Jeena Hai Toh Vatt Se.

I came back from my school and saw my mama sitting and having laddus. I had a special place for him in my heart. I quickly kept my bag in my shelf and sat with him to have Laddus with him. The famous Laddu maker in our Shirgaon village , my mother,came outside and asked the most cliched question, "How was school today beta? What happened today?" Saying this she kept two glasses of my favourite nimbu soda.

The condensed chilled water on the glass made me feel cool. And as soon as I was going to take the glass, my mama stopped me. "Aaj se thandi aur tel vaali cheeje sab band. Gale ka khyyaal rakhna hai" he said keeping my glass down. "Matlab?" I asked. "Tum Mere saath Mumbai aa rahe ho. Mujhe tumhe tayyar karna hai. " he said."Koi competition hai?" I asked."Kuch aisa hi samjo" he said. My family was proud that I learnt English and was very fluent in it. I had represented my village at the state level and had won the silver medal in an elecoution competition. I had even taught it to my mother. She talks to me in English most of the time.I packed my bag. Bided goodbye to my family and left.

Our train stopped at dadar. We got down and went walking towards an empty open land. It was huge. My mama said 'Yahan tum apni tayyari karogey. Jitna jor se bol sakte ho utna jor se bolo" he said. And then he gave me a speech to read and recite which was quite strange. Within twenty minutes I knew the speech by heart. I spoke it as loudly as possible. He said "Chalo" .

We came back to dadar. I asked him why was I selling pens and wallets in the speech. He gave me some pens and wallets and asked me to climb in the first class and sell them. " Par aapne toh kahan ki ye competition keylie hai?"
" Yeh ek tarah ki competition hi toh hai. Jeeneki competition. Yahan sirf ek hi medal hota hai. Paisaa. "

I felt goosebumps on my hand and I climbed up the train. I started delivering my speech (rather selling the products.) People started staring at me. One of them even took their phone and started recording me. Maybe they liked my speech. Maybe they liked my diction. Maybe they saw a boy selling a product in the train in Fluent English for the first time. I sold about 5 pens and 3 wallets. I didn't know what to do next. I got down at Andheri.
Took a train back to dadar. Sold a few pens and wallets in it. People were impressed by my English maybe. 
I couldn't find my mama.
I searched for him everywhere. I felt lonely. All  I had was some money some pens and wallets. That money could take me back home.
But I bought more pens with it. Sold them. I felt like a business man.

But,I didn't want to be in that competition. I didn't want to live on an vadapav every day. Even if I did well in the job and progressed a lot compared to other Sellers, I didn't want to  skip my education. I deserved better. I could rather launch a new pen brand and sell it in the market than selling like this.

Thoughts were fizzing in my mind as fast as the trains passing by.I took the final sip of my cutting chaai and went to the ticket counter and said  " Shirgaon, First Class AC"