Bachpan ka ek Childhood Suspense story...

The day was 16`th March - 1985, Saturday. A Telegram dropped at the Doorstep of Vyasraj Adya(My Father). It read "Your wife has deliverred a Baby Boy". He read it and seemed not be happy. He was expecting a Girl. Vaijayanti Adya(My Mother) was now a mother to, two boys. I was the second one. The First Being my Brother, Madhav.

Our Family had not gone nuclear i.e My parents shared the same apartment with their in-laws. It was not a pleasant experience for my mother. She along with my father, have gone through a lot of hardships to give us a Childhood to cherish, which they have suceeded in. I am writing this as a gratitude to them, because even if I sit and list down the contribution of my parents I am sure i`ll run Short of Paper and Ink. They say, Parents are your first teachers and first friends. Aha, I can proudly say that they are both.

We lived in this apartment for few years after my birth and after that we moved out to shift to a new place. My first memories of innocence(Childhood) come from here. My first school was a nursery run by a local teacher. The school was just a few meters away from our apartment. My Mother can still laugh her lungs out to remember, how i cried everyday to go there. I did not want to study or I did not want my Mother to leave me alone, I dont know, but I cried. I was only 3 years old then. I was not an outgoing smart kid. I was this guy with lots of fear about life and people. For a brief period, I had no friends outside school. I feared people, Strange but true. I was basically and Introvert to the core. Then, My only best friend was my Mummy, which she continues to be.

After this schooling experience, I was moved to new school. But my personality didnt budge, I was the same. I was slow but a steady learner with a normal IQ. My new school was good and gave me a big bunch of friends to play with. I studied there till grade three. After which my parents decided to move to the apartment, initially mentioned in this article.

Let me also introduce you to Madhav (My Brother). My initial foe and now a friend. Why a Foe?? is a very big story. I was the only victim of his pranks. I am basically a character with very less patience and irritating me was/is very easy, which my brother readily enjoyed.

We now had again moved back to our original destination and I had a school change again. This time it was the place were "My Father" had studied. Well this was the school were my actual character building started. I was the same guy to whom the world was his last-bench at the school and thats it. It was hard for me to open up in front of others, result of which my peer group was confined to a limited bunch of guys. I had a pretty normal life till grade six.

In grade seven, due to some unperrturbed reasons i had grown into a rebellion. We had this teacher "Mrs.Menon". Somehow I never enjoyed the assignments she gave. These assignments were to be completed at home. I never did that was always punished. The issue was escalated to my parents. Even they tried all the tricks in the book. I refused to change. I had grown from a "good boy" to a "bad boy". Due to this, i could clear the final exams with the least grades. You can say that i was forcibly pushed to the next level.

In the Eighth grade, we had a shuffling done accross the two divisions, "Division A" and "Division B". "Division A" was stuffed with bright students and "Division B" was stuffed with the Average ones. I was in "Division A", not because i was bright.
I was a part of this esteemed group of 14 students who were the worst performers amongst both the Divisions. We were kept with the best, with an idea of improving and grooming us. The school authorities thought we will only improve if we have good company.

With this shuffling, I had lost some good friends to other Division on the other hand i also got some new buddies. After a lot of toil and moil, we cleared the hurdle, i mean the eighth grade. By this time, we were graded as the worst set of students(Only the 14 esteemed ones) who can do absolutely nothing in life. We enjoyed this tag of worst students.

When we entered the Ninth Grade, we had few teachers retiring from their duties, which meant that new teachers entering the bandwagon. One of them was "Ms. Thorat" who use to teach Science and one old man "Mr.Aryabhatta" who taught us Algebra and Sanskrit. Both were good people, but we never liked their style of teaching , basically we did not want to study anything.

We planned, to Bunk lectures. Incidentally, one day after a lecture we thought of leaving the class for the next lecture. The next lecture was of Ms.Thorat. Our plan was plain and simple.

PLAN
We will leave the class after Mr.Arybhatta(who took the earlier lecture before Ms.Thorat) leaves and we will get into the boys toilet. We will stay there till "Ms Thorat" finishes her lecture and once she is out of the class, before the next teacher marches in, we will get into the class.

At the first attempt, we were successful in our crime. The fact that the exhaust window of the boys toilet was such built that from there we would easily keep an eye on the entrance of our class. All the time we left the class, for not attending Ms.Thorat`s lecture we could easily see who is entering or leaving our class. The Thrill of "Breaking those rules of School" sent chills down our spine. Till the next 4 to 5 months we had become regular to this exercise. We thoroughly enjoyed. Our whole class was testimony to our acts, but everyone kept mum. We were all friends, except few who envied us.

Then came the D-Day. It was a regular Saturday, we left our class behind Ms.Thorats back. As we did regularly : we stayed, for the whole of Ms.Thorat`s lecture, in the toilet. We had our part of fun. We saw from the window that Ms.Thorat left the class, our eyes followed her till she moved away from the entrance from our class, then we slowly enterred the class. Incidentally, that was the last lecture and all the other class-mates were ready to leave the school for the day. A chaos would rise everytime the final bell would rang. That Chaos and hustle-bustle of the remaining class-mates helped us reach the class safely and unnoticed. When I enterred the class, I saw the school bags of all the four culprits being confiscated. We sensed trouble and questionned the girl who was taking our bags away. She said, Our act had been reported to the Class Teacher and we were screwed. Heaven crashed down our heads. We always knew this day would come, but did not expect it to come so early.

We actually did not realise the scale of our crime on that Saturday. We left alongside others and were normal. We were tensed fo sometime, later we decided to face the consequences as they come up.

We reached school at normal timings, we finished singing our Daily Prayers and the National Anthem. As soon as we finished our Anthem, our teacher(Mrs. Laxmi) called our names. She Said "Varadraj, Varun, Shirish, Franco and Sumit, follow me to the Principals Cabin". We saw each other, Varun threw a Smile. We knew this is the start. We went to the Principals Cabin, Mrs. Laxmi("Laxmi Teacher" is what we called her) was already present there. She opened a register in front of us and exclaimed "Take your residence numbers, and call your parents now". Our Hearts, started pounding with fear. Laxmi teacher left the scene for a lecture at our class. She came back to find none of us had called our parents and over that she also found Sumit & Franco shamelessly laughing. She was fumed and in her fury she gave a tight slap to Franco. She picked the register and went inside the Principals Cabin. She came out after 15 mins. She said our parents will be coming in 30 mins.

The Music had begun, once our parents came, we were all invited to the "Principals Cabin". Our Principal was having "Batata Vada" and as we enterred her room without asking "May I Come-In", She exclaimed "Mannerless Fellows" and started hidding her plate of "Batata Vada". We stood there silently with our heads down, Laxmi Teacher, Principal Maam and Our Parents were Yelling and Swearing at us for the next ONE hour. We were left with extremely strict warnings from "Laxmi Teacher, Principal Maam and Our Parents". We thought its over, but the worst was yet to come. Our parents were asked to leave. Laxmi Teacher furiously looked at us and asked us to follow her to the class-room.

She(Mrs.Laxmi) went inside the class and we followed her. She made us stand in front of class, we resembled the "Suspects at the Police-Stations". She asked me to come a step forward. I did what she asked. She yelled "What the hell did you guys do once you left the class??". I said "We stayed in the toilet". She furiously yelled again "What the hell did you do there, SMOKE??". I was clueless. I didn`t know what to say. I knew someone had spread a wrong word about our activites. We did everything except, Smoking. I kept my head down. There, I saw "Mehul" and "Saurabh" silently pleading to not to disclose their names. Apparently, they were with us all the time but not for that unfortunate "Saturday". I saw them and Mrs.Laxmi and kept my head down in guilt. She fumed again "You shameless fellow, get back, Shirish, you come forward and tell me whatever you did in the toilet". Shirish did the same, he kept his head down in silence. Mrs Laxmi knew that we are not going to open our mouths, what she did not knew was, We did everything in the toilet except, Smoking.

She(Mrs.Laxmi) saw us in despair with her eyes fuming red and asked us to take our seats with one final warning. She said "You useless fellow, atleast have the guts to speak to the truth, go and get back to your seats". That day she sat quiet and she did not continue with her lecture.

Now after 10 years, we(Myself, Shirish, Varun, Mehul, Varun, Sumit, Franco, Saurabh) still wonder who the hell leaked our names to the teachers. THE SUSPENSE her is the culprit, we have few suspects but never found the real culprit .

You can call it a coincidence, none of us (Myself, Shirish, Varun, Mehul, Varun, Sumit, Franco and Saurabh) SMOKE, till date.