The schools
had opened after the long winter vacations. I was in 2nd Standard. The first
class was that of Geography. It was a room full of maps of different sizes and vibrant
colors. Since it was first day of school after the winter vacations Mom was
unable to wake up early enough to prepare my lunch.
My Tiffin
box had 4 compartments 1 for rice, 1 for vegetable curry, 1 for curd and the
last one for salads.
After a lot
of soiling and toiling Mom prepared and packed my lunch box. Mom headed off to
School to hand over my lunch box to me.
The Geography
teacher's face resembled that of Medusa. She sat near the World map with a
stick in her hand, pointing at different places on the map. When she opened her
mouth, it seemed as if she would swallow all the children without even a burp.
She would point at the map, and name the place;
all the
students would repeat after her. She now got blood thirsty, and decided to test
what she had just taught. She pointed her stick on the Map and began to ask the
students, the name the places.
The cruel Witch
now eyed me with her blood thirsty eyes that gorged out of their sockets. Her
tongue came out as if wanting to taste my blood. She asked me to stand up and
pointing at the map asked me to name the place. I didn't know the place, and kept
quiet. The witch lost it, came over to me and asked me to put my hands out. She
lashed on both my hands with her stick. I got a burning sensation on my hands,
and the wintery chill made them pain. To embarrass me further in the class of
50, she asked me to keep standing.
My puppy
love too looked at me with disgust in her eyes, and I hung my head in shame, as
if I had done a crime. The witch began to edify the class. After a while I saw
that my Mom was standing at the classroom door, with my Tiffin in her hand. She
looked at me, and came inside the claasroom, and then looked at the witch. My
Mom could not stand the sight of her child standing amongst 50 students in the class.
Her heart became heavy and tears started rolling down her cheeks. I just stood
there watching tears rolling down my Mom’s cheeks.
I felt like
strangulating the evil witch, gorging her eyes out and chopping her evil hands
for making my Mom cry. The witch had realized by now that the lady with tears
in her eyes, was my Mom. She asked me to sit down, and went to my mother and
began consoling her. My mother stooped crying and the witch asked me to go out
of the classroom, to speak to my Mom. I went out of the classroom and
apologized to my Mom, for having caused her all this pain. I didn't tell her
anything about the lashes. But I wished, I had told her so that my Mom would
confront the witch for imposing such a corporal punishment on an 8 year old. It
still is fresh in my memory how I caused so much embarrassment to my Mom. And,
I thank God that corporal punishment to tiny tots is banned in Indian schools.
