Reynolds Pen - School Stories

I was 11 years old studying in class 6th. The five friends with whom I used to hang out were quite intellectual. We would discuss politics, movies, songs and of course WWF. In school, we used to get two breaks. 15 min bathroom break and 45 min lunch break. Everyone would eat their lunch in 15 min break so that they could play for 45 min in the lunch break. All students would be on the playground in lunch break leaving classrooms deserted. One day in break time we were discussing a movie we saw previous night on Doordarshan. It was Dev Anand's movie 'Amir-Garib' based on Robin Hood storyline where the hero lives dual life by stealing from rich and giving it to the poor. We were moved by that idea. There were many poor kids living on the way to our school. After doing a lot of brainstorming we decided to implement that movie idea in real life. But stealing from rich businessmen and bank robbery was far from our reach. So we decided to rob the rich kids in our own class. One of our friends also reminded us of the quote written on the school wall "Charity begins at home" to validate our decision.

So the plan was to steal study related stuff like pen, pencil, eraser, sharpener, compass, scale etc. We thought, by giving those things to poor kids we will empower them and restore the lost balance in society. Dev Anand would have been proud of us. Best time for us to steal was at lunch break when everyone would be on the playground. We started gathering intel for finding who all were rich kids in our class. After the list was finalised our mission began. Everyday things started disappearing from kids bags. We realised it was not safe to keep them with us or carry them home. So we found a deserted spot at the end of our playground. It was a little forest where there was a big pond covered in green algae. Rumours were, that pond was inhabited by Shesh naag's brother. Everyone was scared to go into that little forest. But we all went and found a spot where we kept all the stolen things into a big plastic bag, nicely covered in the grass. So the drill was to submit everything stolen there when school was over and then go home. 

One evening after school everyone gathered at the secret spot to submit things. One of our friends had stolen a Reynold pen. My eyes sparkled looking at the pen. Beautiful white body with a blue cap on it. It was a costly pen in those days. It was a status symbol. We left for home calling it a day. While walking back home my mind was caught up in that beautiful Reynolds pen. I always wanted to have one but had to settle on cheaper ones. I reached home, went into my room and threw my bag on the bed. A thought entered my mind that, 'If I can't afford a Reynolds pen then it shows that I am poor. And we are running this project for poor kids only.' When we are caught up in temptation, our mind finds a million reasons to justify why we must go for it. The same thing happened to me. I got convinced to steal the already stolen pen. Without changing my school uniform I left home telling my mom, 'I forgot my book in school so I will go and get it.' My school was 5 minutes walking distance from my home. I reached midway and rain started falling. The school was empty, no sign of anybody. I crossed the playground walking through mud, entered into the forest making my way through bushes. Reached our secret spot and removed the grass which was covering the bag. Took out the Reynolds pen from the bag, looked at it with an evil smile and put everything back as it was before. I walked out of the forest hiding the pen in my uniform pocket. I felt a sense of victory & power like when a superhero turns bad after getting possessed by the evil power. I wasn't me. Came home, changed clothes and kept the pen on my desk as a trophy. I kept looking at it & holding it every now and then that evening. It had all my attention. I slept keeping that pen next to my bed.

Next day I went to school leaving the pen at home. I acted normally throughout the day. In the evening when we gathered at our secret spot to submit stuff, one of our friends noticed the absence of Reynolds pen. Everybody got suspicious about it. I was pretending to be in shock. They thought somebody other than us came to knew our secret spot and our stealing plan. Everybody got scared and decided to give away whatever the things we had collected to those poor kids. Standing with my five friends in that forest who had a noble cause in their mind, it was the first time ever in my life I had experienced Guilt. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. The pleasure rush of power & victory which I had gotten just a day before was looking ant-like in front of the mountain of Guilt I was standing under. I came home running, took the pen and left out searching for those poor kids. Found one kid, gave him the Reynolds and left without looking back. That incident was so powerful that it left a burning scar inside me. I still remember the walk to that forest in the rain to steal the Reynolds pen. I feel blessed for this story which taught me a very valuable lesson of my life at a young age of 11.

Stealing Was Not For Me.