EVERY child has a favourite cartoon character or a superhero that he or she admires the most. I also have one and guess what? It’s Hulk, the massive green strong fellow.

Yes, I am a big fan of Hulk and have huge posters and toys of his in my room. And at times when my younger brother does something to annoy me, I roar at him just like Hulk does in movies. I wish I had the powers he has! But since it is not possible, I only wish to look like him and paint myself green, though this really looks silly as I am skinny and in my preteens, while he is muscular and a big fellow!

My school arranged a gala week, in which various events were to take place, such as speech, sports and art competitions, a fancy dress show, singing, dancing, etc. I was very excited as it was the first time our school was organising such an event. Everybody was planning to participate in more than one event. I also decided to participate in two events, but on the same day, a speech competition and a fancy dress show.

A few days before the gala week, I started preparing for the speech contest and I was done with it in two days. Then I went to the market with my dad and bought nice blue denim shorts – yes, just the shorts because Hulk doesn’t need more clothes. I had a tattered waist so that would do. All I needed were some scratches in the shorts to make it look more like hulk’s ragged clothing.

Now I needed some green paint. One of my cousins likes to make tattoos using paint so I asked him for the paint and he gave me a can of green paint and also told me how to use it.

The day of my competitions arrived; in the first half was the fancy dress show while the second half had the speech contest. I reached the school early so that I could paint myself. I followed the instructions that my cousin gave and … wow! … I couldn’t believe how well I had coloured myself! Then I put on the shorts and ragged waist, I looked at myself in the mirror and roared like Hulk!

When I walked out of the bathroom, all my classmates were stunned. I looked so unusual and better than everyone else taking part in the fancy dress competition. My teachers praised my makeover as it was done superbly.

There were knights, fairies, Barbies and even other superheroes but I looked so unique. Everybody took my pictures and then we performed on the stage something relevant to our getup.

Guess what? I was given the first prize for my getup as Hulk!

After a while there was an announcement that the speeches would start in half an hour so everyone should prepare for it.

So those who were dressed for the fancy dress show and were also participating in the speech contest, crammed in the bathrooms to change while the rest remain dressed as they were. I had to take a bath to remove my green paint so I waited for everyone to finish.

While bathing, I noticed that the foam of the shower gel that was supposed to turn green with the paint coming off, remained white. I rubbed hard, nothing happened. Rubbed even harder but nothing came off, just a hue of green … no matter how hard I rubbed, it didn’t come off. I realised that my cousin must had mistakenly given me a permanent colour.

Then I heard the names for the speech competition being called. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I rubbed myself with the towel but there was just the lightest shade of green on it. I saw myself in the mirror. I looked terrible as the green colour was now smashed.

I wanted to cry. I tried to peek out from the bathroom to see if a teacher was nearby and could be of some help but there was no one in view. I didn’t even have a cellphone to call my cousin.

Then I heard, “Here comes our next contestant — our hulk, Kabeer!”

I shivered! But then it came to my mind, “Why not give the speech as Hulk?”

So I changed into my Hulk costume and, with a sigh, walked towards the hall and towards the back of the stage where a few others were standing for their turn.

All I heard was laughter as I walked up to the stage but I had to maintain my confidence so I just ignored my surroundings. With a deep breath I moved to the centre of the stage. There was silence for a moment. My class teacher, who was standing on the stage and making the announcements, was in a shock.

I looked straight at my audience and confidently began: “Dear all, let’s have some change in routine and allow this Hulk to give you a speech!”

Everybody smiled and they thought that giving the speech as the green Hulk was all pre-planned. My speech went nicely and I received unexpected applaud from the audience and also won the first-runners up prize for the speech.

Well this was my little secret, nobody ever knew. You must be guessing how I got rid of the colour after that? Well, I went straight to my cousin’s place, who also couldn’t stop laughing. But as he knew more about colours than I did, so he also had a cure for this and the paint was off me safely!

The Hulk was the star of the day – no wonder he is my favourite superhero.