Comic Konnection - (The Christmas tale)

It’s a chilly morning as I decide to wake up and start my usual routine. So I get ready to go to school. The snow on the fifth street is something that I do not like especially as car tends to slip. Today is no different. I dress up and reach school. Not in mood for anything. I do want a dayoff today.

But Mr. Sherman wants to do an activity today. It is about charity since Christmas is around the corner, hence I can’t even say no. So I donated my comic books. My Archie's, my Axterix's and my Batman collections which once were my life at but now as a 16 year old, I don’t’ need them anymore.

My School in US is located in a small farming town where livelihood of locals thrives on apple farming and lately with New Zealand exporting apples for cheap, my family along with hundreds of other households is suffering. 

So Mr. Sherman collected all the donated items, we wrapped them and send them across to various countries in the world. We also wished Merry Christmas to unknown people in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

6 years Later.

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I have now settled quite well here in India. I live in a small little apartment in Mumbai (Bombay) working 5 days a week in a well-known firm for a handsome compensation

For my latest holiday I have gone to Manali in Himachal and I am just roaming on the streets in one of the village near Solan. A small kid crosses me. He appears six may be seven and looks very thin. And he asks " Dada tumhe padna aata hai" 

(Brother do you know how to read). "Ha". (Yes ). Ye padke bolo na phir (please read this for me then) and he gives me an Archie's Comic. 

I open it to read and then - oh its mine. It cant be, but it is.  So I read a section. But I cant help it. So I end up telling the kid, that this book was once mine. 

I feel for the kid and hence arrange for his education with help from a Delhi based NGO. And then I forgot all about it.

20 years later.

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I am a big Manager now and I meet young people, old people, greedy people and hence I dont usually feel something great to meet some one new and especially a young man. But this young man I met this morning rocked me to my core.

And then he said those unbelievable words, " Sir, I am the same boy from Manali."  

He was a dynamic young man now and somewhere in all his achievements and educational qualifications was a platform which my comic book had aroused. It lead him to seek education and it lead him to success.

Through the Boy's Eyes. (After 50 more years)

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I am dying next month due to incurable tumor and hence this is my will - " I, Sameer Sheikh here by leave all my industries, wealth and real estate to my son as the sole and only owner, but I also give him my most priced possesion my comic book which made me all what I am now"

And then the Boy (Sameer) died.  [I was also dead by then of course. But to complete the story I would still use first person so bear with me. As if you have a choice.]

So Sameer's son read the will and then as he drove out from his lawyer’s office, he threw away, the most priced and yet useless thing that his father had left him, out of the car. 

The book was gathering dust along roadside until a kid, from the nearby slum, picked it up out of curiosity. It seems, he is reading it and looks as if he actually likes it too, I am so happy.

May be, just may be the comic book can inspire him too.

Well that’s the hope!!!    

By Ninad Tatke