Hera the Hero

“Don’t pick your nose, you look so disgusting when you do that”, yelled the school teacher. He looked at the teacher and thought, “Who cares”, and continued picking his nose – it was fun! Hera was a very active boy. He studied in third standard of a very reputed school. So reputed that the school will not admit a child if his parents were not graduates. Obviously, Hera’s parents were very proud and Hera was, like always, ignorant.

It was just another day. Hera jumped into his dad’s car and was all set for school time. He loved sitting by the window and watching. As soon as the smooth drive started, he started admiring the skyscrapers. His admiration went a little beyond and changed into delight when he imagined the skyscrapers to be huge cone ice creams. He saw different colors, flavors and sizes of ice creams. Hera shouted, “Dad! Look at that giant dark chocolate ice cream. It has nuts on top too”. The scream disturbed his dad’s thought process, he was thinking about work. He said, “Hera my hero, I am a little preoccupied now. Can we talk about your ice creams later?”. The gleaming face of Hera shrunk, “Ok dad. They are not just ice creams, they are giant ones”. Till they reached school, all that lasted was silence. Hera slept well.

School was routine. Hera exactly knew what had to be done. Primarily his activities were limited between the classrooms and toilets. Oh! And there were breaks too. He enjoyed the lunch breaks that lasted for 30 minutes. That was the only time when he could talk to his best friends, Ritu and Anand. Well, school was a routine but the innocent talks were definitely a moment of randomness to Hera. Hera had reached school well ahead of time and he decided to sit and wait for other kids to come. He was hoping to play before he entered his classroom.  He waited and the final bell, to enter the classroom, rang. “Argh”, Hera frowned and started walking sluggishly towards his classroom. He said “Argh” again and this time because his bag was heavier than his imaginary dumbbell.

“May I come in? uh..please” requested Hera. “You are late! Look at all your friends. They were inside the room 5 minutes prior to the final bell. Where were you?” asked his teacher. Hera was confused. “How on earth did I miss seeing all of…oh, how did I miss seeing Ritu and Anand enter the school? I was right there. I was waiting for.. I was.. I was…but..and what happened?” thought Hera. “I heard the bell just now and I came running to the class” said Hera. “He was moving like a turtle teacher, I saw him while I was running” yelled a student from the class. “Argh”, Hera frowned again and was disappointed to see someone let him down. “Hera!” shouted the teacher and said “You cannot be this lazy. You forget to do your homework. You are not attentive in the class. You have no discipline and etiquette….”. By then Hera was lost in his thoughts, dreaming about a tiny fire spitting dragon that laughed while spitting fire, as he could not understand what his teacher was mentioning. “And there you go picking your nose again. Shame on you!”. The class burst out laughing. Ritu and Anand were looking at Hera with dismay. Hera burst out weeping. The fire was put off and the tiny dragon transformed into meaningless tears. “Stand out for 15 minutes and then you can step in. This is your last warning Hera. And stop crying like a baby” blabbered the teacher and continued marking attendance.

Hera stood out - of the classroom. He was still confused. He really could not understand how he turned up late to the class. The confusion changed into a bunch of clouds, just that the clouds had all the colors of a rainbow. He was sitting on the cloud and reciting aloud

One, two and three
Look what I see
four, five, six and seven
Colors in mighty heaven
One, two and three
Look what I see!!

“Why are you not inside the classroom child?” Cloud of confusion disappeared and he saw a tall lady standing in front of him. His neck hurt while he attempted to look at her for more than a minute. The lady knelt down in front of him and repeated “Why are you not inside the classroom child?”.

“I was asked to stand out because I was picking my nose..No..no..because I am lazy…oh no…because I didn’t…no…YES..Because I was late to the class.” The lady asked “but I saw you entering our school way ahead of time”. “I don’t know. May be I went blind because I don’t remember seeing any of my friends enter the school” said Hera with a shrunk face. “Hmmm..anyway..do you like coming to school?”. “I like it. I get to meet Ritu and Anand”, said Hera. “And?”. “Eh..I get to pick my nose because my mother doesn’t let me do that at home. But I don’t think I can do that in school now. The teacher finds me disgusting too” said Hera. “Oh! Picking your nose is not a good habit. It can spread infection. You can fall sick and you can make your friends Ritu and Anand fall sick too. Will you like it? Hera was never so shocked in his life before. “Really?” asked Hera. “Oh! I don’t want my friends to fall sick. I can fall sick and I know my mother will take care of me. If picking nose is going to make Ritu and Anand sick then I promise, pinky promise, that I won’t do it ever, never again”. The lady smiled at his innocence and continued talking, “So, do you want to get in and sit with your friends now?”. Hera jumped up and down with joy and was all set to sit next to his best friends, said “YES. YES. YES. YES”. The lady instructed the teacher to let the kid inside and the teacher obliged.

The bell rang. It was lunch break. Hera dragged Ritu and Anand out of the classroom and went to the Neem tree, which was the only tree amidst the tiny plants, before the spot could be occupied by some other gang. They sat there chatting and sharing food. Hera was talking about his heavy dumbbell and how he exercises daily to build his muscle and become strong. Ritu loved listening to Hera as it took her to a very different world, a world of amusement. Anand would listen and pull Hera’s leg now and then. Three of them loved being together and loved laughing without reasons. While they were chatting, Anand said “Sorry Hera. I saw you sleeping at the stairs but before I could wake you up I saw our class teacher walk hurriedly to our class and I panicked. I ran to the class without you. I am really sorry you had to stand out because of me”. Hera felt great relief and thanked Anand. Anand was confused now. “Why are you thanking me? It was my fault”. Hera said, “Since morning I was breaking my head thinking how I missed seeing all of you. I am glad to know that I just fell asleep and didn’t turn blind. We should celebrate. I am alright. I thought something went wrong. I thought…”. And then it was only laughter, cheers, hugs and kisses that the Neem tree witnessed. The breeze was chill and gentle. The bell rang again!

The day somehow came to end at the school. Different subjects had tired Hera a lot. He looked dull and so did Ritu and Anand. They were waiting for the final bell to ring and the jingle bells rang! What Joy! Kids sprung out of the school – the jacks out of the box. Hera bid adieu to his friends and promised to meet them tomorrow before school. He ran to his dad’s car and was ready to hop in for the smooth drive. All of a sudden the tall lady called him, “Child! Sorry. I didn’t ask your name. What’s your name?”. He said “Hera”. “Oh! You are a gem. Is that your father?”. He said, “Yes, he drops and picks me up every day. He is a superman. Just that at times he won’t listen to me. But it’s okay. I often don’t listen to him too”. Hera’s dad was watching the scene with anxiety. He asked the principal, “Is everything okay? Has he not behaved in his class properly? Should I warn him?”. “Please. No. Nothing has gone wrong. I just wanted to tell you that Hera cannot look disgusting no matter what he does. He is your child” Hera’s dad didn’t understand a word of what she said and the principal explained it to him in detail. Hera watched everything with no reaction and before he could drift into his world his dad called him “hop in Hera. Let’s go home. Shall we?” Hera happily hopped in and hoped to see lots of giant ice creams on his way back home.

Hera asked, “Dad, is sleeping being lazy? Is walking slowly, because of my dumbbell and schoolbag, bad?” His dad said, “No! not at all. Sleeping is good. It keeps your healthy. And you have a valid reason to walk slowly. Nothing wrong Hera”. “Hmmm. Can I pick my nose?” His dad said, “No. It is a bad habit. I think you know the reason why. Your principal told me about it.” Hera smiled, “But for my nose-picking whatever you tell me and whatever my teacher tells me, only confuse me. But it’s great, I meet my tiny dragon, Mr. cloud and many other friends while I am confused”. Hera continued admiring the giant ice-creams. His dad went speechless and realized that few of the buildings do look like giant ice creams, and mumbled “Hera, you are my hero”!

Hera shouted, “I want to become a bodybuilder when I grow up!!!”

Contd..

Laugh without any reason. Teach with proper reasons. Wrong reasons can ruin a moment and a future!