ACHO RINCHEN

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

AMBULANCE SIGN ON MY BUTTOCK!

 

"Rinchen, you would have been a father of three if you would have married." My maths teacher, Mr Lepo declared openly in the class while I went in the front to get my weekly test paper.

 

All my friends laughed heart out. My face blushed. My spine flooded with the cells of embarrassment. I shivered. I lowered my face and slowly went to get my test paper.

 

"Do you think you are still a baby? Go behind the door, undress your dress, there you will find the bushes sprouting from each and every corner of your private part." He further scolded.

 

I further blushed and the pool of blood rushed toward my face.

 

To my surprise, I got zero. I was a hero from the bottom. My smartness could not balance with the overgrown body I had, then.

I was sixteen years, then. I was the eldest of the class. But I was learning in class six. In fact, I would have been learning in grade 10 if I would not fail for four times in my primary school.

My friends would call me a grandfather. Some of them would call me brother. And the list was undying. Those names were indeed the biggest pills to swallow.

I would sometimes dream to drop out of school. I would sometimes hallucinate to marry a beautiful girl and land up becoming a good father. But those dreams turned up to be a mere hallucination when my parents insisted me to complete 12 standards by any means, otherwise.

It was a Friday evening, then. I had crumpled my test paper. I again stretched back the test paper to confirm whether my score was correct or not. I found I have solved nothing. I deserved that!

I carried the biggest guilt in my head. I carried the test paper with a big zero in my bag. Teacher canned me. And my butt carried the ambulance sign mark. My eyes welled up with tears. And I headed home when the school gets over.

I could hardly see the way forward due to fat tears. I could hardly hear the chirps of the bird due to his harsh scolds. I was totally fatigued. And I thought of fighting my head against the wall.

I had to walk for almost 30 minutes to reach my school. I walked and walked and finally, I reached the paddy field. There, I found a girl of my age combing the paddy field with her sharp fingers.

She was thin. She was tall. She was angelic. She has got all the qualities of a beautiful girl. I had no words to describe her, then.

No sooner did I see her, the pain in my head, tears in my eyes, zero in my heart had disappeared totally. I was replaced with a heroic feeling. My heart stretched back. My eyes turned up to be an eagle's eye. My lips became the ground of happiness. And my whole body paralyzed seeing her for the first time in my