Reckless as I was, I tempted my teachers to hand me yet another punishment. I love challenges and especially those which feed my pride.

I had violated the rules of my school again and my teachers were dead serious about giving me a major punishment this time. In other words, my teachers were fed up of me and really wanted to teach me a lesson I would never forget.

As they joined their heads to come up with a punishment for me, suddenly my physics teacher, who was a recycle freak, got an idea. He had three worn out shirts with him. He put his idea forward that I must sell these shirts for altogether Rs1000, or else I would be asked to leave the school for a week.

Thus the three shirts were handed over to me and my time started right away. The shirts smelt like rotten eggs and the shirts, which had once been white, were now antique brown. The punishment seemed too cruel to me, I was upset, to say the least. I thought I must find either a blind or a crazy person to sell these shirts to in a thousand rupees.

I ran into my mother’s arms. I had tears in my eyes, but I didn’t let them flow so as not to appear as a coward. My mother boosted my morale and encouraged me to face the challenge. Then I turned to my friends for help, but one of them simply advised me to get admission in another school. This made me more upset and I realised I was better off thinking of a solution on my own.

I sat near the window of my room and kept thinking for hours but nothing came to my mind. It was then that I realised we laugh together with friends but weep alone. Pondering on how to sell those shirts was like finding a needle in the haystack. The fear of being punished was too great to bear. I lay wide awake for a long time, thinking of a way out of my trouble.

The next day, I was up early. I washed one of the shirts and let it dry. After that, I stitched the tattered side as neatly as I could. This comforted me a little. I then went to the market and stood outside a shop, hoping to catch the attention of people going inside. None seem to me interested in the piece I was holding.

Later I went to a shopkeeper selling clothes. He was old, with very little hair and wore glasses on the edge of his nose. I offered him the shirt but soon I realised that I must leave the shop with dignity. I tried to persuade other people, but it all turned out to be in vain.

Hours later, a labourer bought the shirt for Rs100. After all the sales talk and arguments, all what I received was Rs100! It was not fair!

The trip to the market was enough to make me give up the idea of trying to sell the other two. Two days passed, my fear grew and I went to my friends again, but none helped.

It was while I was sobbing that I had another idea. I ran towards the market at the speed of light and bought some fabric paints. I took the second shirt and drew Mickey Mouse on it. I made patched hearts on it. I utilised the money gained from the previous shirt and bought few balloons. I blew them and offered the balloons free with the shirt.

I went to a festival taking place nearby. Luckily, a kid liked my artistic efforts and he forced his parents to handover Rs500 to me.

I was as happy as lark because I was getting nearer to my target. Now I had to sell the third shirt. I used threads of different colours to make some patterns on it. Two days later there was the concert of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and my family was planning on attending it. I was eagerly looking forward to it.

Finally, when the day arrived, I was on cloud nine and after the concert, I rushed for an autograph. Luckily, I succeeded in taking an autograph from the singer on the shirt. The very next day, I again went to the market to sell the shirt and two businessmen quarrelled for the shirt as it had the original autograph of the singer on it. I was dumbstruck.

One of the businessmen bought that shirt for Rs3000. I was surprised beyond words. I raced towards my home and as the distance was narrowing, I felt the earth was moving beneath my feet like the clouds in the sky.

I told my mum about it, she was so happy at my achievement. She hugged me while my father patted my head. When my teachers got to know that I managed to accomplish the task I was given, they were surprised.

Since then I, like my physics teacher, started to recycle things and learnt a lasting lesson that we should never give up and keep believing in our talent.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 10th, 2018