[ I've always been the typical nerdy kind.
Whose notebooks were hardly ever with herself.
And shared and xeroxed around the entire batch.
Loved by the profs. and juniors.
Made School Prefect and all that.
Know that sparkling stock of the 'good kids' of the world?
Guess I was one of those.
Studies was never a thing. No.
Just only knew I wanted to 'do well'.
****
When I was little, about 10 years old (just on the brink of going to 'big school'),
I remember my dad had once plonked me on his lap, and whispered in my ear, very slowly,
"It doesn't matter if you never turn out to be the topper.
Coming 1st doesn't mean a thing.
Just be honest to yourself and do well as a human being.
And I'd be the proudest dad in the world."
My dad somehow always had this habit of speaking with me like an adult. Like this.
So I don't know if I'd understood the import of what he exactly meant to say that day.
But today, after so many years, I realise it had somehow got burnt into my brain.
Know how you perform your best when someone takes the pressure off you?
I think that, perhaps, is what happened with me.
My parents never wanted me to come 1st.
Study Science or get medals on Prize Day.
(My brother, anyway, was doing all that).
So the definition of 'doing well' was very different in my dictionary.
Even perfect, in its own quirky kind of way.
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