A mother's embarrassment

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.