Long Long Ago ... Short Short Boy

I was very short when i was in school.My height was not proportionate or relevant to the class i was studying in :( . The first time i started feeling conscious about that was ,perhaps, in my second standard. As u know, during the prayers at school the students would form a queue, and the position where one would stand was decided by ones own height. . And my position was the second. I always wanted to stand at the last but that system of hierarchy based on heights never alllowed me to do so. Where was the democracy?? :P

I had two friends that time(still have :) )...Srikanth and Radha(aka Radha krishna) . Till some time they were the same like me.Same Height. Everything seemed rosy.And then......The humiliation began when a cousin of one of my friends who was famous for overtly candidness remarked one day "Kranthi enthainaa potti " :$ . The feeling was like...was like....like as if i was hit by a high-accelerated thunderbolt straight on my head.

Whenever i saw people on roads who were very short i used to pray very sincerely " God..please make me grow ...make me taller... please .... my feet must touch the ground when i ride a scooter...atleast make me that taller..". I could not dare to imagine me not able to ride a scooter beacause of height-deficit.Why scooter ??? because in my school days bajaj scooter was a rage :). Didnt find these many bikes.

My two friends were growing like two trees(telugulo cheppalante thaati chettulaa)..tall tall all the way!!!! And the same happened with my sorrows...growing growing all the way!!!!

One day i was taken to a movie .Second-show. In that movie i found the hero seem taller than his real height.I couldnot figure how.When i asked my mother about that she told me that with some camera techniques it could be possible.I thought how lucky these heroes where because they could be shown taller....but what about me...how would I look taller???What should i do..??. hmm :'(

I knew that some charecteristics were dependent on genes. So..Whenever i pondered over my maternal lineage i used to worry a lot.They were not that great at heights.Not short,though :)

As my mathemetics knowledge got enhanced, i started following metrics. I heard 5 feet was not a bad height. I didnt know exactly how much length that meant. But i wanted .The sound FIVE FEET seemed good.I despearately wanted to gain that height. One friend at school KTed, preached,lectured me "kranthi..in our body we have cells. The cells,sometimes,stuck to each other .To break the attached cells one should do some kind of exercises" . Taking cue from that..I used to do pull-ups whenever and wherever i found a cement slab or a tree branch or a bar.All that effort was to liberate those cells which got stuck . Hope never dies :P

Days were rolling. I was going through all kinds of embarrassment related to "height'". Even in my family circles it was a topic of discussion,like they didnt have any other things to discuss: some mocked at me :"kranthi gaadu vaalla friends kante chinnaga untaadu", some sympathized: "inka time vundile,peragadaaniki" and some contributed to my already existing pathetic dilemma : "kranthi ika peragadaa??". Oh..!!!! The sad part was ...my own younger brother crossed my height-level and he was taller than I was.. Do you think there would be any other humiliating factor than this?I guess not.

The only consoling factor was nobody called me short or potti at school. Because my sincerety (i was sincere,those days :P) and brilliance at studies made me nickname-free.haha.Moreover there were many other friends in the class who were shorter than me. And the shortest,Naveen even had an official nickname "pottodaa"(Shortboy). Jani was also a short boy but nobody dared to call him so because he was a don in the class.He had powerful connections outside the school. Real don. :)

I was a good alrounder in cricket. I was opening bowler too for my team.My captain Jani trusted me very much and i never diappointed him in taking wickets or in scoring runs.. But,I always thought if only i had a great height i would have bowled even better.I meant,more bouncers. Lemme write here my own postulate "Height does make a bowler life more fruitful" :) .Howzzat !!!! ;)

Sometime during 9th class.. me and my two giant trees(radha & srikanth) wanted to have a snap as we found a camera at my house. We requested my uncle to photograph us. I got ready ..wore my fav shirt ...tucked my shirt in....My friends came too and we got photographed. You know how the photo was taken. I sat on a wall and was flanked by my two friends standing , my arm around srikanth's shoulder...I sat so that i wouldnt seem shorter.That was my own idea actually. When i saw the photo i felt like a rat betweeen two standing elephants or dinosaurs.Despite my attempts to nullify the Height-Difference-Effect, it was clearly conspicuous. One word to say about the photo : AWFUL. I want to upload that photo now but its not with me right now.Sometime later... :)

Those were a few instances of my suffering.All short guys can easily empathize with me.What say???

Hey, you wanted to know what happened to me after the school.... here we go :

A lightning struck.the miracle happened. By the end of intermediate first year ,even i joined the League of Trees ..haha..I grew tall..taller ..tallest. I am taller than all the poeple in my family circles who criticized my height in the past.

And the best part...my friend's cousin who said,when in school, that i was short.. one day ,during my engg days, said "eraa kranthi baaga podugayioyaavu....srikanthey potti ayipoyaadu kadaa......potti srikanth" .haha.i did beat one tree. Radha and me ,more or less, are of same height.Srikanth is very short when compared to me.I am short of a few inches with my brother.He is still taller. But no problem, i am no more short/potti. My engineering friend said ,sometimes, "kranthi manchi height" and I blushed :)

P.S: Now ,if i ride the scooter ,my feet WILL touch the ground beyond doubt. The only stopping factor is that scooters are not found these days :) . Anybody has one???