Pingu hated waking up early, especially on a Sunday. To wake up was one thing, but to go out and play cricket was even worse. His best friend Sai was already waiting downstairs with his BDM bat.
(Sai and Pingu were best friends since they were six. Everyone envied the duo's coolest collection of WWF cards, radiums and double decker magnet pencil boxes. They went to school together, played cricket together and spent most of their time hopelessly playing the spirit game. When at school they sneaked out of PT class, played pen-dash during the science classes and slept through the math classes.)
Pingu came down and lazily started walking with his friend. "Today i will score a century" Sai said. Pingu ignored his drivel, he knew they were definitely going to lose the match as the opponents had a bowler who could bowl off spinners, on spinners, out spinners, in spinners and what not. Eventually they did lose the game.
After the match the captain of the rival team mocked Sai, so he punched him. The skirmish grew into a big fight, and everyone started hitting Sai. Pingu tried to fight but he realized he wasn't strong so he ran to call someone. A few adults stopped the fight and Pingu felt he did the right thing by getting the adults involved.
Next day Sai accused Pingu of being a coward and the entire class labeled him a darpok. Most things went back to normal in a few days except for the best friends part. The next time they played cricket Sai had to chose his side, one after one he selected his players. Pingu was usually the first person to enter Sai's team but this time he was left out. Pingu didn't want to play in the other team so he went back home and cried. He cried because he felt weak,he cried because he couldn't discriminate right from wrong . How could he feel guilty even after doing what he felt was right?. Did his friends really mean the world to him? Was he really a coward? Would he always run away?. He realized that it would have hurt him a lot lesser if he would have taken a blow instead of running away and that sometimes doing the right thing may hurt a loved one.
Twelve years later Pingu still struggles to say the right words but he knows that relationships are inherently weak and a moment of indecision can scar a person for a lifetime. Some of us are cursed to hide our feelings, Some of us make stupid mistakes, Some of us are scared of getting hurt and Some of us just don't know how to make a loved one smile, but if all of us are perfect would love still be so amazing.
