david

I want to write about growing up in a small town. I want to write about the cultural shock that I experienced when I went back to India. I want to write about the fact that I was constantly harassed by bullies when I first went back to India. I was 5 feet 2, podgy and scared. I was in the 8th grade. I did not know the ways of life. I wasn’t street smart. I did not know how to speak Kannada. I was one of the few who spoke English fluently in high school. I went to a middle class borderline lower middle high school. Those were the only ones around then in Tumkur. I was harassed in school, on the way to school and during lunchtime. I was short, scared and lonely. I was ridiculed and called a monkey in Kannada because I was brought up in Africa. They called me Nigeria Kothi (Nigerian Monkey). Till a few years ago, if anyone called me a kothi, I would fucking flip. The first year was horrible. I had to make friends, learn to speak Kannada fluently and also to read and write Kannada. I learnt to read and write in 6 months. If I didn’t, they would fail me. We used to play a game called lagori. You would put 7 stones on each other and try to knock them off with a ball from a certain distance. You had 2 teams playing this and it was the other teams job to tag you before you put the stones back by belting the crap out of you with the ball. These guys used to gang up on me and belt me cos I was fat and couldn’t run as fast. This was all in the 8th grade. I had this fucking guy David-a rowdy who used to harass me all the time. He would turn up in school and catch me during lunch break and used to take away anything from me that he liked. He took my shades and my belt away from me. This was in the 9th grade.
I learnt the language. I used to talk to girls all the time cos I never believed there was a difference between us. I had wannabe gangsters threaten me and tell me not to talk to girls. I once had a couple of guys come over to my house, ask me to get out and grabbed me by my balls. They wanted to prove a point and tell me that I should not talk to girls.
For three years I assimilated the change in culture, got stronger both physically and mentally and learnt to absorb things with a pinch of salt. I made some very very good friends who remain to this very day good friends and we did our own innocent shit like playing cricket and cycling around like maniacs. Human beings when faced with volatile situations end up becoming very political with their choices. As I look back, I ended up making friends with rich, powerful people. I did so because I didn’t come from such a background and hence I was being abused by the scum of society.
Between the 10th and 11th grade, I turned from fatso who was 5 feet 2 to 6 feet 1 and an abundance of strength. With my friends and my physical stature I started getting back one by one. It was not planned revenge in any way. I went back to David’s house, scared the shit out of him and got my belt and glasses back (he still had them). I threw them away. People stopped calling me the Nigerian Kothi and yes I had a temper. The last 2 years in Tumkur, I was a rebel with a few causes. Most of the time, I was pissed off with nothing and have always had an aversion towards bullies. Maybe that’s why I cannot stand eve teasers. I hate them with all the passion under the sun. Maybe I can relate to a woman and how helpless she feels.