‘Bham... bham, bham, bham’
Four
innocent scrawls were etched on the pristinely white paper using an Add Gel
pen. John stared at the words for a few minutes, his eyebrows furrowed in deep though.
He added one more ‘bham’ at the end
of his first line.
John Thomas
was starting on his English assignment. He had been sitting on it for a week.
And since the teacher had insisted on seeing them on her desk by Monday
morning, he had started writing his brilliantly thought out story on that rain
drenched Saturday afternoon. But the sudden appearance of the sun and an
equally sudden appearance of eight young boys in shorts and shoes with a
muddied football between them had weakened his sagging resolve. With the story
poised expectantly at four words, he had run off to join in the joyous chorus
that greeted the sun. Now it was Sunday evening and his mind was grappling with
the plots and sub plots of his very own G.I. Joe story. In the untidy upstairs
room of a small suburban house, John looked at the figure of Duke as it stood
menacingly on his table with a big gun in its hands and wondered how he could
bring G. I. Joe to India.
John loved
G. I. Joe. Every day at 5 in the evening, he would plant himself in front of
the television for half an hour of guns, explosions and daring missions as Duke
and his team of handpicked fighters battled to save the world from evil. His
worst nightmares had Cobra Commander, the terrorist commander, coming home and
trying to shoot him. He looked at Duke and then at himself in the mirror. How
he wished he was not short, thin and small. He wanted to be like Duke, big and
strong, carrying big guns and flying fighter planes and helicopters. Shyam wouldn't make fun of him then. He went back to Cobra’s plan of attack. He
wondered what Cobra’s target would be. Not Bangalore, he didn't want his mother
and father and his friends to die. He thought for some time and continued to
scribble.
‘....Cobra commandos suddenly swept
down into the city of Mumbai. They started shooting everyone. They had come to
steal the top secret plane that India had developed. The Indian Scientists and
the Indian Army, loaded the plane on a ship and got ready to evacuate. By then,
Cobra Commandos had taken control of the city, Raptor fighter planes and Viper
helicopters attacked the city from above. H.I.S.S battle tanks and heavily
armed soldiers patrolled the city. The only resistance was around the ship,
which was almost sinking after being hit by two missiles.....’
He wondered
if he should make Cobra Commander kill the Mayor and the Police Commissioner on
live TV. Suddenly heard footsteps on the stairs and the door opened, letting in
his mother who came in with a big mug of Boost. He hid the sheet under a stack
of Justice League comics. She would see the story only when it was over. He sat
drinking Boost and leafing through a Tinkle while she tidied up his room. She
placed the action figures and Hotwheels cars lying on the floor back on the
shelves. He proudly looked up at the big collection he had. The figures of
Scarlet, Shipwreck, Snake Eyes, Bazooka and Cobra Commander looked down at him.
Lying next to them was a broken model of the Batmobile and a figure of Robin
missing an arm. He smiled expectantly as he pictured a GI Joe Wolfhound there
instead of the Batmobile. How he wished his birthday would come sooner.
A siren
wailed at a distance and he heard the soft thumps of fireworks. It seemed India
had won the game against South Africa in the Chinnaswamy Stadium. If it were not
for the assignment he would have been watching that match. He picked up his mug
and looked at the chipped face of Sachin Tendulkar smiling at him. Maybe he
should kill Sachin. He lived in Mumbai anyway. No, he liked Sachin. It should be
Symonds. He didn’t like him at all. There would be an India vs Australia match
in Mumbai on that day. A missile strikes the ground and Symonds dies. He smiled
and continued the story as the soft whirring of a vacuum cleaner started in the
front room below him.
‘... Many of the soldiers protecting
the ship were badly wounded and Cobra commandos were going to capture the
plane when a sudden hail of missiles and bullets rained down upon the Cobra
forces around the ship. Shipwreck, Bazooka and Heavy Duty arrive with a team to
help the soldiers at the ship. Scarlet
and Duke went to the headquarters of Cobra while the others fought the enemy
soldiers on the streets...’
The story
continued - G. I. Joe commandos fought hard to regain control of Mumbai. He
described how all the hostages were valiantly rescued in the battle that went
on into the night and how Cobra Commander, ran away at the end. He heard an
ambulance again, and the fireworks were closer now. Lokesh’s father must have
bought the crackers. He wrote faster. He didn't want to miss any of the
crackers.
‘..The President of India awarded
medals to the brave soldiers of....’
Now they
were right in front of his house. That meant even Naren has bought crackers. As
he quickly wrote his name and roll number in the right hand bottom corner, he
heard a crash and the sound of tinkling glass from the room below. Mum must
have broken something; she would be in a bad mood.
‘.....
John Thomas
Std VI ‘A’
Roll No: 17 ’
John Thomas
Std VI ‘A’
Roll No: 17 ’
The sirens
kept blaring, now closer home. He grabbed the two sheets of white paper in one
hand and the stick figure of Duke in the other and ran down the stairs
triumphantly.
His mother
lay in the front room, blood pooling around her. A big blotch of red marred the
flowery cream of her nightgown. As he ran towards her shouting, he tripped on
the wire of the vacuum cleaner that still kept droning on. Duke fell down on
its back, its plastic gun pointing at the rotors of a fan lazily going round
and round as two white sheets of paper, bruised and tainted, fluttered about in
their wake.
