Finally, the day has arrived. 1st January 2016, Friday. You know I already had difficulty sleeping last night. So, I woke up at 6:30 a.m. when mom literally kicked on my butt to wake me and tell that I am going to late.
I say, "Don't worry mom, I don't have school today. We need to pick a bus from school to the DAV public school at 9 a.m. so relax."
Mom, "Ok but get up now and get ready if you don't want to miss your bus."
I instantly leave my bed and head straight to the bathroom. No if no but only Jatt, I know it's a bad joke. I want to dress cool today because today is a big day. I open my closet and pick my favorite Harry Potter t-shirt, Harry Potter Jacket, and a matching pant with black shoes and a wristwatch dad gifted me on my last birthday. I checked my hair one last time and move to the dining table.
I ask mom, "Where are dad and Bobby?"
Mom, "You are late. They already left the house for their jobs to be done."
Mom gives me breakfast and a mixture of sugar and curd for wishing me luck. It is a common ritual in India and people believe that it is a sign of good omen.
I pick my phone and message in a group named Taaleem.
"Is everybody ready?"
John, "I am on the bus. Where are you?"
Bhavika, "I am on the way. I will join you in two minutes @John."
Kritika, "Hey, hold on, it takes time to look beautiful."
I, "I am leaving my home. @Kritika, I know Uma Shankar will be there but you don't want to miss the bus and stay back. Also, he isn't there to look for a new model."
Kritika, "Don't worry, I will be on time. By the way, who knows if he is looking for one. I should be ready all time."
Mandeep, "Don't waste time chatting."
I call Shubham out of his house and we both headed to school on my bicycle. He was driving. I park my bicycle in the parking lot. We reach on time and the bus moved on its time. Luckily, no one is late.
We reach the DAV public school after 15 minutes of drive. This school has a very good infrastructure. The walls are so beautifully painted that no student would want to miss even a single day looking at it.
A beautiful young lady who looks to be around 22 receives us at the parking lot of school as lead us the way to the backstage where we have to perform.
She says, "Hey kids, I am Mona, I am principal of this school. I am 24 years old. It's a pleasure to meet all of you in person."
Our eyes are wide open in shock. H-how can someone become principal at 24? She must be very intelligent. We all greet her and say, "No, it's our pleasure to meet you, Madam."
She smiles and says, "You are such a sweet team of kids. What is the name of your team?"
I come forward, "Madam, I am Ashu, leader of this team named Taaleem."
She says, "Oh, wow. I have some special guests today. Aakroash is going to have a tough competition. Make yourself comfortable and keep an ear on announcements."
After that, she moves to attend another group of students.
I ask Mandeep, "Who is Aakrosh?"
"It is the name of this school's team.", Mandeep says
Suddenly, Mandeep's mobile chimes, and there was a message on his phone. His Bhangra competition's result is out. After looking at it, he was a little furious. I asked him worriedly, "What's the matter?"
He replies, "I am second but that's not the problem. The one who comes out on 1st position doesn't deserve it at all. He made several mistakes in his performance which even I could detect."
I, "I know it's unfair and we will talk about it for sure but right now we have to concentrate here. Okay, so calm down.
He nods and we all listen to the announcement that tells the order of performances.
Basically, Ryan International School is going to perform first with its team "PRATIBIMB", Delhi Public School is second with team "DARPAN", Adarsh Public School has 3rd turn with you know the one and only "TAALEEM", DAV public school is performing 4th with "AAKROSH", GPS International School is performing 5th with team "MANTHAN" and Govt. Girls only School is performing at last with the team "UDAAN".
We were introduced to the judges. The announcement says that there are three judges namely Mr. Om Sharma, Mrs. Uma Shankar, Mr. Nikhil Modi, and the special guest famous director, Sabrynabrooklynne, who was currently on the hunt for ideas she could turn into her next international hit movie. Her last two movies had been set in India and brought Indian culture to an international audience in a way never before seen, breaking box office records and winning top cinematic honors around the world. Everyone was just waiting for the chief guest Sabrynabrooklynne. Once she arrived, the competition started.
I give you a brief on each team's performance.
Pratibimb was performing a script of a boy and dog as best friends and how the boy was kidnaped and the dog saved him from kidnappers but injured badly. I could see a lot of people crying from the audience. It was fabulous.
Next, Darpan performed an act based on the food being waste in parties like marriage and all and inspires all to save it. I was forced to salute them on their performance because it was damm good.
Next is our turn. We are already prepared to go on stage when first performance started. We head to the stage and performed pretty well. Sabryna was laughing while holding her stomach. I doubt we gave her a stomach ache.
Then Aakrosh performed a script which teaches everybody has only one religion and it is humanity. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Isai are only modes of worship, a single God.
Manthan performed a script to remove superstition from the country. I notice that the girl who was asking most of the questions about how a cat can destroy your task and all is actually a guy wearing a frock. I was laughing at him the whole time.
At last, Udaan performed a script to save girls from being raped. I bet if there was any rapist in the audience, he would come on the stage for sorry after watching their performance.
After that school announces that the lunch is ready and being served in the garden. So, students can gather there and have it. The results will be announced after lunch.
We all are starving and decided that it is the right time for some food. We lunch we gather at the backstage with other teams. The lunch was awesome not just because it was delicious but also, we get to chat with other team and we admired each other's performance.
I notice Mandeep is constantly looking at a girl from Udaan. I won't blame him. She is so beautiful that it is really difficult not to look at her. Bhavika pokes him and we laughed.
Judges can back they announce that they are about to release the result.