Leaves

The Three Laws Of Motion

It was Friday night.

The rain splattered on the window. Unlike his elder brother, he enjoyed them and the atmosphere that went with it -  the petrichor, the dampness, the buzz of the insects and the croaks of frogs. It was as though earth had come alive. There was nothing like sitting in the balçao, sipping on a cup of hot chocolate. He had hot chocolate only once, but he still remembered the aftertaste. Much unlike the girl in his class who claimed to drink it every morning. For a moment we thought of how lucky she was - she would often get slices of pizza for lunch almost every other day and she threw a birthday party at the Vikanta no less. She went home in a Mercedes, a different Merc everyday that too. Not that his family didn't have any money, it was just that they didn't splurge, a word he learnt while flipping through the dictionary last week.

The sudden clasp of lightening brought him out of his reverie, gently reminding him that his exams were not over yet. He wished the roof of the school would collapse and the administration would postpone the exams, but the school - Clapton High, had withstood such prayers for over fifty years now. He focused his eyes on the textbook that lay in front of him. It was a standard science textbook wrapped with thin plastic. The money that went to purchase the plastic could have been better used for purchasing a set of shuttlecocks to play badminton with. But his mother had prevailed. Now that the monsoons had begun, he understood why.

He opened the fifth chapter in the textbook, Newton's Laws of Motion. The title was in big bold red coloured letters. This was the only path he had to take if he wanted to win the bet. He sighed. This was going to be a long night.

He started by counting the pages that made up the chapter (it was around 40). If he could finish this in an hour or so and write it in the exam tomorrow he would be playing the computer game his brother had promised... He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Work first, then dream. With a look of determination on his face, he started studying. The chapter started off by mentioning a story of how Newton was inspired about the Gravitational Law - the story where an apple fell on his head. He smiled at the memory of the obese science teacher throwing the apple up in the air and catching it with a little jump. She had tried to explain the Gravitational Law but all most of the students saw was a teacher playing catch with an apple. He read the definition aloud hoping to memorise it -

"The Newton's law of universal gravitation states that any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them."

A formula was given beneath along with a quick question. He tried solving it but kept on getting the wrong answer. Five minutes later, he gave up. Maybe there was an error while printing the textbook. He looked at the clock. It was quarter to ten. He got up and stretched his legs. He felt a sudden urge to check his phone for messages but he knew his mother won't hand it over to him till the exams were over. With an air of resignation he sat down and continued reading.

"An object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force." He found it a bit silly. Furthermore, it was mentioned that this was in an ideal world and in the real world friction and some other forces would bring the object to rest. He wondered why were they discussing ideal scenarios instead of practical ones. Couldn't they give a practical definition of the First Law, instead of the theoretical one? Practical was always good. He had an ideal girlfriend while his brother had a real one and he definitely looked like he was having more fun. Dumb syllabus. Dumb science. Dumb exams. Dumb things people do for a video game.

It all started when his French teacher, after he submitted an assignment on 'Ma Famille', asked how his brother was keeping up. A week later the science teacher asked him if he had a brother who attended the same school. He answered in the affirmative. Much to his irritation, she sang the praises of his brother and asked him why were his marks not as high as his brother's. He mumbled something along the lines of busy practising for the upcoming football match and she left him in peace. Little did he know, that she wasn't the last to ask him that.

These incidents left a bitter taste. He always felt he was living under his brothers shadow - the shadow of an excellent person. He felt sad that he would be always referred to as Rohan's brother not by his own name. He wished his brother wasn't so good when he was in school. Not that he hated him, but he wished he was more smarter than him. A few weeks later when his brother returned from the trip, he mentioned the incident to him. He looked amused and was surprised that the teachers remembered him after all these years. Soon one thing led to another and he made a bet with his brother. He would try be in the top ten in the class in every subject. If he succeeded, his brother would gift him a copy of "Watch Cats" and "FIHA 14", the video games that he had been pestering his father for a while now. Little did he know then how tough this would be.

His parents were surprised by the rapid transformation. His friends though, were more than a bit upset. He had literally slogged through all the subjects and he was sure he had done well. He flipped to the textbook's contents. He had completed the other chapters earlier in the day, sacrificing even his "football time" and "video game time". He came to the conclusion that the only thing that stood between him and gunning down people and jumping over rooftops was Newton's ghost and his three very idiotic laws.

The table clock told him it was eleven. He marvelled at how fast the time flew. He remembered Edelbert telling him that when you talked to your crush for five minutes it would seem as though only a minute was up, but if you sat on a hot stove for five minutes, assuming you were still alive, you would say that you think for five hours. "It's all relative." Edelbert had told him then. Edelbert was smart at stuff like that. Especially science. He got back to work. He skimmed through the pages half memorising, half understanding, burning his way through the end of the chapter as fast as possible. He grew distraught and worried as it dawned on him that he couldn't recollect the laws that he had studied only a few minutes back. It didn't help that the weather was cool and a breeze blew his way, gently like how a lullaby soothes an exhausted baby to sleep. He decided to lay on the bed and study,  hoping that a change of place would help him focus and stay awake. Little did he know that God had other plans.

It was seven in the morning when his mother woke him up. He swore when his mother wasn't around and in the shower, cursing himself for not setting an alarm. He tried recollecting the three Laws but his mind drew a blank. A hurried breakfast of bread, butter and jam was all he could munch down before he ran to the pickup point to catch the school bus. On the way he slipped and nearly missed falling into a puddle. He cursed again.

Clapton High was one of those schools where you worried about the branches of the trees falling on your head as you walked from the main gate to the building which housed the school proper. The school was spread over a large area with all the buildings roughly forming a rectangle with the school cafeteria in the centre. The main building was old, old enough that there were rumours that the school administration had been paying off the city's councillors not to pass a demolition order.

As he walked or to put it more accurately, sprinted towards the classroom, he whipped out his textbook for some last minute cramming. His brother advised against it saying it does more harm than good, but all the people who did it seemed to get some high marks. Who was he to argue if these methods worked out not. He wasn't even in the top league. As he reached the classroom he could see the usual crowd of people who like him were cramming up what they could at the last minute. He saw a bunch of people looking confidant, packing up and taking their I'd cards out. He also did see another group of kids stuffing micro-photocopies of answers into their socks. He realised he should have done the same. A few minutes later he shuddered at the thought of getting caught. Not worth the trouble, he decided. Now in the final moments leading to the exams, all he did was look up and prayed that the question paper wouldn't contain Newton's three idiotic laws.

Once they settled in, the question papers and the booklets were handed out to them at sharp nine 'o clock. He took a deep breath and looked at the paper. His features first showed surprise and then a look of happiness took over. God had been merciful. He scanned the whole paper twice to be sure. There was no question on the Newton's laws of motion.

It was around nine - fifteen when he heard the voice of his science teacher.

"Children, there is a slight mistake in the paper. In unit two, take down the following questions. The first question in that unit, that is unit two, question one is state the Newton's Laws of... "

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