Being the only male child in most Indian households in the 90s was a blessing because everyone wanted a legal heir to advance their legacy. I was one such fortunate child among them. Growing up, I was so pampered that I was the ultimate definition of a spoilt brat. I feared none, I listened to none and I did everything I wanted to and how I wanted to without thinking about the consequences nor thinking how my actions would hurt my near and dear. Because I was the “One” you see. I am a male child and the most loved kid. I knew that I had a father who would support me no matter what I did. He supported me if I did not want to go to school, he yelled at the teachers in my school if they punished me for anything stupid that I did and I always used to get my report card signed by him because I knew he wouldn’t say a word to me. I even remember once, in my 5th class, I was the new student in the school and my class teacher was a science faculty. It was rumoured that even the principal was scared to face her wrath. On the first day of my class, I see her kicking a fellow student, and that too a girl. The girl did her homework wrong and copied it from someone who also did it wrong so she made her climb the table and then asked her to bend over and then kicked that student from behind. Such was the faculty and I was terrified. And one fine day, I was also a victim of her anger. My arm was swollen because she hit me. The next day my father stormed off to the Principal’s office demanding an apology from the lecturer and threatened to shut the school down if this was repeated. So having such a dad, you can expect what follows next. At least now we have Pushpa movie to say “rukega nahi, jukhega nahi saala” but back then that was the hype and feeling and no words. I knew that my dad always had my back and slowly that turned me into a bully. Everyone feared me and nobody wanted to mess with me. And just when I was thinking that life is awesome all the deeds that I did previously wanted a payback.

I moved to a new city, a new school. Even though I was the new kid, being a bully myself I knew how to command respect. However, not knowing Hindi changed my bully status. I was asked to sit with nursery students after school until I learnt Hindi as per the school rules as Hindi was a mandatory subject. I managed to keep this arrangement a secret until a few students saw me sitting with nursery students learning Hindi. The next day they invited the entire 6th class students to see me and that’s it. Everyone made fun of me and no matter how hard I tried, I could not make the bullying stop. I also couldn’t make any friends because I didn’t know Hindi and they took advantage of it by mocking me in Hindi. And that’s when I understood how it feels when other people make fun of you or judge you. This one incident changed me to become a better person and understand what others go through because we never know what the other person has gone through or going through. That’s when I learnt not to do anything that I don’t love being done to me by others.