The Tantrik
I was never a typical ‘good boy’. In those days, good boys would be the ones who scored above 60 per cent and would complain about the ‘bad boys’ like us to the class teacher.
While talking about percentages and scores, anybody with 60 % and above was considered an intelligent student who understood all the stuff in the books. Their parents would distribute sweets and throw parties to celebrate. Once in a while, if I managed 60 and above in a certain subject, I would myself take sweets and visit neighbours; especially ones with girls my age.

Anyways, after going to high school i.e. from grade 6th onward, I began to behave very differently than other boys of my age. Blues Rock music and Hippie aesthetic sound had entered my system. I knew everything that I was doing wasn’t going well with my family and the neighbourhood. But who cared!
For me, life had suddenly changed from dreams of 4 stripes on the bridge of a cargo liner to bylanes of Calcutta to find good Mary Jane which came from Kerela or Manipur those days.
I was living or maybe trying to live the life of ‘Flower Power’. The life at Woodstock ‘69.
So every year, I would get promoted with a warning or parental undertaking. By the time I was in grade 7th for the first time, I’d started experimenting with chemical drugs like Mandrax. Actually, most of our locality boys had started popping in pills by the early 80s.
Suddenly, the ‘blue-eyed boy’ became the boy whom South Calcutta mothers detested me. They would go to all extents to protect their kids from a guy like me who played Jimi Hendrix, heard CCR and smoked Led Zep. Even before that, songs like, “I’m Your Captain’ had rocked the hell out of me. All that I was doing was sacrilege !
I really don’t know what I was rebelling against but I was liking the freedom. Relatives soon began to discard the ‘scion’ of the family. So while at the height of complaints and threats of throwing me out of school, some relatives were making sure that my cousins stayed away from me.
During this time, an extended family member forced my mother to take me to a Tantrik. Now in the land, I come from, people run to Tantriks even if they fail to get an erection. Besides, trying all sorts of black magic (Tantra is no black magic please!) for all sorts of problems was very common.
So, one day I found myself being forcefully taken to a Tantrik in the neighbourhood. The extended family member was certain that the Tantrik could change my fortune and make sure that I scored over 60 % in my annual exams.
