Page 204 - Musings 2020

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The Curious Case of Benjamin’s Button

Aneri Jain 2017B4A3759P and Riddesh Tiwaskar 2017B4A30537P

A faint glimmer of light made its way through a crevice in the door and fell on my eyes. My
desperate tries to keep my sleep were to no avail as the door opened and a blast of sunlight hit
me. It was Benjamin. I watched as his sturdy hands latched straight onto me. Benjamin was a
boy of short stature and a strong build, with beautiful ebony skin. I looked straight into his
vibrant almond-shaped eyes as he looked straight at my threaded heart. “I wonder if I should
wear the new blue shirt today?”, thought Benjamin, raising his peaked eyebrows higher.
Suddenly, a shout was heard, “HURRY BENJAMIN! It’s already 8:10 in the morning!”. It
was from his mother, a kind-hearted woman with only one child. Benjamin hurriedly put the
azure shirt on and rushed downstairs to grab a sandwich and darted off to school.

Me? I am a button. A light blue button with shades of grass green in a wave-like pattern. My
heart is stitched tight to a beautiful azure shirt which just got adopted into the Smiths’
residence from the Benetton store nearby. I was a gift to Benjamin from his mother, and
today was my first day out in the world.

I thoroughly enjoyed the wind speeding through me as Benjamin ran to the school. I was
looking at the vast school grounds. Suddenly we were stopped by a tall girl with a ‘Prefect’
batch pinned to her ironed yellow shirt. I couldn’t look at her face but she sounded stern as
she scolded Benjamin for arriving after 8:30 AM. After facing the music, Benjamin along
with me headed into his class. I, at once, fell in love with the invigorating sight of various
coloured shirts and shoes worn by the student. The school bell rang as a lady walked in the
classroom, wearing a formal set of clothes, neatly ironed. She wore delicately strapped
sandals. Clearly, she was not like Benjamin or other kids present in the class. The classroom
soon greeted her and I deciphered that she was their teacher. I was about to doze off after a
while in the gentle breeze of the fan as the cacophony of the school bell rang again. It rang
for a while after some fixed intervals. It was irritating and repetitive. It was as if a video was
being played on a loop, just with different teachers entering the class after each bell.

After the fifth or sixth bell, the students stood up with uncanny energy. I couldn’t quite think
what could’ve been the reason that stirred up such enthusiasm among the kids after such a
boring day. We tread to the school playgrounds. I tagged along as Benjamin walked towards a
rectangular ground partitioned into two major regions, with a white netted metal frame on
each end. He walked with great zeal in his steps. His heartbeat was calm, yet a bit faster. It
told me that Benjamin wanted to win all the matches of --“soccer”, as the other kids called it.
My threads were already drenched in sweat due to the scorching sun above. But none of
Benjamin’s movements felt slow. There was a shrill whistle, and countless bodies began
running around the ground. I was terrified. I held on to my threads for my dear life as
Benjamin galloped around. It was worse than an Earthquake for sure! I was punched hard
numerous times. It felt like torture. I did not like it at all. Suddenly Benjamin fell as I too
came down with a crash. I was completely engulfed in mud and dirt. The awful day ended
with this exhausting experience.

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