The story is based on a school boy of 90’s who now moves onto his 3rd grade.
He has a sister who moves to her 4th grade.
The guy is notorious for losing all his stationery whichever is given to him. So he is always given with sub-standard stationery compared to his sister. 3rd grade is the first year of using pen by the students in the particular school that they went to.
The sister had a green colored ‘Hero-Pen’ which was bought to her by their parents since she got 2nd rank in last exam of her 3rd class. The boy got a mere ten rupees’ worth normal ink pen. He asked for a hero pen but didn’t get one. He was rather told, once he gets a rank within three, he would get one, and was also quoted that he often loses stationery.
He used to use his sister’s Hero-Pen for doing home-work when she sleeps. He used to look at boys in class who had a hero-pen when they wrote something. He had a never dying craze for the one and only hero-pen.
The school started and within three days he lost his ink-pen. This time his mom scolded him ‘Thank God’ I didn’t get you a hero pen. It’s worth 50Rs’. He looks at her sisters’ hero pen from a distance and feels desperate.
He took seriously the ‘within third-rank’ words seriously and studied well. The first term-exams were over and he secured third rank in his class sharing with another girl. The boy was full of joy and ecstasy, jumping from earth to sky, that he would get one hero-pen now. He went to his mom, and showed her his rank-cards, jumping very high and shouting out of happiness ‘Naa third rank vaangiten! Enaku Hero-Pen vaangi thaanga’.
His mom tells him ‘Not this time. You get first rank. I ll get u one’. The boy got frustrated, throwing tantrums, lies on the floor and starts screaming, yelling and sobbing for long and eventually he sleeps.
The next day morning, his mom wakes him up from his bed and tells him, “Po, phone table la enna iruku nu paaru”. The guy rushes to the phone table and finds his first ever ‘HERO PEN’.
He is full of joy, he shows it off to his sister, he writes wherever he finds paper. Newspaper, Telephone Directory, Diary etc etc. He and his sister show each other their respective Hero-Pens, trying to make the other envy of.
The guy takes it to school, not wanting to put it into his pencil box. He had his it in his pocket. He was deliberate in putting a show. He went to his classmates and shows off his achievement and tells them the story how he got the hero-pen.
The day was all blessed for the guy for it went all nice till 3. The boy was writing something in his notebook. He had his Hero-Pen cap in his hands. He was happily writing some science notes slowly and neatly. He wrote something wrong for which he wanted a ink-rubber/eraser. He called a guy who was to his front and asked for his rubber. The guy was three rows ahead and he threw the eraser. The eraser slipped the boys hands, he missed and it went down. He placed the hero-pen(without cap) next to his notebook and bent down to get the eraser.
As he went down, the desk was disturbed a little; the pen falls down as the guy came up getting the eraser. It fell down at his sight, and the nib got badly broken as such it would not be any more useful. He didn’t know what to do. He was ultimately sad. He heard voices of his mom which told ‘Olunga bathirama vachiru’. She quoted these in the morning. He came quietly to his home and his mom asked about the pen. He just told that it is safe.
He told his mom that he wants to go out to get a choco, and takes his pen secretly to a pen shop and asks about a repair at the shop. The shop-keeper tells him that it is no more usable, that both the neck and the nib are broken. He gets choco and gets back home silently. He told his mom that he finished all his home work at school itself, and convinces her that are no work to do, so that he can skip from showing the pen to his mother.
The next day morning, the boy wakes up, started getting ready. His mom calls him and asks him to bring his pen to get it ink-filled. He tells that there is ink. But she asks would he bring it or should she get it. The guy tells that he himself would fill ink, and rushes to his bag. His mom was there at kitchen. He slowly opens his bag which was kept at the third step of the stairs leading to the first floor. He opens his box and takes his pen out without a pin-drop sound. He was very nervous. Heart-beats are very high.
Suddenly he gets an IDEA. From the third step of the stair, he falls down as if he slipped on the second step. He threw himself voluntarily on the floor with his pen in his hand. He fell down as such the pen gets even more damages. Also he hurts himself a bit.
Hearing the sound, his mom came running and saw him lying down and the pen shattered. He helped her son get-up and told him ‘Onnum illa.. onnum illa.. Thechu vidu.. Thechu vidu’. Now the guy, the boy, the hero, the Man starts his act.
He starts crying at the sight of the pen. His mom thinks that he would be very much upset over the pen. He creates a scene as if only on his fall, his pen got damaged. He starts crying badly to his mom, at the plight of the pen.
His mom tried to console, but he did not stop-crying. His mom atlast gets one new ‘Hero-Pen’ from the cupboard and tells him ‘Seri seri alaKoodathu.. Intha puthu ‘Hero-pen’.. Alakoodathu.. alakoodathu’.
The guy gets a new pen.. His sister stares at him.. He also stared at her calmly.. But inside he had a great sigh of relief..
THE END
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