By S.U.I.

WE come across a lot of stories which contain moral lessons. There are stories that teach us to do well and stay away from bad situations and stories that teach us to keep our heads down and get on with the course of the life. While there are quite a few stories that emphasis on the fact that sometimes friends get mean too, staying loyal during our good times and unfaithful during our bad times.

But I don’t really agree with this point of view. Why? Well I learned it from a personal experience.

It was a nice Monday morning. The day had gone fairly well, but then the third period started. Things just seem to go awry during this particular period. So like each day, things got a bit bad on this day too. The teacher came very late, and as usual, I felt I was the king of the class.

“Hey you! Aren’t you bit dry?” I shouted at my friend and threw water on him. That was enough to get everyone started and soon my friends and I started our little acts of mischief. We just went on and on. There was water everywhere – as if it was a fish market. I got so lost in the fun that I got carried away and out of nowhere I jumped from a table (that was already placed on another table) and grabbed the bracket fan in midair.

“Crash!”

As expected, the fan came crashing down with a sound loud enough to attract half the school in our classroom. My friends were dumbstruck, as for me, I was in a state that could best be defined as ‘confused, stunned and terrified, all mixed in the same water.’

After the shock, the first thought that came to my mind was of my parents (well my mother, to be specific) and thought of what they will do to me once they find out about this. At this point, my brain started to make all kinds of stories and excuses that it thought would keep me out of trouble, but every single one was more absurd than the last one.

The principal came in. You can imagine her as Miss Agatha Trunchball from Matilda.

“Stand up! Stand up all of you!”

In my school, standing up is the first stage of punishment and believe me it makes you feel quite guilty.

“Now, I want every detail of what happened and who did it?” she demanded. I knew I was busted. No way was I going to get out of this one.

My friends kept their mouth sealed and I prayed that it remained this way until all this became a distant memory. She continuously questioned us, however, none of us replied.

“No answers? If there is no confession and if nobody tells me what happened here and who was behind all this, then you people can say goodbye to your sports period and your lunch breaks for the rest of the term. None of you will be allowed to participate in any extra-curricular activities. You will not be allowed any field trips or tours. If you don’t want all that to happen, someone should start telling the truth right now!”

The threats got some of my friends to talk, but I could not believe my ears! They were telling some of the most ridiculous cock and bull stories that I have ever heard and not a single one of them took my name. The principal also sensed the falsehood in the recounts and she kind of went berserk. All her threats became real as a consequence and we had to listen to a very stern lecture for another half an hour or so.

Anyway, my parents still don’t know of about the events of that day (thank God) and I think I am going to keep it this way for a bit longer (at least till I pass this academic year). I still think of what happened that day as a ‘stunt gone wrong’ but what my friends did for me still makes me cry (okay that was a serious overstatement!). They were loyal to me at the expense of their own privileges. Many people will say that they kept their mouth shut because they too were my ‘partners in crime’ and giving me up would have meant giving themselves up too. To such people I’d like to say, “Take a closer look. It was I who had more on line and more to lose than my friends.”

That was the day I realised that friends make your life worth living! And for this, I owe them never-ending gratitude.