The Secret

Spending weeks in the lockdown gave me time to focus on realizing the true potential of my chi. I realized that I was wasting it on pointless workout routines and unnecessary diets. Let’s just see the masters of chi: Po and the fellow pandas, Kai and Shifu. Kind of proves my point doesn’t it?? 

Unlike Po however, I did not focus on fighting crime, instead, I focussed on something I love: food. 

So how did I go about it?? I found that focussing my chi for selfish purposes made me lose a bit of it as well as my identity, little by little, every day (and believe me I tried it). Oh and also I’m a wizard, secretly attending Hogwarts in a long-distance programme for the last 7 years. Although I missed quidditch, I kept myself happy with football. I’m not going to brag about my OWLs (I got 10, 8 Outstandings, 1 Exceeds Expectations and 1 Acceptable) so I’ll keep this short. Admittedly balancing prep for JEE and the NEWTs were hard but I’m not a narcissist to continuously harper on about myself. 

So how did I help the people in need with this power that I came to develop?? Understanding the exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration, I realized I couldn’t conjure up food out of thin air. Stealing seemed a “criminal” wastage of my abilities (see what I did there??). So I tried to focus on conjuring the food from the exact location (after paying the bills of course!!). 

So a very common question (and an understandable one of course) was why didn’t I just apparate to the exact same place, buy the necessary food item, pay and apparate back?? A couple of reasons actually…. 

Firstly, if I had to apparate, I’m required to have my wand – which could be a drawback in many cases. A random Sunday evening when I’m cheering on Chelsea in my lucky jersey, in a tense game against Liverpool, I might not have my wand with me!! If my locality is helping out the nearby orphanage, I am unable to use my powers at all!!

Secondly, too many steps. As a teenager, I am bound by the teenage-code to be a pro-procrastinator and in a process that requires so many steps, sheer laziness qualifies as a reason. 

Furthermore, I am an extrovert with a social battery. YES, WE EXIST! So this might lead to some VERY awkward scenarios. Suppose I’m in a large-scale charity event and we run short of food. After socializing with the needy, I have to socialize again with the shopkeeper! An embarrassing encounter that can be easily avoided through my way. 

A thought that must have crossed everybody’s minds by now is how am I affording all this?? A very simple pricing model really. Well, I could give you a really long explanation involving user volume-based systems, NGOs, start-ups and a lot of other things but I guess in this case, some things are just worth keeping as secrets. I guess that’s what makes me a “superhero”. 

Let me now come to the drawbacks of this amazing power. Unfortunately, my kryptonite is that whenever a person in need comes to me directly, I am compelled to help them. Although on the face of it this doesn’t seem like a grave issue, the compulsion takes a toll on me. 

So now that I’ve told you what my powers and how I am using them, let’s discuss the possibilities on how they’ll get revealed to others. Let’s say I’m in the middle of an intense inter-house football match and suddenly a homeless person wanders onto the pitch. Running towards him with a plate of idli-sambar is bound to raise some suspicion. 

My closest friends, who are aware of my powers, often ask me if I think this is a boon or bane. Whilst I know that everything has its pros and cons, I think in this case the pros outweigh the cons. The satisfaction of helping someone supersedes the trivial time I spend having conversations with others. I still haven’t mastered my chi completely, having foolishly spent it on myself the first couple of attempts, but when I do, I’m hoping to change the world for the better.