My Tryst With Destiny

The python was closing in. I brushed past some bushes, and hoped that the python would forget about me and decide to look elsewhere for his luncheon coolie. But the python, whom I was finding, with each passing minute, to be an intensely disagreeable character, had a different perspective of things. He brushed past the bushes that separated our persons, with ease and aplomb, as if he had been brushing past bushes since he was a mere suckling. I was wondering whether I would be able to coax this rather disagreeable python to the negotiating table, where I hoped I could make it clear to him that the Warrier body would not be an ideal choice to dine on.

As I was going to hit the python head-on with the full force of my eloquence, the python asked me whether I was sleeping in class. I was in a quandary. I could not digest the fact that the python, whom I had, till that moment, never considered to be an intellectual giant, was speaking so clearly. Then, the python began to morph. I was terrified. I supposed that these were my first visions of hell. I immediately regretted the sinful life I had led, all 16 years of it. To my surprise, the python had begun to resemble my History teacher. I was sure by then that Satan had sentenced me to an eternal torture of having to listen to History lectures till the end of time, as penance for all the times that I had fallen asleep in the History class. It was at this moment, when I was delving on the ghastliness of the ghastly torture I had been sentenced to, that realization dawned on me.

I realized, to my elation, that I had not met my end in some remote corner of an Amazonian jungle. I also realized, to my sorrow, that my fate was much worse than that. I had hfallen asleep under the eyes of my beloved History teacher.

My History teacher was looking at me with a penetrating gaze.� I wilted under the sheer intensity of the gaze. I tried to calm her down with a (hopefully) winning smile. But, looking at her expression, subsequently, I got the sinking feeling that� this had not gone down well with her. To wipe the winning smile off my face was, for me, the work of an instant. But, the damage had been done.

What is the meaning of this? Such impdence? You have the immortal rind to grin at me after sleeping in MY CLASS!

�Sorry, miss.., I said, trying to look repentant ( though I couldn?t find anything unnatural in what I had done, by any stretch of my imagination)

Would you like to take a little walk with me? I am sure that the principal would like to hear about this...this...I am sure he would like to hear this,anyway! she ended rather hastily.

��� I could already see the principal looking at me ( his looks were far more penetrating than our teacher?s), and asking me whether I would like to have a four poster bed installed for my benefit. (I have always felt, though I know not why, that the principal was not completely sincere when he made such comments. (In fact, the more suspicious among my classmates had gone as far as to suggest that these comments are a trifle sarcastic)).

� I had commended my soul to god, and also took the solemn pledge, that if I came out unscathed from this unfortunate misadventure, I would never fall asleep in class (which I immediately amended to include the clause-except in the most trying of circumstances). It was then that the dismissal bell rang, bringing to end that dismal day of school.

�The teacher, probably looking forward to a comfortable evening at home, reprimanded me harshly for my slip, (which I tried to attribute, rather unsuccessfully, to sitting up late, studying History,  the night before) and warned me of the terrible retribution that I would have to face if I ever erred again.

�I thanked my fortitude, as I slipped away on my cycle in the general direction of the Warrier homestead. Then I suddenly remembered, as I swerved to avoid a poor, god-fearing motorist, riding on the wrong side of the road probably due to of a sudden, uncontrollable desire to end his life, that Terminator-II was on at 11pm that night.

�And,.the story continues....