The Irony of Life(Chapter 2)

The school was huge, in general terms, it was a big a** school. It had around 2000 students, in only 9 grades. There were 3 playgrounds, each bigger than the previous one, and the smallest one was about 3 times the area of your average big park. The only downside to the school, everything was miles apart, the classrooms were at least a kilometer away from the boarding area, the dining hall, felt like as if it was thousands of miles away, kids joining in the 5^th standard who looked like Walter Hudson, looked like a yoga master by the end of the year. On top of that the PT teachers were so strict, they looked like as if they would swallow you up whole the moment you asked for a water break.

The PT sessions used to occur at 5 am in the morning every day, except for Sunday(Thank God), the sessions used to be extremely grueling, they used to make the kids trek ALL the way up the slopes and down after the PT sessions for fitness’ sake, it felt more like as if they were taking out their anger of their fights with their wife the previous night. The kids always had one question in mind,”Does he fight so much with his wife?”

Life at the hostel was really tough, especially for a kid like Abhishek who used to love his parents, he could do anything in the world for them, his parents used to love him equally. Then, why did they send him to a hostel? To let him know how life feels, away from parents, away from their protection, to get him to know how life works, and he understood that, that’s why he never blamed his parents for sending him to that brobdingnagian school. He tried to fit in, but he used to miss his parents so much, that every now and then, he would make an excuse in order for them to come to Nainital all the way from Delhi. They would come too, along with his sister.

Every day was a new experience at school, he would make new friends, have fights over petty issues, argue with teachers over there improper concepts, some teachers used to love him for his intelligence(the smart ones), others used to despise him. Slowly but steadily, he became engrossed in that school, loving his breakfast, loving the Tuesday lunches, the Friday dinners, hating every other meal, loving the teachers, loving the PT routines, loving the races from the dormitory to the dining hall. It became a daily schedule for him. But one thing Abhishek really loved, was walking from the classroom to anywhere he wanted when the school bell rang, admiring the beauty of the trees around him ,lushful and green, always wet, a soothing aura emanating from them, the huge picturesque view of Nainital that could be seen from the school as it was at the highest inhabitable altitude in the world. He would love the slow speed at that point, slowing down life to a point it would almost appear rhythmic, all the other kids would rush to the playgrounds, but he would love sweeping by the place, walking slowly, listening to the slow breeze travelling through the trees, the monkeys jumping around, making that oo-oo-aa-aa-ee-ee sounds, it was all very wonderful.

He stopped calling his parents for a while then, realizing how much money would be spent on a single trip to Nainital just because of him. Then he just, kind of, fit in.

All was good for a while until that rock climbing trip to Baara Patthar, later on, everything would change.