The Little School Boy

tanak_school

 

“Trust the past to god’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and future to God’s providence.”

 
Tanveer lived every moment as if the time would never come again. He made people he loved live.  He as a person was kind, benevolent, loving, and was never harsh or even had the feeling of enmity towards anyone. He was a fun loving buoyant boy. His teachers would often regard him as the sweetest boy of the school. They wouldn’t ever believe me if I marked him as a naughty boy. He was good in studies and sports too. His mind was all surrounded with mechanical ideas and fantasies which provided him the base of his beloved ambition of being an automotive engineer cum designer.
 

 

The Magician  

 

He used to draw car models, first try and copy them and then later on modify them. When he got bored of which he often called his ‘pre-existing designs’, he would make his own designs and then show it to all of us who would only end up appreciating him. Tanveer often used to be the one trying to fix any problem in the car. It was but natural, as this was his brainchild. He used to go with our grandpa to the repair centre whenever the car needed service. He was passionate about becoming an automotive engineer cum designer as mentioned in the above paragraph. The Mercedes Benz Class-SLK, Skoda Octavia, Lamborghini, Porsche, were his top listed cars, but Hummer 2 was his dream jeep, if it was the two wheeler machine then it was the Harley Davidson, The Enfield, Suzuki’s Hayabusa and the Ducati two wheeler devils. Of course, these are every young boy’s dream mechanical wonder.
 
 If taking a look at the joyful and the merry making aspect of Tanveer; he loved music, and dancing especially Bhangra-the Punjabi folk dance; he loved the way ‘Gabru’ dressed and the way their spirit was all into dancing with the beats of their motherland’s and religion’s folk dance. He loved dancing, singing but surprisingly he sang only for me and for his brothers. Guitars were his cup of tea, which were obviously top rated. The electric guitar’s soft sound and the hard metal distortion were loved by him as if the sound was alive and would enliven him too. Just after the guitars were the drums which made him rise from his seated posture and dance to the tune. What he wanted was our family’s own rock band, I  still have his guitar and the guitar notebooks in my room by which now I practice, fulfilling his dream of being a good guitarist. Now we are his voice, and someone or the other is trying to fulfill his dream.                   
 
Apart from his musician side, there was his school in which he always proved to be an extra-ordinary child. As I mentioned before that he was good in studies, no doubts for that, but a good amount of strength which proves itself till now to be an inseparable joint that will never allow any of us to move apart. He had a unique taste of being united in a different way, though he was young and immature but he could easily be a role model to all of us as a sincere person and the one who believed in unity. Of course we all believe in unity, but he gave a feeling that would last forever for being united. The feelings cannot be read by face but can be understood only by a feeling itself. His presence made us feel so and his words spoken were so clear, pure and innocent that one would love the word unity more than any thing else. He usually liked spending time with his brothers and sisters even in the school premises apart from his friend circle. He often was known as the youngest brother who was backed by his elder bother and sisters and none dared to point a finger at him. We were among the most popular; one could say gang or a group of children. I cherish those days hoping that some day we all will get to see those days again realizing the very fact that once gone never returns.  
 
His food habits were all like the other normal children. He loved junk food like sandwiches, French fries, cold drinks; Italian food, Chinese, Punjabi food, Ukrainian dishes, European food and cuisines, were on his ever green menu. He loved cold drinks and especially with French fries and the pork ribs that were roasted, it would always turn out to be tastier treat when our grandpa (maternal) would cook it for all of us. He sometimes used to cook for me specially the tasty sandwich he used to prepare for himself. He cooked noodles for me, till date I am yet to come across a person who could cook better noodles than my little brother Tanveer. Once, he had his friends coming up at our place for a little party regarding the starting of their summer holidays. Tanveer prepared more than half of the dishes that day. I was amazed to see a little boy like Tanveer who turned out to be such a good cook and a helpful little angel on whom anyone would want to shower blessings or love. Although he loved all the cooking and the cooked food, he was a fruit lover too. His favorite was Grapes and the litchi; he couldn’t pronounce the word litchi so the favorite fruit was pronounced as “Atchili”. But he often used to mix two of the fruits which were Guava which is “Ambrood” and Grapes which are “Angoor” so the result would be “Anglood”. It was as innocent as it sounds. Even though he corrected himself as he grew but he loved this word as he saw the amount of joy and humor on the faces of our grandparents. These were some of the deliberations he would do to see those little sweet smiles on his loved one’s faces. I remember a small little incident that we experienced with our little Tanveer. He was about six years old. We were a guest to somebody's house, a plate of grapes were served. In a moment or two, we saw our little Tanveer run down with the plate full of grapes. What he thought was, he wanted the full plate of grapes for himself and that none would want to give him his favorite fruit. That was indeed very innocent…!!! 
 
Apart from the food stuff, Tanveer loved martial Arts. He was one of the best young martial artists in school. He loved making his palms hard, so he practiced and endeavored to harden them by hitting the wall, with his palms. And believe it, I am yet to see a person having as solid palms as Tanveer. They were literally like hard rock. Well, that was Tanveer as a person. There are countless things that are so distinct and prominent about Tanveer, but they just do not seem to find any word. They say people are unique in one or the other way, but my little brother was even unique in the most unique people. While reading these words, you must be thinking that one’s loved one is always the most unique of all…you could think this as you haven’t met him and known him. Once if you meet him in these words, you’ll know what he was even beyond these words. The cut-throat reality is that he was one pure soul that never cried for attention and worldly existence as he somewhere knew of his short life.
 

The Teacher's Favourite

 
Back there at school, his favorite teacher was Ms. Pooja Paul, who loved Tanveer more than any other child in the class. Even if Tanveer was not able to complete his homework, she would just not complaint against him but make him complete the homework right in front of her. Tanveer completed his homework due to her love and affection for Tanveer. What his teachers could never do was scold him for anything. Before Tanveer was sick he was back with a big smile on his bright face.
 
He would show a piece of chocolate that his teacher shared with him. It is always an honor for a little child who gets to share things with his teacher and Tanveer was honored almost everyday. Ms. Pooja Paul loved that shine on Tanveer’s face. In fact, even the principal of the school Mrs. Susan Nath would love this little boy like anything. Whenever we had our martial arts summer classes in holidays being held in the school campus, he would make a visit to her after the class would get over as she had her residence in the school building itself. Thinking that her husband and daughter were away most of the time for work it would feel her great if he visited her. This selfless behaviour of his was the thing that pulled everyone towards him. It was the same magic which he had over the teachers as he had on us. Whenever we would go for his parent’s teacher’s meet, she did not have a single word to depict Tanveer as a naughty boy. Even if Tanveer made any mistake, the only thing they had to say was that Tanveer would do a better job from then onwards. His beautiful and different behaviour that was adorned by its simplicity was the golden key that made everyone his fan.  
 
No doubt Tanveer was a bit shy boy, but he had the eyes that would speak stronger than he himself. Tanveer was a great lesson of tolerance and diversity in himself. He taught everyone to smile even in the most painful seasons of life and support even in the hardest, coldest and the stormiest weathers of life. A boy who did not fall prey to the devils of this world, but to everyone he appeared as a boy who was a sign of an angel who made others live by his presence.