“Hill stations are the worst! Nature is boring! This is the most boring-est vacation ever!”
Perhaps if Kaizad had stopped at that, it wouldn’t have been so bad.
But on Day 1 of their Nature trip, he went ahead and switched on his electric toothbrush. And he didn’t turn off the tap. He said hello to the shower. And buh-bye to the bucket. He left the hotel room. And left the fan on.
On Day 2, he threw an epic tantrum at the bustling hillside market. “I want a new superhero backpack.”
“What’s wrong with your old superhero backpack?” demanded Mom.
“Exactly that. It’s old.”
“We ordered it online just last month,” reminded Dad.
Kaizad dug his heels in.
On the last day, he glug-glug-glugged water while hiking the trail. And carelessly threw the plastic bottle on the grass. He wolfed down a packet of chips. And tossed the sandwich loaded with crunchy greens in the dustbin. The wrong dustbin.
Then, he grabbed a pack of tissues and yanked out napkin after napkin, like a magician pulling out a chain of streamers at a birthday party. Wiping his mouth roughly, Kaizad tossed the wad away.
Odd encounter
He was trailing behind his parents, when “Caught you!” boomed a voice. A tall, gangly boy burst through a clearing. Before Kaizad could blink, the boy belted out a rap song:
“Plastic bag, food waste/ Lights-fans left on in haste/ Yo’ own medicine, you gotta taste/ Running tap, garbage tower/ Fossil fuel, endless shower/ May this be your superpower/ 24/7 eco-warrior / Nature lover, future jollier/ Till you catch someone sorrier!”
With that poof! The boy was gone.
“W-E-I-R-D,” mused Kaizad. “What was all that about?”
He found out only when he went back to the city.
***
“Drop me at school on the way to work,” Kaizad whined the next day.
“It’s a five-minute walk,” tutted Mom.
“Take your cycle,” suggested Dad.
“I don’t want to be late on the first day.”
In the end, his parents had to give in.
Kaizad yawned through the morning assembly at school. He couldn’t wait to dash to his classroom. “Wait for me!” he called to his friends. Oddly enough, he found himself all alone in the auditorium. He was hurrying to the door, but lo! He flew — soared through the air! — to the switchboard. “I can fly?” gasped Kaizad. Alas, his excitement was short-lived. For, he started switching off all the lights and fans. Without really meaning to. What was going on?
He took a step, only to whoosh ahead at breakneck speed! But did he go,“Super-speed! Woohoo!”? Sadly not. Kaizad found himself zipping towards the school’s deserted parking lot. Where a knocked-over overflowing dumpster lay in wait. Foul smelling, rotten looking, awfully awful stuff was strewn all around. With a flick of his little finger, Kaizad picked up the massive dustbin. “Super-strength,” he marvelled, flinging the trash back where it belonged. With his bare hands.
Kaizad couldn’t believe it. Why wasn’t he going, “EWWW! GROSS!! YUCKK!!!”? Why wasn’t he projectile puking already? He’d never ever — not in a million years — go near that stuff.
Yet, it was all he did that day at school. Using his brand-new superpowers for good. When no one was watching. Oh, he couldn’t sit still. Not for a second. There was always a wrong he had to right. So off he went, replacing plastic bags with cloth sacks in the sports room, separating dry trash and wet waste in the cafeteria, unplugging fully charged cell phones and laptops in the staffroom.
It was only when he teleported into —horror of horrors! — the girls’ washroom to fix a leaky tap that he realised. This couldn’t go on. Hecouldn’t go on being this bizarre, automatic, nature-loving superhero. Alas, he was helpless. His mysteriously gained superpowers refused to let him stop. Saving the world, one positive action at a time, he somehow managed to get back home. Naheed, his nestie (neighbour + bestie) was waiting for him.
“How was your holiday? What did you do? Did you try those famous cookies? What are they called? Arkey? Larkey?” she shot off a volley of questions, before noticing his expression. “All okay? You look like there’s a supervillain chasing you.”
Kaizad burst into tears.
“Hey! What happened? What’s wrong?”
Sobbing and snivelling, Kaizad launched into the sorry tale.
“You’ve become Eco Boy!” Naheed exclaimed. “An eco-warrior!”
Eco-warrier. The words snagged in Kaizad’s brain. “The weird boy I met in the hills!”
“Tell me everything. Leave nothing out,” Naheed ordered. Kaizad obeyed.
“…and then he rapped out this song,” Kaizad turned ketchup red. “It was a list. All the things I’ve ever done to hurt Nature.”
“Try and remember the lyrics.” One hour and several interruptions later — snacks, washroom breaks, unplugging the TV, washing machine and mixie that weren’t in use — the friends had a rough draft of Nature Rap ready.
“Till you catch someone sorrier,” Kaizad repeated the lyrics. “I think that was the last line.”
“Got it! I think it means you need to find someone who is as selfi-,” Naheed broke off, looking at Kaizad’s small, pinched face. He wasn’t the same Kaizad. He’d learnt his lesson. She chose her next words carefully. “You need to find someone who doesn’t care about Nature...”
“...and rap!” Kaizad exclaimed, catching on. “Think the spell will pass on to them?”
“Only one way to find out.”
Kaizad didn’t have to go very far. He teleported to the small park next to their building. Tara from Flat 10B was munching on a bag of chips. Kaizad waited till she crumpled the packet and dusted off her skirt. As she carelessly flung the packet aside, he leapt in front of her and belted out the rap song.
When he was done, Kaizad walked — walked, thank goodness — back home, grinning widely.
