Rising from Adversity – Recovery - Part IV

Rising from Adversity – Recovery - Part IV

Read Part I,  Part II and Part III prior to reading this

 

(a 5 minute read - less if you are a fast reader)

I was free and felt liberated at home. I determined that I would never allow past incidents to dictate my future. I took charge of my life and promised myself to live it out. A big promise for a 15-year-old.  A do-able perspective by a teenager.  Everything was possible.

 

I restarted my studies. I wanted to study accounting at Aquinas University bypassing high school. I did not allow my less-than-ideal marks at the general certificate of examination to stop my dream. I decided to go back to year 10 and re-sit my exam again. 

 

Staying Back a year in school was easy. Study subjects were effortless to follow, the second time around. I was not distressed like the year passed. My grades came back.

 

I was fortunate with a fantastic friendship with my classmate, Ajit Martin. He was a cool friend always on the go. We both developed a close relationship and became best friends in no time. We had great fun in class, listening to each other’s yarns and adventures. We cared for each other a lot. When Ajit came down with measles, I took the two-hour train ride to visit him, despite the risk of being infected.  Ajit was a towering strength as I was recovering from my recent ordeal.

 

During the school holidays, I visited Ajit’s home and stayed over. Ajit’s home was a home of action, laughter and fun. His family, his brothers and his sister were vibrant and warm. I immediately felt that I was part of Ajit's family. With my parents’ permission, I took a holiday in the hill country with the Martin siblings, staying over at his mother’s home. 

 

I had a great time with Ajit and his brothers in the hill country. They were a fearless lot and always dared to do things. There was not a single dull moment. We walked in the adjoining tea estates enjoying the lush scenery. Whenever Ajit and I could, we dodged his brothers and smoked. When we came across natural water streams, we stripped and bathed nude without a care for the rest of the world. We were free, liberated boys.

Back at school, on most days, after school finished, I hung out with my classmates. I visited their homes and often were fed by their doting mothers. I watched inter-school cricket and soccer matches and visited libraries. I continued reading a range of English novels, mostly saucy and detective stories. I read many American magazines such as Time, Newsweek and Readers Digest including Playboy magazines.  The last was a biological imperative.

 

My English language skills improved tremendously during this period and my self-confidence continued to grow. I nearly won a scholarship to go to the USA on a student exchange program. 

 

 

 

I had come to observe changes in my body. I was feeling attraction to beautiful girls and boys. I liked being me. I was learning to fly high. I was comfortable with myself. I learnt to be fashionable, picking my choice of clothes and my tailors carefully. 

 

I was increasingly becoming independent and confident about myself with a wide variety of worldly exposures.

 

My interest in western music expanded and I started following English and American pop stars. I listened to English music channels on my Sony transistor radio in the evening till I fell asleep. 

 

I became a movie buff, watching 14 movies, in that year alone, with my school friends. Most of the movies were Hollywood movies. My particular interest was in movies with erotic scenes. I watched some ‘adults only’ movies with my classmates, dodging entry rules.

 

I collected my pocket money and bought a second-hand bicycle. The bike became one of my prized possessions and frequent companion. After school, I loved cycling in my home village and hanging out at the local sports ground. 

 

I indulged in another favourite hobby of mine, drawing in my spare time. I drew people and landscapes with pencils and watercolours. Being a self-taught artist, my drawing style was my own. 

 

 

During the next school holidays, I again holidayed with Ajit and his siblings in the hill country.  Days were filled with freedom only afforded to carefree teenage boys looking out for the next adventure. We swam in reservoirs, fished, and smoked in between.  

 

Back at school, I enjoyed my emerging role as a mediator, facilitator among my friends.  Sometimes my mutual friends got into arguments over silly matters as every teenager would do.  I ended up talking to the parties separately and then mediating to repair their boyhood relationships.   I opened a contact book where I recorded everyone’s addresses. I became a natural organiser with planned our social events, whether it was a movie, a cycling trip, a visit on a weekend to a friend’s home or to a venue.  Some cycling trips on the weekends, covered 30 kilometres each way.

 

I helped my parents in sharing responsibilities at home. I took my brother every day to his school before commuting to my own school. I enjoyed the rides on the school bus with my mates. I did most of the grocery shopping, being the eldest child in my family. I loved it being home and just being me. I was in control of my own life within a relatively short time.

 

I had the ultimate care from my family, my father in particular, who looked after me. God Bless him.

 

I had a caring relationship with my friend, Ajit Martin who looked out for me all the time.  He, although was one year younger than me knew bits of my past.  His friendship helped me to see another world, a bright one at that.  We spent a lot of time together exploring the world in awe.  I have remained lifelong friends with Ajit.

 

By being a freelancing teenager, with emerging self-confidence, great strong social connections and a loving set of parents, I left behind the demons of the Christian boarding school.

 

I leapt into the wild.  I lit a bonfire of my life in the Christian brothers boarding school.  I regenerated.

 

All these things helped me to overcome the tragedy that was forced on me by the organised punks of that religious order. I did not let them win. I conquered and they lost, very badly at that.  Goodness eventually prevails, evil loses.  This is my story, my all-conquering story.   The victory.  

 

Read the next episode for the next chapter, how I fought for another boy who was in desperate circumstances.

 

Read the next episode