“Most people, even today, say that they loved their schooling. But I didn’t. I hated it with every fiber of my being.
It all started when I was in the 5th grade. You see, I have always been a chubby kid and ever since my 5th grade I was called names like ‘baby elephant’. It never affected me much then. But as years went by, the intensity of the bullying kept increasing and the name I was given kept getting shorter. ‘Baby elephant’ became ‘elephant’ and soon enough it became ‘baby’.
I still remember this one particular day. There was a boy sitting next to me and he kept calling me ‘baby’. I don’t know what in me ticked off but in a moment of total blur, I took the pen I had in my hand and stabbed his thigh with it. Our uniforms were navy blue in colour and I could see his getting darker. My intention was only to poke him with the pen, but it went deeper than I expected. I felt a sense of instant regret. He was rushed to the hospital and had to get a tetanus shot. He didn’t show up for a couple of days after and all those days I was cooped up in guilt. When he finally did come to school, I apologized over and over again. He ignored me. Then one day I went and told him that I can’t do this anymore, that I wanted to bury this hatchet. He said this and I quote, ‘Listen, I’m not angry with you. But, you need to know that the only reason I and people say such things is to get a reaction out of you. The moment you stop reacting our incentive is taken away.’

Nothing made more sense to me than that. The bullying didn’t stop per se, but my perspective to it changed. It became a fundamental policy, a core value. We are friends now. It’s brilliant how one sentence that someone says ends up shaping who you are as an adult, as a human being.”

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