"People are people, that's how they're meant to be"

They say, the behavior of a person changes owing to the circumstances prevailing around him. But I'm glad I know a person whose behavior remains cheerful, no matter what the circumstances.

"People are people, that's how they're meant to be" he says, exemplifying unfitting authority by banging his bony hand on the desk and by holding an expression which coupled confidence and desperation on his thin, child like face. The manner in which he spoke these words was, although humorous as usual, but carried a substantial amount of truth which was far from his familiarly renowned laid back approach to life.

Few of the other students in the class giggled, after all that's what Pranay was used to. His abnormally thin stature made people laugh, let alone giggling at whatever he said. In fact, his image fleeted into anyone's mind hours after he had merely seen him. His exceptionally weak frame, which consisted of two thin legs and arms each and a face which truly resembled a sucked mango when seen from the exterior, often acted as something which helped people in remembering who he was. It actually acted as something others could cling onto in a funny manner just to append that frame to his true identity. Bullies were always having a pop at him but he, hardly batted an eye.

Students recognized him as someone who was never serious about the life he dealt with and cracking jokes was almost an unpaid occupation of his. He had a joke up his sleeve after everything we said and I, being a good friend of his, was used to it more than anybody else. There were times when even I found all his jokes too much to take in one day at school but there were some others who lost temper too early. Yes, all they could do was to laugh at his often recurring jokes in an annoying fashion. Some even asked me, who was a more sensible and introvert chap "How do you make do with him?". My answer was simple and as introvert as ever " I'm more used to this than anybody else". Others, who knew me well enough enquired " How can you, such a quiet and introvert boy, stay with such an annoying lad as Pranay?"

It all began when I switched to Humanities last year in Grade XI and being an avid football geek, I was fond of mates who could talk football almost as long as I want them to. And good ol' Pranay was one of them. Again, my conception of him was of being an obnoxious and irritating kid whose trash talks can literally force you into committing a suicide but common interests changed my perception of who he was. He was someone who was willing to make you laugh for the entire day without stripping you off any amount of cash. Sometimes, he acted as a stress relieving medicine which wasn't supposed to be swallowed. Instead, you were just supposed to be withing his reach in the classroom. And due to the fact that there were just 4 boys (others were girls) in our Humanities batch, I develop a tad decent friendship with him. You've got to salute our teachers for the fact that they bore the brunt of every antic he pulled out in class. We were at the receiving end of most the physical jokes(such as the untying of our shoe laces during classes) and a decent amount of verbal jokes as well. We found this funny, yet immature but on the back of our heads, we knew Pranay won't change or let put it this way- we'd hate it if Pranay changes. Not only us, even our teachers were aware of the fact that even their most frantic attempts to change him would go in vain. He was like that since the very offset and just like us, he'd loathe to change his approach towards life.

A universal fact, apart from his demeanor and looks was that he wasn't good in studies. I presume, he was too pre-occupied with activities dubbed as 'childish' or 'immature' but what's hard to imagine is that he hardly flunked in any exam. On top of that, he rarely reacted in a manner which reflected how much marks he had obtained. Others mourned about the fact that they failed to achieve a decent result or reacted in an out-of-this-world manner to it, but this lad remained the same as he was an hour ago. Circumstances failed some around him but they never came a feet close to failing him or changing how he was. That frivolous attitude towards the life he dealt with persisted, irrespective of what life threw at him. I fondly recall one incident which would clarify all this-

A week had passed since our exams had got over and as always, our teacher took no time at all to check our answer sheets. Out of all our subjects, the Political Sciences answer sheets were yet to be given. The Sports Day of our school was 2 days away and our Political Sciences teacher was busy with the preparations and couldn't make it to the class. But Pranay seemed desperate to lay his hands on the answer sheet and marched into the school ground to bring our teacher along, which was against our wishes. He was bashed up for doing so and even received multiple 'Hairdryers' from the girls for doing so. We were handed over our answer sheets but much to the surprise of others, Pranay flunked. Believe it or not, the glint of tension which prevailed in the eyes of someone who had flunked hardly persisted in Pranay's eyes. I had top notch empathy for him but his behavior hardly moved. An hour old's grin of buoyancy, elation crossed his face, literally over shadowing how he'd fared in his exams.

A mere part of his enormous dictionary of jokes was - "Why do we drink water". An obvious answer to a question as simple as this would be- " 'Cos we're thirsty, we else?". But here's what separated his jokes from the other ones which lay around in every corner of this materialistic world- Pure and Simple Logic. The above question will compel you into thinking for an hour or so if you know Pranay somewhat. "Because we can't eat it, idiot!" came the answer and was greeted with sputtering laughs of joy, and made people think what kind of an uncanny-joke-cracker he actually was.

Lying is a part of the armories of most people these days, save for children. No one would succeed in admitting that he's never lied in his entire life but Pranay was an epitome of innocence even at the age of 17. Even if he lied, an evil grin spread across his otherwise unsophisticated face raising the curtain from that lie. Sometimes, it seemed he was too young for someone of his age.

In case, you pass by someone who looks like him, I'm sure you won't stop laughing. I've, time and time again seen people who pass by him and stare at him as he's a martian or as if they're a martian and seeing a human on their planet was a rarity. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice how Pranay reacts to all this. He does seem to notice but ignores them as if they don't exist or are people like the Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter. He'd be used to being noticed in an absurd way and his reaction is nothing short of commendable. He puts one foot in front of the other one and he gets on with walking or rather skipping along on his route.

The phrase I opened this passage with is a trademark dialogue of Pranay's and serves as a testimony to the approach he carries towards his life- "People are people, that's how they're meant to be". People seem to judge him by the way he looks but as a popular saying says "Don't judge a book by it's cover", as friends or as people who know him, I'm glad I know someone as cheerful as him. He has taught us, let alone me how to live our lives. Even I tend to turn agitated when I find his jokes boring but deep inside, I never want him to change how he is disregarding, how annoyed I may seem from the outside. Even he has earned a fair share of detractors for himself through the years he has spent in the school but for him, those detractors are mere people. People he hardly bats an eye for or takes pleasure in making him laugh till tears roll down their eyes. People can call him 'Immature' but instead of building a border line between them and himself, he builds steady bridges to reach out to them and make them laugh.