katha corner- "ordinary hero"

Note:This story was written for a competition-It did not make the mark and hence is now part of my virtual collection...enjoy!-The highlighted passage was given to us and the challenge was to complete the story.


The Ordinary Hero

He sat on the bench and looked around. It was only 9.00 am but there were still a few people walking.
He opened his school bag and felt the inside pocket. Through the lining the rustling sound of the crisp notes made him want to take it out and count it one more time.
Just then a dog ran towards him wagging its tail. He wondered if he should feed it a biscuit from his snack box. But he had a long wait ahead. So he merely patted its head.
Mummy said he always came to Cubbon Park for a walk. It was a routine of many years. A walk and then a morning coffee at Koshy's.

He raised his water bottle to his mouth and drank deeply. What if this one day he decided to stay at home? He wondered.

There were two things that he looked for when his mind wandered like this. A sugar coated jam biscuit and his green notepad. Both made him feel secure. He knew that the notebook would hold his secrets safe while the biscuit was always sweet .He flipped through the pages and found what he was looking for .A sketch titled “Tea party # 45”. And in the faces that he had drawn, he saw him.
His superhero. His caped crusader. The Ordinary man

Every Sunday, mummy invited people home. He hated Sunday mornings at home. The day would begin with mummy barging into his room and drawing the curtains open.
“It is 9:00 ...so much work to do….No sense of responsibility…”-Hurry up, take Momo for a walk, clean your …

He often wondered why adults loved to do things they obviously hated. Everyone who came to the party wished they were somewhere else. His mother had an eternal smile fixed on her face. The people who came looked uncomfortable. They tried hard to say something funny or wise. Fortunately, he was required to be there only for the first three minutes. Different people, same questions. Sometimes they would squeal, “so cu-uute..”. Then mummy would give her signal, “ chweetheart, why don’t you go upstairs…..”

Ever since he could remember he loved the caped superheroes .There was something so exciting about nerdy guys transforming into saviours. Like superman saving a child from a burning bus or Spiderman trapping the neighbourhood bully in his net. Superheroes were always there. Only humans disappeared from your life forever. Especially on a rainy day. Like his father did, three years ago,

Last Sunday‘s tea party changed his eleven year old life forever.He had gone down stairs to face the crowd. The instant he saw him, it was like a light bulb moment in his favorite comic strip. He was the most ordinary looking man to have ever come to a tea party. He wore a long sleeved white shirt, coudry trousers, socks which did not match and a pair of dirty brown sneakers. During the three minute interrogation, he felt the man’s eyes on him. They radiated a quiet understanding that seemed to envelop him in a big hug.

“Bhasu, my son loves to doodle. Look at his sketches... gives him a few tips...”Mummy’s voice cut through the chatter.

He felt his face flush and turn cherry tomato red. Before he could stammer a reply, the ordinary man looked at him and smiled.

“I’ll come up”.

For the next ten minutes, the ordinary man and he sat next to each other on his bed and they flipped through his drawings. There were sketches that he had never shown anyone. His father getting into a taxi. A rainy night and a boy hugging his teddy bear.
Mummy sobbing. into her pillow. Momo on a leash. The three bullies in school.


“You have tremendous power..…”


That was the only conversation they had before the ordinary man left the room. No one had ever come into his room, sat on his bed and told him that he had power.
When he asked mummy about the ordinary man she laughed. “great artist but strange…My reporters tell me he walks everyday at cubbon park and then heads for koshy’s”

So, here he was at Cubbon park. The plan was crystal clear H e was going to run away and live with the Ordinary man. He would draw all day and then there would be no mummy, tea parties, momo, cleaning up, bullies in school and the ache he felt when he thought of daddy. He would be the Ordinary man’s assistant. .After all, even batman had Robin. Someday, he would even visit his mother and tell her he was sorry that he skipped school and return the two hundred rupees he had borrowed from her purse.

The park was becoming quiet. The walkers had gone. three squirrels played hide and seek. A few crows huddled by the footpath. He smelt burnt corn on charcoal

Still no sign of the hero. It was getting hot and his eyes began to water. For some reason he felt betrayed, tired and thirsty. He suddenly missed mummy’s smell and voice and even her tea parties .And who would take momo for a walk? What if mummy started crying again?

A little boy ran up to him and said “That uncle asked me to give
you this...”

It was the most beautiful sketch he had ever seen. The entire scene was there. The bench, the bag, the dog, and an eleven year old boy, all packed and ready to go. The eyes shaded with just the right amount of scary-ness. Scrawled at the bottom were the words “true superheroes lives ordinary lives”

It was so quiet you could hear the bamboos whistle.

He looked at the sketch again

With sudden determination, he packed his schoolbag and gave the dog his last biscuit. He knew what he had to do.

If he ran, he could still make it by recess and mummy would never have to know.
His first step towards becoming an ordinary superhero.

March 20008