Mischief was the nickname given to Ajay in our college. Mainly because of his pranks what he played towards professors and other fellow students. In the middle of a lecture, suddenly he would find a way to trouble the professors with a stupid doubt, which indirectly puts them in deep trouble. They had to opt to discuss those doubts in private. Some of the young lecturers even requested him not to raise the doubts in the class.

He would not think twice before say anything, which often made us quite uncomfortable. One day in the middle of the class, I was asking him whether to go to movie that night or not. The lecturer, who got irritated by our murmurs, demanded an explanation from us angrily. “Kannan wanted to go to film tonight. He is asking me for company” he told the lecturer without any hesitation. I got jolted by Ajay’s reply and later I had to write an apology to the lecturer as a disciplinary action.

But on the other side, he was my best friend. Many of his misdemeanors were overlooked by the professors and other classmates, because of his merit grades and good heart. Needless to say, he always entertained everybody around him with lots of jokes and instant stories.

For that summer holidays I invited him to visit my home. We had finished our third year in engineering and we decided not to go for any summer training. Both of us had an ambition to pursue higher studies in States, so we intended to study for GRE and TOEFL. But before these studies, we thought of touring around little. Without much delay after the examinations, we took the train and reached my home.

On the second day after we arrived, my father invited us to the party, which one of my uncles was throwing to all our relatives on the occasion of buying a new house. Ajay initially refused to attend, but after my persuasion he accepted. That evening we got ready and left to the party earlier than my parents in the anticipation of meeting nice girls there. We took our second car and drove down to the hotel where the party was being arranged.

As we entered the party hall, I was greeted by one of our distant relative. He hugged me warmly and dragged us towards the center of the hall, where all my other relatives were standing around. That was kind of embarrassing situation for me to meet all my relatives after quite a long time. I was searching for quite possible explanations for missing the functions at their homes.

“Good to you see, Kannan” my mother’s elder brother shook my hand. “You forgot all of us” one of our great grandfather commented.

After noticing Ajay standing beside me, my uncle enquired. “This is Ajay from Delhi” I introduced to everybody. All the people moved little away such that the circle which they were forming got wider to include Ajay. Now everybody was looking at Ajay. He was kind of nervous for the way everybody was staring at him. He took handkerchief and started rubbing his nose just like that.

“So Ajay, What do you do?” the retired judge enquired, “I mean, do you study in the same class as Kannan?”

I opened myself to answer the question, but before I utter anything, Ajay pinched my hand and took over. He cleared his throat and told them in Hindi with fine Delhi accent, “Ha Saab, Actually I don’t go to college.”

Everybody was kind of surprised by his answer. I was zapped by his reply and wondered what kind of trick he was about to play.

My other uncle, who got retired as a railways officer hunched forward with a puzzled face. “Then..So?”

Breaking their doubts, Ajay slowly replied, “Well, I don’t do anything as such”

Still the answer was not quite right. They wanted more explanation from him. And Ajay was not filling it up. Ajay knew that very well. And this kind of game he often played with us in college.

“The truth is, I am an illiterate. I never went to school” he continued with ease. “My father tried, but you know nothing ever went into this brain” he pointed at his head with right hand. As if to finish all their doubts, he concluded by adding, “Kannan is my younger brother’s classmate and often visits us. Somehow we became good friends. So, here I am.”

You could clearly see the paradoxical look on their faces. It was kind of shock to them. In the modern world like this, will there be any illiterate? Their minds were full of questions, which they wanted to ask Ajay. And I believe just for the sake of courtesy and self-dignity they shut themselves.

Then the server barged into middle of our group offering “chiken tikka”. Ajay grabbed this chance nicely. Even though it was written “chiken tikka” on a white paper in the front of the plate in big letters, Ajay glanced at the paper once and asked the server what it was. I knew that he did this to prove that he was relay illiterate and not acting. There was little settlement in their rattling minds, even though a lot of doubts were still behind their minds.

All the eight people in the group were silent for sometime. I believe they were into themselves thinking over Ajay. And probably questioning his parents’ failure to educate their son. Even though hundred years back there was nothing like education for a common man, now-a-days it became a quite an ingredient in our cultural and economic standards.

I thought I should ease the situation there. I excused both of us from the group and pulled Ajay to the far end of the hall. As soon as he turned his back to the people down there, Ajay started laughing without control. “What kind of joke you are playing?” I shouted at him mildly.

“Come on! Take it light. It just struck to me that moment” he started wiping tears from his eyes. “How was it?” he enquired in the midst of his laughter.

I had to accept that the joke was really good. Really he made all the people down there fools. He was playing with the accepted values of the society. One can not imagine a nice looking person like Ajay to be an illiterate. It is hard to believe that in fact. They must have disbelieved him. Had not he been my guest, they would have ragged him down there itself to rags.

I begged him not to play any more pranks for that day. He promised he would not act like that again. We both met our cousins and some other friends. In the name of showing hotel around, I pulled Ajay out for smoking. I didn’t get the guts to smoke in front of my parents and relatives yet.

By the time we were back, I felt as if everybody was looking at us little different. First I thought it was my assumption. But it was confirmed within no time that everybody was indeed observing us with awe. That must have been the fire set by Ajay. Probably mostly the news might have spread across the hall by now.

I whispered slowly to Ajay what I suspected. Again he got burst into laughter. “This is the best joke I ever did” words came with gaps from him.

As if to prove my doubts, my grandmother appeared from nowhere. She was kind of old woman with modern ideas. She often boasts that she participated in Indian Freedom Struggle as a kid of four years old. I introduced Ajay to her.

“So you are guy they were talking about” she showed sympathy towards Ajay. “Poor son! Without education how are you going to survive in this wicked world?”

That was kind of retort for Ajay trick. I started enjoying my grandmother’s lecture to Ajay.

“When we were kids, there was no encouragement for education. For girls, you don’t know how bad it was. I had to fight against my parents to finish my high school” she went into her flashback. Ajay tried to show his best feelings to make her stop from lecture. She was certainly too old to notice such kind of expressions.

“I recommend you strongly to join the night college somewhere and at least learn to read and write. Otherwise people cheat you”, she continued her long lecture without any mercy and Ajay was crushed like chutney in a grinder.

“You deserve this!” I laughed after my grandmother left us. “Oh God! What a woman?” Ajay cursed her while we grabbed some soft drinks.

Then suddenly I heard my cousin-sister Vishi greeting me from behind. I turned at once back and noticed her smiling at me. “I am sorry…I should have called” I opened my explanation to her. “You always forget me” she started scolding me. That was the fight we always have had from childhood. She was two years younger to me and we studied in the same school and always commuted together by the same car. Even though there was a gap of two years between us, she always acted of my age and in fact mingled with my friends as if she was a boy.

“Who is this beautiful girl?” Ajay interrupted us. I apologized and introduced each of them to other.

“So you are the one they were talking down there” Vishi hissed.

“God! What did you hear?” Ajay put his standard puzzled face.

“I don’t want to ask. But,” she took a pause, “Are you really illiterate?”

I started getting laughter. Ajay was in little dilemma, over the issue that this young and beautiful girl thinking about him as a dumb illiterate.

Before Ajay answered, Vishi said, “I don’t really want to trouble you with that. Leave it.”

Ajay interrupted her, “No. Not really. The thing is I am classmate of your brother. Just for fun, I lied down there.” I believe he wanted to score some marks with Vishi.

Vishi got shocked over his confession. She covered her mouth with hands showing the shock. “How can you do that?” she almost shouted.

“Be calm. Just for fun he did it. OK” I tried to bring her down.

“That is really disgusting. You can not fool elders like that” She went on, “I am going to tell them all this.”

Ajay was bit agitated over her statements. He folded his hands and begged her, “No, please don’t tell them. We will be crushed.”

“Yes. Please don’t leak it out”, I also requested Vishi.

She immediately turned her head up, showing little funny smile. I guessed what she was up to. The same trick she applied on me many times. I tried to scratch Ajay’s hand, but he was not in a position to notice that.

“Well. You guys owe me something then”, she was in demanding position.

“What?” Ajay shrieked.

“A dinner and a movie then” she said with mischievous smile on her face.

“Ok. Granted “ I said instantly.

“Wait. That is really bad” Ajay retorted.

“If this is bad, lying to elders is worse” Vishi immediately replied.

“Calm down. Just leave it for now” I pulled Ajay back.

Vishni with a smiling on her face left to meet her friends. After she left, Ajay demanded an explanation from me. “We don’t have any choice. Is that right?” I told him, “Let us have some food now.”

The prank what Ajay played was little risky one. I was just planning to get saved for that day. In future if my uncles happen to learn the truth, definitely they demand an explanation from me then. I really don’t know how I would handle that. But for today, we could not afford to leak the truth out.

While we were eating the dinner, I saw my parents arriving at the party. They got delayed in the process of buying a gift, I believe. As soon as they arrived all my relatives welcomed my father and started general enquiries. They pulled him into their circle of discussion, which they were holding from that evening.

I feared the topic of Ajay certainly would arise down there. One can not resist from letting out his opinions, especially if they are about somebody else. If my father let the truth out, it will be fatal for us down there. I told Ajay same thing. He also feared the imminent danger. We immediately threw our plates out and pushed all the people who tried to hold us down there and rushed towards the main door.

As we were passing out through the main door, we heard one of my uncle loudly shouting at his highest pitch,” What?”

-Dharmendra Kumar

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