White & Black

I was 8 years old. It was just an usual day, I had taken bath n was praying to god, today also it was the same wish “hey bhagwaan mujhe mann ki shakti aur vidya de”.(I always wondered why in my childhood days I was in habit of making this wish everyday, may be mother would have taught. But now I have realized these are really important assets, and have started making the same wish with few more additions.Wishes are increasing with age :) ........).
As soon as I finished my wish, there was a knock on the door, Opening the door I found an unknown middle aged man, with a sheet of paper in his hand.

“Where is your father” he asked
“Babujiiiiiiiii“ I called
fixing his eyes on the sheet of paper ,He told “Prasadji, your son has been considered for the admission to BIV 6A in second list”.( I was denied admission on the basis of test, reason I knew was close to blank paper I submitted for English section. But since school was new, they even considered genius like me)

New school, new uniform, big playgrounds. Waah (Wow), I felt great in my heart.

In the meantime the person had explained about the fee structure, and I could easily see the happiness on my father’s face fading away, I guess he was not aware of it before, monthly fees of Rs 30, admission charges of 200, costlier books, new uniform, extra tuition fees(as nobody knew English in my family).He was calculating at the back of his mind how his humble monthly earning is going to support this extra ….finding it difficult to manage a family of 8 persons with a daughter of marriageable age.
My eldest sister, finding Babuji in state of dilemma said “Babuji, ghar me koi angrezi nahin padha hai, randhir ko ek mauka hai, jyada mat sochiye, kisi na kisi tarah manage ho hi jayega”. My sister wanted to become a nurse, but lack of resources accompanied with the conservative approach of family shattered her dreams, but she wanted dreams of mine to be alive.
Babuji agreed quickly, I believe he was waiting for gentle push from some body.Sometimes you want something to happen, but there are obstacles around you to stop doing that, you just need few words of hope and support “thik hai ho jayega, chalo karte hai” and things start clicking.
I was jubilant .Binod bhaiya is no more going to tease me for failure and now I need not attend that Hindi medium school and that too from today itself :)

Today I believe that, decision taken was the turning point of my life because I don’t see students of my previous school at any good position, not even the brightest of my class mates, The reason being Hindi medium! Incredible India.

I was admitted, Got new books, all in English (Thank god at least Hindi textbook was in Hindi), white shirt being common in both schools, what we needed was trouser, a gentleman’s tie and a pair of BLACK shoes.

I With My Father and one uncle whom we called Lalan cha were returning from the market. I think we took tie there, readymade, one with elastic :) .In the way there was a shoe shop named ‘Mangru joota dukan’. We had to order shoes there. I will never forget that shop and I think nobody else can, the peculiarity about that shop was the Grand Old man who owned that shop, I wondered how that Old-Old man could make shoes, He worked with big needles and small but solid hammer, and did not even use glasses.Lots of finished shoes were hanging on the wall and they were good, Mangru was fine at his work. He looked like 150 years old; this was the guess of a 8 year old boy :).
Babuji told him that he wants a pair of black shoes for me and enquired about the price, He told “50 rupeya lagega” .I did not know how big 50 rupees amount was, but suddenly I realized 50 rupees is a big amount! How I realized that is still a question for me, may be father would have said ‘ok’ after a long pause or would have replied in a manner that revealed that he was running short of money!
We came out of the shop without ordering the shoes, thinking that we can try somewhere else for lower price. Then I told Babuji “hum joota nahin lenge”. I will get my white shoes painted black; I don’t know how that idea clicked? And I got adamant about it and it got executed .My brother was a good painter and he painted the shoes with plastic paint and I was ready with my new shoes.

Now today when I look back and think over this incident, I realize this philosophy of “Making adjustments and keep moving” played the crucial role in the survival of my family. And why just my family, I believe this is the case with most of Indian families.

BTW my brother was not a good painter as I used to believe earlier, He made a silly mistake during painting as he forgot to paint the base of shoes. So the situation was like this, it was black everywhere except at the base, Once when I was trying to kick football like Diego Maradona,my friend noticed the white base and asked the reason ,I replied after a pause” This is Chinese shoe” ,He exclaimed “achhhaaaaa, bada stylish hai yaar” …