Having received my second ‘failed’ report card for Class 9, I went for as long a bicycle ride as I could to avoid going home and breaking the news. I wasn’t terribly distressed, didn’t contemplate suicide or anything, I just rode and rode and rode, with a completely empty head, until I couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer. But I had managed to delay it. Turning my cycle homeward at last, I frantically searched my mind for what lie I could possibly tell this time. It still gives me a twinge when I recall Baba’s worried but hopeful face when I returned, a good three hours or so after I
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