It is a truth universally acknowledged that no matter who one is, one is always better than a certain group of people. There are always, always people who, when you think about the general structure of society, you will always place below you. Cousin Nikhil was one of them. Until he got 94% in his 12th boards.
Cousin Nikhil and I used to be very close when we were kids. He was only six months younger than I was but I came in August and he, February, and for some reason, this meant that he could not join school the same time as I did but had to wait six months. And this was happy news because even though our marks would still be compared, I would get a year to prepare for the lamentations. For the most part, I did not have to worry about them because, believe it or not, I was a fairly good student. I remember my parents asking him about his 10th board marks and mom saying "91? Wow, that is really good!"; but somewhere, somewhere beneath that comment was a sense of relief - Thank God my son got a 95. I did get a 95. Not something I'm proud of but I did get it, nevertheless.
We would fight a lot, my cousin and I, playing together as kids. According to a story, I once bit a part of his ear off and it regrew. It was usually me doing the rowdy things. I was the stronger of the two, and apparently, the smarter too. I also played better cricket. Things were great. And then his sister popped up and we had a lot of fun annoying her because she was a girl. We wouldn't let her play cricket with us or join us while playing carrom. We were a bunch of sexist 12 year olds. There was also this one more thing. We liked to bathe together, cousin Nikhil and I. I am not completely sure why that was so. Notice, BEFORE YOU GO EWWW, that I'm not saying shower together - showering is so much more different and intimate. This was old fashioned bathing, a bucket and a mug. We stood six feet away wearing our (respective) underwears and poured water on ourselves and sometimes, sometimes, on each other and made casual chit chat. And it completely totally pissed his five year old sister off that she couldn't come and bathe with us. "Because you're a girl and they're boys!" just didn't seem like a good argument.
I didn't see much of them for a while. And then a couple of years ago, we ended up spending an afternoon together and he made me watch Mr. Bean's Holiday. Here's how it happened.
"So... how's life?"
"Life's good man. How're you?"
"I'm good."
*two minutes later*
"It's hot in here, isn't it? Let me switch on the AC."
*one minute later*
"So, is it this hot in Pune?"
"No, it's actually much hotter."
"Oh."
*three minutes later*
"Hey, you want to watch some TV?"
"YES. DEFINITELY"
*one minute later*
"Yay! My favorite movie is on. Have you watched this?"
"Your favorite movie is Bean on a Holiday?"
"Yeah. You've see this?"
"No."
"Come on, this is an awesome movie. Let's watch this"
"Uh.."
"Do you not want to watch TV? We can go for a walk if you want"
"NO NO LET'S WATCH THE MOVIE. THE MOVIE YAY!"
I had never realized it was actually possible for someone to like one of those Bean movies. I still find it hard to process that an actual living, thinking person wrote down a script and said "Now come on, let's make this into a movie". I had always thought they simply existed. And that they played them on TV because they didn't know what else to do with them. Every channel has something else that - Star Movies has National Treasure, ZCafe has The Mentalist.
And now he's gone ahead and scored 94 in his 12th boards. That's 15% more than me. His favorite movie is probably still Mr. Bean on a Holiday but who cares, right? He bid his time and scored on the test that mattered the most - The 12th standard exams! That sly bastard. WHY COUSIN NIKHIL, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THIS? I was so sure, so goddamn sure after that sunday matinee session that I was way above you on the pyramid. It used to be me, you, a bunch of other people and then at the bottom that kid who dropped out of high school and is now the assistant priest at that temple around the corner. And now suddenly, I'm not so sure anymore. You just had to upset the whole social heirarchy, didn't you?
