This was not what Ron had asked for. He had made plans to see the film, on the school grounds, tonight. However, he was made to complete an essay, in the English language, by his mother. No amount of convincing and pleading helped in melting her heart. His last attempt in essay writing was full of spelling and grammatical mistakes. Therefore, this time the teacher, his mother, was being stricter. Ron kept on scribbling, but his heart did not allow his brains to function well. He cursed himself for this situation. There was no one else he could blame other than himself. "Who told you to ask for these extra lessons?" he asked himself. Finally, politely, he asked her if he could use his new pocket dictionary. This worked. She allowed him to refer to the book. This helped him to scribble the essay much faster.
"Here it is." Before his mother could see what he had written, he ran to pick up his bicycle keys.
"Can I go now? Say okay!" Before she could respond, Ron had left.
The night was cool. As Ron rode fast on his bicycle, towards the school grounds, he could hear the soundtrack of the film, booming on the loudspeakers. The background score, dialogues, and sound effects, all started telling him what was happening on the screen. That moment he realized that 'ears can see better than the eyes'. What bothered him was that the film show had started and he had missed a lot. He wondered if Karan or someone else would later tell him, what he had missed.
After parking his bicycle, Ron quickly climbed the large ground stairs and made his way through the wall of the standing crowd. It was dark as the service lights were switched off. The 16mm projector was in the center of the sitting audience. This crowd sat on the large tarpaulin spread on the ground, but it was the best place to view the screen. It was Ron's favorite place. Ron, slowly, started moving through the sitting children and ladies, trying his best not to step on anyone's feet. Those disturbed started scolding him. Few even cursed him, but Ron ignored them. For him, his destiny was important. He knew that no one will recognize him in the dark. Even as he moved slowly, his eyes were glued to the screen.
Finally, he saw an empty spot where he could squeeze in. He tapped on the boy sitting there and told him to shift a little, to make some space for him to sit.
The film went on. The audience was enjoying, reacting to every action happening on the screen. Suddenly, when everything was in the right mood, some numbers got flashed on the screen and the projection was stopped. The film reel was complete. It was time to replace it with the second reel. This was the routine practice, and the audience, though disappointed, understood the situation well. It was time for a short interval. The service lights were switched on.
There are times in a person's life when he is both, pleased and horrified, at the same time. This is exactly what happened to Ron at that moment. As the floodlights shone on everybody, Ron found himself sitting amongst a group of school girls. Worse, the girl sitting next to him, whom he had mistaken as a boy, was none other than the lovely Jo!
Ron's heart started pounding. He started praying that no one should see or notice him. Especially, the girl sitting next to him! For a moment he felt he should get up and leave the precious place. But then, if he did so, everyone would notice him. He preferred becoming a grayman, and sat with his head bend low. Ron felt thankful to the almighty that Jo, sitting so close to him, had not noticed him. She was more engrossed in eating wafers from a noisy packet. He hoped that the film would restart immediately. He loved darkness!
Right then Ron heard someone blowing a whistle. The whistle sounded familiar. Yes, it was Karan's style of whistling. Ron started looking around. And there he was, standing in the crowd. Karan was staring at him and Jo. He had a mixture of surprised and horrific looks on his face. Karan signaled to Ron, "I have caught you!"
***