this mad family. I will get admission in that college and stay in the hostel. I will never ever come back to this family."
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