Legends...

"We’ll be legends man...!” he beamed.
Seated beside the window, I looked out into the setting sun. Frankly, I was scared to the bone. Being his boisterous self, he began to sing loudly.

This wasn’t the time for lunacy.

“Dude, you can pipe it down…” I told him coldly. Surprisingly, he looked at me and stopped singing; unlike other times, when he would abuse my apparent “girliness”. It seemed to me that we all were afraid.

As usual, I was in my dilemma, my innately “confusion-gifted” mind. On one hand, this was an opportunity to restore that lost glory we rightfully deserved. However, on the other, it meant perpetual danger of facing dire consequences of going against the law. We could be banished from the institution.

But it was a necessary risk.

The rich had lived their lives of vanity while the rest, exploited and underpaid burnt the midnight oil just to make their ends meet; and so were their children. It was blatant discrimination, at least at school. While this businessmen class of self proclaimed dudes, who were but basically losers, had everything to show off, we had to toil and excel in our studies, sports and extra-curriculars consistently for 365 days, so that we could get a barely decent gift on our forthcoming birthday. It was misery, a shame. Thus, it was incumbent on us that equality had to be brought in either by hook or by crook and exploitation would not be entertained. Somebody had to stand up against this injustice. And for us after all it meant fame, glory and recognition. Thus, the three of us decided to stand up and show them that everything that glitters isn’t gold.

I opened the small neatly folded piece of paper from the pages of my notebook. It said “Justice Guild”, with the logo of a hand drawn green magician hat. Sam had coined the name, Justice Guild .Yeah; it was substantially inspired by the Justice League. He had designed the logo too. Below it, I had scribbled down, “There are no perfect men in the world; only perfect intentions…” the famous Morgan Freeman dialogue from the movie Robin Hood: The Prince of thieves. Of course, I was incapable of igniting my creative cells and hence adapted the entire dialogue.

Robin Hood was my hero, our hero. Dreams of the wild, brazenly bunch of men dressed in green with their self devised calls, bows and arrows in wild forests of England haunted me every night. I had devoured all text that I could have found in books, publicly or secretly taken from my sister, cousins and friends. Those sacrifices and risks that he and his men took just to help the exploited poor class of the medieval Scottish kingdom were a source of awe and inspiration. The rich elite class armed with the power of money, using their insolent tongues to fling abuses at the common man and pointing their grimy cosmetic fingers at the working class heroes, had become an everyday event in movies and TV serials. It seemed to me that people who couldn’t be at the top could never live respectfully. And the bequest of this wanton flaunt had been passed on to the “dudes” in our class. For me, life then had become suffocating.

It was then, the eight standard. I needed a few good men who would be my blood brothers in this rebellion.

Luckily, I found my brothers-in-arms inside the very class. Hari and Sandeep (Sandy) belonged to the intellectual second benchers of the class. The first benchers were typically genre less. Mathematical heroes, working each problem through a matrix of variables, relational mapping and possible solutions, they became my unlikely trustworthy aides. Driven by frustration and with the motive of finding a way to voice out, we worked meticulously on the plan, the Indian version of Robin Hood. The second benchers became the last benchers, working out each and every possible plan that we could execute. Discussions in school buses on the way to school and on the way back and in classes, scribbling on the desks, in the back of subject notebooks, on the rough sheets of workbooks lest run the danger of being caught, we created our blue prints. Our pseudo names – the foxes!

Initially we had “soft targets”, like chocolates, tiffins, flashy ink pens, pencils and erasers. But they seemed to be just too easy, without much of a benefit. To keep everything clandestine, we used decoys like games periods and tiffin breaks and on “successful missions” distributed it among juniors and classmates of other sections. However, such trivial matters did not even raise a stir within the class. They were presumed to be losses due to misplacements.
It was then in another of the “all hands meet”, which we had, every games period that Sam suggested a disclosure; an official declaration to the class of the presence of our group, our work, our mission and a warning to all the dudes. It would be an instant hit. Hari, the boisterous prodigy agreed immediately. But I was worried. Getting caught would mean a state of no- mercy. We would be expelled right away. However, with a ratio of 2:1 against me, we decided to execute the plan. Even Robin Hood would have agreed to that!

And therein lay the plan. The theft of the golden “china-made” calculator.

This mini sized calculator although made with the intention of behaving like a calculator had additional features such as key chain, brick games and tunes. It had a golden flip front and black plastic bottom. Evidently, no one had seen anything like this beauty and thus its owner became the undisputed blue eyed boy of the class. Vindictive words, swank stationery and otiose conduct, he lead this army of dudes. He was a real bother among the rest. Malicious insults and taunts were his modes of creating the divide. And he also had a bunch of “spies” among the rest which made it difficult for us to unite and work. Thus, what could be better than obtain that calculator and give it to another! The time of chivalry was now.

Getting hold of the calculator wasn’t really difficult. As expected, it caused a ruckus within the class. Desperate bag checking and cross checking was a futile attempt. However, something unexpected happened. Someone had informed this incident to the class teacher and she was furious. She gave an ultimatum of returning the calculator within the end of the next day or else the matter would be reported to the higher authorities.

Robin Hood would never have bowed down in the face of such imminent risk, and so did nt we. We were determined to make a mark. The next day, an official letter from the Justice Guild would be issued to the blue eyed boy and that shall mark the beginning of the end. Hari voluntarily took up the task of delivery. The letter would be circulated in the first period; the English lecture and the declaration would cause a panic among all the class mates. Of course, all of us agreed not to disclose our identities. Thus the delivery of the letter had to be in secret.

Tonight would be a sleepless night, I thought pensively as I reached my stop. The other foxes had already got down.

It was the English lecture. She was scolding the class, threatening us with dire consequences if the calculator was not returned by the end of the day. The blue eyed boy agonized by his apparent loss was sitting at the left hand side of the middle row. Hari was on the corner in the next row near the wall two benches after the blue eyed boy. Sandy and I were two benches after him on the same row. Thus it was impossible to pass any letter right now, without by passing any of the other benchers. It was equally impossible to warn him too in the middle of the lecture. Tensed, I was sitting with my fingers crossed fervently hoping that Hari wouldn’t write any letter during the lecture.

However martyrdom was in our destiny. Hari wrote the letter and gave it to his benchmate, who screamed aloud and gave it to the teacher. She read,

“Dear XYZ,

We are the foxes with the sole mission to protect the underprivileged. With all due respect, we have taken your calculator. This is for everyone’s benefit.

Signed
Justice Guild
There are no perfect men in the world; only perfect intentions…”

“With all due respect, I request the leader of this fox gang to stand up, or else….” she quietly said.

“Today is a good day to die…” I remembered Robin Hood again and stood up as the entire class looked back at me. I am sure even Robin Hood would have acknowledged our efforts.

Legends, were we? Well, I don’t know!
Game Over.