The Perfectionist

When Sai Srikar Valmiki was in sixth standard, he had a friend. Though his name was Raghav, he was famous throughout the 6^th class as “The perfectionist”.

This guy was somewhat of a character straight out of a comical book.

Like all “perfectionists”, he too did everything in an extremely perfect fashion; and, like all “perfectionists”, he expected everyone to be as perfect as him and generally gave lengthy lectures to those people who were seen by him. This was the only fault in him, he could not settle for anything short of perfect. This was the only reason his classmates ignored him.

But, luckily, among his teachers he was considered a gem of a student; an all-time 1^st ranker. This was the thing that mattered to him – what his teachers thought about him; he did not give a thought about what his friends called him.

This story, however, is not about how Raghav earned the other students’ friendship but about what happens when such imperfect perfectionists are asked to lead a group of already experienced people to complete a group activity.

The mid term papers were just distributive to the class, and most of them were happy with their results.

Their teacher, too, appreciated their performance and wanted to give them a kind of a gift.

The class enjoyed presenting activities. So, the teacher decided to assign them a group activity.

The teacher made 7 groups of 5 and announced, “Each of you will be assigned a topic, and you people will have to make a beautiful presentation on the topic.”

She then started assigning group leaders to each group. Srikar and Raghav were in different groups. The group Raghav was in contained the best students the section had.

“Group 1 – Raman,” the teacher started calling out.

“Group 2 – Sri.”

“Group 3 – Valmiki.”

“Group 4 – Karthik.”

“Group 5 – hmmm…” the teacher was confused; she couldn’t decide who was the best student in this group. This was the group that Raghav was in. After a long pause, the teacher said, “Raghav!”

The whole group groaned. But Raghav was happy. This was not the first time he was leading a group activity. He had done that before, but the group he led came in the last position, not because it lacked talent but because it couldn’t submit in time. Raghav, at that time, thought that his group could do better and tore all their hard work at the last moment.

This was the main reason group 5 was disappointed.

“Group 6 – Sivakumar,” the teacher continued, ignoring the groans and disappointed looks of group 5.

“And finally group 7 – Farrukh,” the teacher paused and made a list of students in a group and their leaders.

“Now each of the leaders will come forward and pick a chit from this jar. The chits contain your topics,” the teacher said pointing to a glass jar at the corner of the table. Everyone knew the topics inside the jar. The same jar with its boring topics was used for every group activity.

Raman went forward, thrust his hand in the jar, picked a chit, unfolded it and announced, “Indian freedom fighters!”

Then Sri went near the jar, picked a chit, unfolded it and announced, “Ancient India!”

Sai Srikar Valmiki announced, “World War 2!”

Karthik announced, “Indian constitution!”

Raghav announced, “Food chain!” This was the easiest topic in a jar that a group can create a presentation. Group 5 people cheered.

Sivakumar and Farrukh picked ‘Which came first-chicken or egg debate’ and ‘Dinosaurs’ respectively.

After a few meetings between the group members, Raghav assigned each one a sub topic.

Mahita was asked to prepare an opening speech. She was a good orator and this role suited her perfectly.

Ramu volunteered to collect and collage pictures on the topic. Ramu liked photography, so Raghav believed that Ramu could do the thing perfectly.

Raghav had assigned himself to do the fact collecting and chart making work. He thought that no one could make things better.

Krishna was to write the lines that had to be spoken when the chart, prepared by Raghav, was being presented.

Rashmi had to mesmerize and speak the lines written by Krishna. Rashmi had stage-fright, and so kept on saying ‘no’ to this role and said that she could make the chart. But Raghav insisted saying that group activities’ main aim was to vanquish all the fears in a child’s heart. The real reason, however, was different; Rashmi was Raghav’s competitor in class, and was as good as him in science. So, he wanted to prove that he could do everything better than her and assigned her a role that she was weak in.

As time went on, everyone gave their best. Mahita had prepared a speech that gave goosebumps to the listeners. Though the topic of the speech was more passive, she could orate it as if it was used before soldiers fought a war, and she thought to do so.

Ramu spent 5 hours a day taking photos. He had, in 3 days, clicked 7 amazing photos. A small sapling in the soil; a beautiful butterfly of orange, yellow and black drinking nectar from the flower; a frog’s tongue stretched out, attached to it was the butterfly; a long yellowish-black snake gulping the frog; an eagle holding the snake in its claws; the bird frying on a pan and finally the bones of the fried bird decomposing were the 7 pictures. 

Krishna, too, wrote amazingly. For his lines he had to research a lot. He spent half a day doing so. And because there was no option of google, Krishna had to read numerous encyclopedias to collect the information for his speech.

Rashmi, however, struggled to deliver the speech. Every time she spoke, a word or two were pronounced wrong. This was because she was too anxious and nervous. But after 5 days of rigorous practice, she thought she was ready.

Raghav, as we all know, did everything perfectly. From the heading to the footer, one could see perfection. Not a dot went astray in his chart. 

The day of presentation was still 4 days away, and everyone had finished their work.

That day, everyone showcased their work. First Mahita recited her speech. Everyone clapped excluding Raghav.

Next went Ramu. His work was appreciated, too. But Raghav didn’t even smile.

Krishna told Rashmi to present her lines and she did so. 

Raghav stood up, after Rashmi’s speech. He looked at Mahita first. “Your opening-speech, but I expected a better one with more perfection.

“Now for Ramu. You clicked these photos amazingly, but if you would have clicked them from a different angle the result would have been better. For example – The picture of the butterfly is good, but if you could have taken the same shot from the top, we could have seen its proboscis piercing the flower to drink nectar.

“Krishna, you wrote an average collection of facts, you can actually see more facts in my chart. And for the vocabulary of the speech, it could be far better. It is not suitable for a 6^th grader!

“And for Rashmi, please practice more! Your delivery of the average lines is so bad! Please! From your pronunciation to your expression, everything is so imperfect! If you talk like this in front of our teacher, we will surely be at the end!” Rashmi started crying. She gave her best, she said. And she stood up and went away.

“Why are you so cruel? Can’t you appreciate her for her hard work!” Krishna complained. He too went away.

“Why do you always go behind perfection?” saying this Ramu too ran behind Krishna.

Mahita stood up and said, “I am going too! You do on own, the whole project, ‘with perfection!’” she went away too.

“Ok! Sure! I will do it with perfection! Better than you people did or will ever do!” Raghav shouted, though no one was there to listen to him.

For 3 days, Raghav gave his best effort. But he couldn’t take more than 2 pictures, 1 opening speech and only 3 lines for speaking.

At that moment, Raghav understood why it was a team activity. Even if he did everything in one go from now on, it was still impossible to finish.

He threw the pencil in his hand in disappointment. Though it was not his first incomplete activity, it was still the first time when he was outcast from his team.

Srikar had just completed his project and so did his team members. He was very happy and wanted to play with Raghav. He went to Raghav’s house and shouted, “Raghav! Can you come to play?”

“I can’t come to play today. I am not in the mood,” Raghav said.

“Why?”

Raghav narrated the whole story. Srikar had actually predicted this situation. He knew that this would happen.

He patted Raghav on the back and said, “Come, let us talk to your group.”

During these 3 days, when Raghav was failing badly, his group had progressed by a lot. The only thing they did not have was the chart, which Rashmi said she would make. And while Rashmi prepared the chart, Krishna memorized the lines written by him. They were doing quite well without Raghav as their captain. They all met at Ramu’s house everyday to share their progress.

Srikar went to Ramu’s house and knocked. Ramu opened the door and went in. He stopped Raghav at the door.

As he came out again, he was smiling. Ramu was behind him and said to Raghav, “Come in, you can be a part of our group again! But you will have to help us more than doing something on your own! No part is left for you, so you’ll have to hold our props on the stage, Ok?”

Raghav’s face lit up. “Anything is ok for me!” Ramu went inside and gestured to Raghav to come inside.

“What did you say to them?” asked Raghav while going inside. Srikar winked.

As he went inside, Raghav saw his team members reciting their lines and practicing on how to show their presentation.

Raghav sat beside Krishna, who was instructing Mahita to stand a little to the right.

After a while, Raghav’s turn came. He stood in the middle of the stage, holding the chart prepared by Rashmi. He peaked at it from the top and suddenly noticed that Something was amiss.

“But in this chart the border is not perfect! It is not parallel to the opposite side!” He announced.

Indeed, my friends, some people never change!

THE END