REBELS.

Adolescence is a chaotic phase of life.

Tantrums and mood swings and cheek and rebellion is, in my opinion far from being called cute . Neither party is happy. Teens are unhappy about almost everything and parents are unhappy because of the teens, period.

Mrs. Bhan’s departure was a time of supreme turmoil for us. We were angry and sad and confused and scared. This was a massive adjustment to make in our carefree young lives and we could not absorb it at all. “We” being- the girls!

On a slightly different topic-

Males’ way of bonding or “Bromance” as it is nowdays called, simply fascinates me. Think about it..

They may call each other all sorts of filthy,offensive swear names in the world but how they manage to not take it personally I cannot imagine. They hardly fight:  simply because they hardly talk in such detail.They’d rather play PsP for hours!  If they are unhappy, they let out their steam by packing a punch and are pally the next hour. Discussion is not a regular term in their dictionary.

The beauty of it is that how completely oblivious they are of their friendship. No “Best buds” or “ Friends forever” or “Awesome foursome” for the boys. For them, it’s merely having fun with the people you hang out with on daily basis. If they are happy, they don’t gush. If they are sad, they grimace…and then they move on in both the cases respectively. I am not advocating their way of bonding and let me assure you, I love the companionship I have with my girlfriends.. but let’s admit it, in some cases this sort of approach may help things a great deal.

Talking about us women ….we are a bit different than that, and if we speak about the teenage girls??  KA-BOOOOOM!

Me and my gal-pals went on for hours over the phone droning about the new Pride. We were convinced that it would be sheer disloyalty towards Mrs. Bhan to even consider accepting the new person in her place. My mom made me hang up the phone and lectured about accepting the changes that come in life with good grace. I sulked till dinnertime.

“Look!” Venky said to me , next day in the bus“ Even I am sad that Mrs. Bhan left but didn’t she say that her grandchildren need her. She wants to be with her family, what’s wrong with that? Makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“Puuuuhleeeeeeeease”  I retorted with narrowed eyes “One- you don’t look sad at all and twoooo- You are so naive. Don’t you know that she said that to us because  she had to tell us something atleast . She doesn’t mean it! There must be some other reason I am sure which she was unable to share with us. Think about it!”

“You watch too much soap operas on tv, is what I think!” he muttered.

As we crossed Mrs. Bhan’s office, we saw Mrs. Ghosh hurrieng down the banister  struggling with a heavy carton in her hands. She stopped every few steps to adjust her pretty jade green sari pallu over her shoulder.

 I ran towards her and immediately blurted out fearfully “ Are u leaving too?”

She blinked and then smiled gently “ No silly!’ she said “ I am just taking my things to.. ah, “ she hesitated “ Mrs. Bhan’s office. I have been made the vice-principal of the school.

I let out a breath of relief and after congratulating her,proceeded towards my class as Venky stopped to help Mrs Ghosh with her things.

Sakshi, Pratishtha and Khushboo were sitting at the front desk somberly whereas Avtar, Aniket and Amitayu were playing ball with balled up hankerchiefs as usual.

“ You guys are so heartless!” I snapped “ Don’t have feelings at all!”

“ Shut uuuuup!” Avtar said lazily “ What do you want us to do. It’s happened, get over it. There must be a good reason why Mrs Bhan had to leave. We will write to her and meet her again soon but please just get normal, you girls.”

Without answering I went over to the girls and were soon joined by Sonal who looked grim as well.

Mrs Ghosh came over for the attendance and she looked a bit flushed as it was her first day as a VP. We did not know if we were curious to go to the assembly or dreading it but soon we found ourselves standing outside in the verandah for the assembly, looking at our new head-master.

He had a pretty striking personality, that we couldn’t deny. He was in mid fifties and was easily over six feet in height. He had peppered wavy hair,light eyes and a  breezy smile . He was dressed impeccably in a crist navy blue blazer over a white shirt and khaki pants and beamed at all of us as he came forward to address the assembly for the first time after the hymn.

“ Helloooo!” he said “ My name is Mr. Arun K. Verma and as you may have guessed, I am your new headmaster..”

The teachers smiled encouragingly at their respective classes but the students just stared apprehensively at this newcomer, silently checking him out.

“ I know it is overwhelming for everybody that your headmistress had to leave on such short notice and I am sure you are missing her a lot”  he continued “ but I am sure that you and I would be able to be become good friends very very soon as well.There are going to be some tiny changes in the school schedule and the way things would be run but over all Pride would be the same joyful place that it has always been and which has been loved by all of you all these years. ”

Mrs Ghosh stepped forward and said “ Let us all give him a round of applause children.”

There was some lazy clapping.

“ He has an impressive background record”  Sakshi said as we filed out of the foryer towards our class “Mrs David was telling that to one of the teachers .”

“Whatever!” Pratishtha said,shrugging .

The new day began and ironically my first class of the day was English Literature with Khushboo.

“ Who do you think would be taking our class?” Khushboo inquired.

“Dunno!” I said, as we proceeded towards the library where Mrs. Ghosh had told us to go (we used to have our class in Mrs. Bhan’s office when she used to take them)  “but whoever it is, it’s gonna be pretty tough to fill Mrs. Bhan’s shoes.”

The library was empty except for Mr. Rajesh and Ms Payal, a cheerful young teacher in her early twenties who taught junior classes. I grinned at Mr. Rajesh and he narrowed his eyes at me in warning to behave.

“It’s so much fun to mess with him” I chortled.

As we began to take our seats to wait for the new teacher, Ms Payal looked up and smiling,waved at us.

“Yoohoo! Khushboo and mallika!” she called out “Over here.”

Raising our eyes at each other, we made our way towards her. Really? Ms payal? She was a junior teacher. English literature was my favourite subject and my heart sank as I thought of the fun lessons we had with Mrs Bhan.

“Goodmorning!” she said with a broad smile “ I will be taking your literature classes and I thought today, you guys should just get me acquainted with your syllabus and the method by which Mrs. Bhan taught you during her lesson.”

“Okay!” we said quietly.

We spent the next half hour explaining how much syllabus we had covered and how we read each lesson aloud while underlining the difficult words as we came across them. We looked them up in the library or at home and discussed the meanings with Mrs. Bhan  during the next lesson. Also, how Mrs. Bhan used to explain each chapter in detail to us and then gave us different assignments be it research, essay writing or the character-sketches based on the contents of the chapter.

Ms payal was pleasant and friendly. She had attended a few of our English lessons in the past with Mrs Bhan and Mrs Ghosh but we had never interacted much with her. Today we had a good time with her and it wasn’t as difficult to face as much I had imagined it would be. She went over our earlier assignments and marvelled at how advanced the level of assignments was. We were covering three books simuntaneously- The Heavens’ lake by Vikram seth, Tess of the Durbevilles by Thomas Hardy and The Tale of two cities by Charles Dickens. Ms Payal decided to take up Tess of the Durbevilles first and we were to read the next chapter once by ourselves before our next class.

“ She’s nice!” Khushboo said, as we made our way to the class. I could not disagree to that and kept quiet.

The rest of the day passed of at the regular pace. Maybe we had envisioned that the  school would seem drastically different now that Mrs bhan wasn’t here but that was not the case. Even though, there was not one moment when we didn’t remember Mrs Bhan that first day, it was not as horrid  as we had thought. It felt almost the same.

Sonal, Sakshi, Prati and I had double lessons with Mrs David after the recess and she could not be cajoled into giving one as free.

“Pleeease ma’am!” we chorused.

“NO!” she cried “ This is your Board year and it’s my responsibility that your syllabus gets completed in time. We have lots to cover and I am not going to give away whole periods away any more. Last fifteen minutes maybe if you girls behave.”

Giving up on the hope, we opened our Commerce notebooks and Mrs. David began reciting notes for us to write. By the end of the second lesson, we were mentally exhausted (and sleepy!) of all the complex profit-making knowledge.

We then had a class with Mrs Ghosh and with Mrs Bandi each and we knew better than to ask them both for a free period. We hated Monday for the obvious reasons but moreso this year, as the timetable consisted of all the heavy subjects in one day.

Lunch time was a relief and after bidding goodbye to Mrs Bandi (she was a visiting faculty) the four of us headed towards the lunch room.

“Hope there’s something good for lunch today!” Sakshi commented, stiffling a yawn.

“Maybe Rajma or Idli-sambhar!” I said.

We reached our table and joined the boys who had arrived before us. We flopped down on the bench and I heard Pratishtha groan just as I spotted the infamous “pizzas” in the bowl.

“No no no noooo!” she moaned.

“Doesn’t it always happen?” Sonal cried “ whenever we are hoping or looking forward to something good happening, complete opposite happens!”

“ I am damn hungry today but I don’t want to eat this!” I said, annoyed.

“You know” Sakshi whispered “let us not!”

We decided to not eat a morsel of the pizza and sat with our hands folded and our plates clean as the lunch hall around us buzzed of happy voices and clattering utensils.

“What are you all upto now?”Amitayu inquired as Avtar cheerfully gobbled pizzas after pizzas. 

They were thick uneven bases covered with cabbages and capsicum and peas.We turned our faces everytime the bowls passed across us. These pizzas were probably the only item we disliked at our school. Rest of the dishes were always delicious.

“Hunger strike?” Aniket snorted “ As if anybody is going to care.”

Eventually the whole lunch hall emptied around us till the four of us were the only ones left at the table. Khushboo had eaten with her psychology teacher at her table whilst discussing something about their upcoming lesson.

“What’s the matter?” Captain Shekhawat strode over to us.

“We want something else to eat and we won’t leave until you give us something sir.” Pratishtha said fearlessly.

“Why didn’t you have your lunch.” He asked.

“ We don’t like ..uh..pizzas” I said, my head bowed so that I won't have to look at his face.

“We want something else!” Sonal repeated.

Without saying a word Captain Shekhawat strode out of the lunch hall leaving a bunch of puzzled didis hovering around us like bees.

He returned a some time later with Mrs. Ghosh who bustled over to us with a wary expression on her face.

“ GIRLS!” she demanded “ Whats going on? Stop this childhish tantrum right now and go to your class.

“Ma’am, we are really hungry” I said “ We want something good to eat otherwise we are not budging.”

“See girls” she said weakly “I know you all are feeling overwhelmed ever since Mrs Bhan left but this sort of behavior is just not accepted. You are the seniormost students. Everybody had the same food and you are the only ones complaining. That’s not right.Now,come on get up this instant!”

We did not move an inch until we heard a pleasant voice behind us.

“What’s going on here?”

We turned and saw our new headmaster stroding towards us . Obviously, Captain Shekhawat had told about this unwelcome incident in his lunch room to him as well.

To our horror, he sat down at the bench along with us and smiled as if we all were here for a game of poker.

“Captain Shekhwat” he said to the head-cook “ Even I haven’t had my lunch yet. Could you please give me a plate and we could all have lunch together. I hope Mrs. Ghosh wouldn’t mind telling the concerned teacher that the girls would be a tad bit late for the lesson.”

“It’s Ok sir!” Mrs ghosh replied, her lip twitching “I thinking it is their free period.”

Suppressing a laugh, she went out of the lunch room just as didi put a plate in front of Mr. Verma and served us all pizzas.

He was sitting right besides me and I was literally shivering a little. We all avoided each others’ eyes and shoved food in our mouths as quickly as possible, all stubborness forgotten. When Pratishtha coughed due to eating too fast, Mr. Verma silently handed her a glass of water. It was turning out to be the longest half an hour of our lives.

“There!” he said cheerfully, wiping the corner of his mouth with his tissue “I think we are all done. What a lovely lunch it was, isnt it girls? Thank Captain Shekhawat please.”

We all mumbled thankyou to Cpt. Shekhawat who faintly scowled at us in return but accepted the thanks nevertheless.

“Now run along! See you tomorrow.”

We hurried and ran out lest we end up walking out the lunchroom with Mr. Verma. and didn’t stop till we reached the class.

“Whose stupid idea was that?” I snarled as we banged opened the door and stormed inside.

The boys who had a free period as well broke into the heaps of laughter when they saw us. Khushboo had a psychology class and was blissfully unaware of our fiasco.

“How was the lunch date?” Avtar asked grinning and ducked as Sonal threw the duster at him “Mrs Ghosh told us you are dining with Mr. Verma. What did you have? Caviar?”

“It was sooo embarassing!” Pratishtha hissed.

“I was so afraid!” Sakshi said, wincing a little.

“He sat right besides me!” I said “I could hardly open my mouth. God knows how I managed to eat .”

“Who had told u to act oversmart,huh? Serves you right!” Venky said, rocking his chair and juggling three pieces of chalk.

Ignoring him, we settled into our seats and busied ourselves in some or the other work.I am sure all four of us were thinking the exact same thing. How foolish we had been! We would never attempt anything of this sort again. Eventhough he had been nothing more than pleasant with us, we knew that Mr. Verma was the last person you would ever want to get on the bad side of.

First Heart-break.

It was a chilly morning. Venky and I got off from the school bus and slowly walked towards the foyer. The change in environment was startling. The gloomy air seemed almost tangible. I automatically glanced at Mrs. Bhan’s office and my heart lurched to see it empty. Her desk, laden with papers and many artifacts, the colorful calender and the momentos given by children, was gone. Rest of the furniture and beautiful paintings were gone, and most of all, the smiling face behind the desk was gone. Mrs. Bhan’s fragrance was gone and so was her warmth and love and motherly presence. Mrs. Bhan had left Pride Education!

Last month, on the day we had finished with the last paper of our half-yearly exams, we had all been ecstatic and were deep into deciding the venue of celebration, when we were puzzled to see a couple of junior teachers exiting from Mrs. Bhan’s office, wiping their eyes. As the day went by, we sensed that there was something going on around us. The air was dismal and the teachers’ hearts just didn’t seem to be in teaching that day. All around us, young students were delighted that they had got a surprise free period or how a particular teacher had not been in a mood to teach and so, gave them the permission to complete their other work.

 We  i.e Sakshi, Sonal, Pratishtha and I, caught Gopal bhaiya just as he was proceeding towards the foyer to ring the last bell of the day. Was it my imagination or even Gopal bhaiya seemed somber and depressed?

“What’s going on Gopal Bhaiya?” I asked as we crossed him on the way.

“Aapko nahin pata? (You don’t know?)”, he didn’t ask us what we were referring to but straightaway gave us the information which shattered the hearts of carefree sixteen year olds, “Mrs. Bhan is leaving the school.”

This time we did not laugh or joke or roll our eyes because looking around the silent corridoors, it somehow fit! There was too much seriousness and desolation in Gopal bhaiya’s words for them to be a joke.  We knew that it must be true! As he went on his way with his head bowed, we were at complete loss for words. The four of us just stood there staring blankly at each other. Everybody who was a part of Pride Education during our time can vouch that this was one thing which was just beyond belief. The idea of our school without Mrs. Bhan was inconceivable!

“It can’t be.” Pratishtha finally whispered.

None of us answered as we were all inwardly battling with our own baffled emotions. We slowly made our way back to our class to collect our things and informed Khushbu and the boys. As predicted, they laughed the idea off and assured us that it was a rumor but we could not make ourselves believe that. Hadn’t we heard the same thing from Mrs. Bandi a few days back? 

There was no after-exam celebration after school. We all returned home to mull over the worrieng information and however hard I tried, I couldn’t envision Pride without Mrs. Bhan. The moment I entered the house, I bombarded my mom with questions as ,her being a teacher at Pride, I had thought that she might have some idea about the matter. But she was clueless and had just heard the buzz around the school just as we had. She assured me that if there was some truth in this information, Mrs. Bhan would announce it herself in the teachers’ meeting which was to take place the following day at Dhar Kothi.

I called my friends and told them that we would probably know the truth the next day. I remember how hard we prayed and hoped that by this time the following day, we would be happy and relaxed and laughing at how worried we had got over an untrue piece of gossip!

                                                      *************************

                                                                  

We didn’t have to wait for my mom to tell me anything about the “rumor” because Mrs. Bhan announced the shocking news herself in the assembly the following day. Right after we had sung the grace and the younger chilren had read bits of the national and international  news, Mrs. Bhan stepped forward to make announcements as usual. Today  however, she took a moment to let her eyes wander over the assembled students, took a deep breath and started speaking.

“Children, today I have to make a very important announcement in front of u all.” She said, “ It is very difficult for me to say these words and I am sure it would come as bit of a shock for all of you too…”

Around us, some teachers including Mrs. Ghosh had already started sniffing into their hankerchiefs. A shiver ran down my spine. Mrs. Bhan’s warm smile was missing from her lips and she continued gravely-

“…After this month ends, I would no longer be your head-mistress. Your school would have a new head-master and I will move abroad to USA , where I would be nearer to my family and to my grand-children. I am sure that you all would agree that they need my presence as much as you all do, isn’t it? So I hope all of you will understand and welcome the new principal in my place with due respect and enthusiasm.” she said, smiling lovingly at the front row which consisted of the youngest students  i.e  the fourth graders.

Her words were followed by a stunned silence. You could have heard the pin drop! And then, everybody started speaking at once. Students protesting hysterically,  some crying already, teachers unsuccessfully trying to calm their respective classes. When Mrs. Bhan kept her finger on her lips, as per the rule she waited for the anguished students to settle down but  none of the normal rules seem to apply today. Students were far from becoming quiet and continued to shout and speak all at once. As for me, I just stared and stared at Mrs. Bhan, unable to comprehend her words. I wanted her to shout at any moment “See I fooled you all!” or “I was joking! I can never leave !” but looking at the sadness in her eyes as she looked at the disheartened children, I knew those words would never come.

Finally, Mrs. Bhan took the mike in her hand and ordered the children to move back to their classes. Teachers , some strictly, some beseechly, guided their respective students to the classes. Mrs. Ghosh, still wiping her eyes, simply started moving towards the building and we followed her wordlessly.

Moments with Mrs. Bhan flashed in front of my eyes….

 The first time I had met her when she had taken my entrance interview at Dhar kothi.

The first time I had shyly gifted her a hand-made card on her b’day and she had hugged me, making me blush.

When she had walked in at Mrs. David’s grand-daughters christening , a small gathering at latter’s home where my family had also been invited and my jaw had dropped open on seeing my head-mistress outside the school’s premises. Looking at my nervousness, she had laughingly said,  “Hello Mallika, you are terrified to see me, aren’t you?”.  

When Khushboo, Mrs. Bhan and I had read Vikram Seth’s silly, unrhyming poem in which he compares a woman to a cow and Mrs. Bhan had muttered –“ I just don’t understand what he writes sometimes!” and all three of us had laughed and laughed.

When I had shown her a poem I had written for Mrs. Mulani’s English assignment and she had encouraged me to continue writing.

A single tear rolled down my cheek as I closed my eyes shut and I slowly wiped it away before anybody else noticed. We all entered the class and walked to our seats as if in a trance. For once, even the boys seemed speechless and sat with their heads bowed. Mrs. Ghosh sat heavily on her chair and finally Sonal asked in a whisper – “Did you know, Mrs. Ghosh?”

“We came to know about it yesterday in the meeting.” She said in a tiny voice, “ We knew it would have this effect on the students. Pride without Mrs. Bhan…” she shook her head and closed her eyes. She had not completed this sentence but we all understood. It was unimaginable! Simply unimaginable!

The days which followed next were the most difficult ones during our time at Pride. We wept and moped for two whole days after Mrs. Bhan’s announcement and after this initial shock, the whole school went into a silent stupor. There was no laughter or jokes or teasing, only teachers struggling to again engage students in the studies and the students harassing themselves with the discussions about Mrs. Bhan’s departure. One thing which we can very well realize now and could not at that time is that how difficult it must have been for Mrs. Bhan to maintain her composure at that time. To see such despair amongst the students and every single person crying and requesting her to stay.  It went on for days! How much control it must have cost that person who used to get emotional on seeing trivial things around her….

Once Sakshi and Venky had gotten into an argument and they had ended up destroying some of the class’s furniture. And Mrs. Bhan had cried! Our headmistress had gotten emotional  thinking that how could we not be a little considerate so as to take care of the things which we used.

Once she had cried when a special girl, whose eye-sight was a bit poor, had danced along with her class for the Independence day celebration.

She used to cry when we misbehaved, she used to cry when we told her that we love her. I remember getting amused as a little girl and wondering “Why Mrs. Bhan cries so much?” but today I get awed on thinking that how Mrs. Bhan must have held her own when everybody around her was hysterical about her departure.

We thought of approaching Dr. Bhan and asking about their sudden departure from school but everytime we saw him, looking grim, we lost our nerve.

Pride continued to grieve till finally the woeful day of Dr. and Mrs. Bhan’s departure from Indore arrived. We all went to her home to see them off and weren’t surprised to see the house swarming with other students and teachers. the luggage was being adjusted in the cab by the driver and Dr. Bhan was talking on the phone near the front door.

We made our way to where Mrs. Bhan stood. There were numerous people surrounding her. We could hardly speak to her and so, after greeting her and presenting her with the flowers we had brought, we waited out in the garden, each of us engrossed in our own thoughts. Pratishtha lost her control first as she had been associated with Mrs. Bhan the longest- since third grade, and then, none could stop our tears. 

We stood there wiping our eyes again and again till Dr. Bhan and Mrs. Bhan stepped out of the house, ready to leave. As everybody started to hug both of them goodbye, Mrs. Bhan finally lost her control and succumbed to tears.

We all cried hard as each of us hugged them for the last time before they sat in the cab. As it started moving , the crowd of students and teachers waved and cried out farewells till it rounded off at the corner and finally went out of sight. There were a few moments of  sorrowful silence after which the large group began to disperse.

It was tormenting to think that we would never see her Silver Ford Ikon enter the gates of the school again, that she would not be present there every morning to greet us before the classes start, that we would never read our lessons with her and underline the difficult words to tell her their meaning the following day and would never get a whiff of her perfume as she passed us at the assembly , her hands folded behind her back .

Her teachings continue to be rooted deep within us and our love for her glows inside us as strongly as ever with each passing day.

We returned home with our hearts heavy with a feeling of emptiness , not quite ready to face a new Pride the following day.

"Mommys' day out!"

The gloom of approaching half-yearly exams swept over the school like a nasty bout of flu and with a heavy heart, we all dived into the preparation of our studies!! These exams, which were to assess how well prepared we were to face the actual boards coming up in the next few months,  were to start during the last week of November, stretching all the way till the start of the annual yearly function of the school in mid- December. The board classes were never allowed to participate in the annual function as it wasted lots of our valuable time in rehearsals.

 Our time-table had been set keeping in mind how the actual board schedule usually was and thus, considerably long  gaps had been granted between all the exams for us to be better prepared! To my immense relief Accounts was to be our first exam and I was glad that with it being out of the way, I would be able to concentrate on my remaining exams with ease. We now spent all our free periods revising for our trickiest subjects like Accounts and Economics and testing each other to raise our confidence.

“That’s it! I’m done!!” Pratishtha said, shutting her Accounts book close and throwing aside her pen.

We were sitting in the cubical and had spent one and a half hours out of our double free periods in revision.

“What, you have completed practising Consignment?” I asked distractedly, checking my own figures with those of the solved example from the book.

“”No re!” she replied, “I am tired, I mean, let’s take a break!”

“A very good idea!” Sonal said, giving an enormous stretch to her limbs.

“Come on, bookworm!” I said, nudging Sakshi, who was mumbling twelve long points from a Commerce answer to herself with her eyes close and her fingertips on her temples, massaging them.

She gave me a severe look which I was not stupid enough to ignore.

“What shall we do?” I asked my two lesser studieous friends, “Shall we go and try to convince captain Shekhawat into giving us coffee from teachers’ machine?”

“Naah!” Sonal said dismissively, “I'm bored of that coffee.  Look what I got yesterday when we went to Yashwant club for a  dinner party yesterday!”

Pratishtha and I leaned in to look closely at the green paper she held. Even Sakshi opened one eye out of curiosity.

“This , is great stuff!” she said fondly, “It tells us what career would be best for us in accordance with our sun-signs and location of stars at the time we were born. We had great fun with it at the party last night.”

“Wow!! Let me see.” Pratishtha said,snatching the paper from Sonal’s hand. “ Tell you what, I will check what my mom is most well-suited for. It will be fun.”

Pratishtha had a striking looking mother and she helped her husband in the family bussiness with expertise and unmatched aptitude.

“Lemme see, lemme see…” Pratishtha said, scanning the parchment , “Ahh, here it is ! she is most well-suited to be a ….”

“What??” I asked when her voice trailed off, “Say naa!”

“Whhhaaaaat?” Soanl said looking at her dazed expression.

“A…a..” she whispered “ A… Soldier! ”

The ends of Sonal’s mouth twitched and all of a sudden, she began to search her bag for something. Sakshi had  disappeared behind her revision notes and seemed to be shaking very slowly. I pursed up my lips tightly and was controlling my laughter so hard that it seemed that my insides would burst.

“ HAHAHAHHAHAHA!” Pratishtha let out a roaring laughter and all three of us dissolved into heaps of maddening   hilarity too.

“Lets do my mom’s next!” I said eagerly.

“Okay, January 11^th…umm…..” Pratishtha said, wiping away her eyes and once again scanning the paper.

She looked up and said…

“ A …Hairdresser!”

We again let out squeals of deafening laughter and slapped the desk with our fists, tears rolling down our cheeks.

“My mom’s?” Sonal asked.

“A ..Politician!”  Pratishtha let out a bark of mirth and ignoring the noise of our snorting and coughing,  immediately began looking for Sakshi’s mom’s birth date.

We waited with baited breath!

“Sakshi’s mom…” she said finally, hardly able to keep her face straight for even two seconds.. “ ….Entertainer!!”

This was the loud straw! Visions of our perfect mothers in such bizarre new avatars was too much for us to digest and we could not stop envisioning them in green military uniform, A Salon’s black loreals apron with scissors in hand ,in  politician’s starched white collared kurta pajama giving a speech and in a black tux standing on a performance stage of laughter challenge.

“OOOHH!” I gasped, “My stomach is all cramped up….it’s hurting sooo bad!”

“Ahhhaa..ha..haaa..!” Sakshi tried her best to stop laughing, she had gone all red by now and was massaging her cheeks, “ the muscles around my mouth have all stiffened up!”

“What. Are. You. Girls. Doing?” A voice came from the entrance of the cubical and we all looked up to see Mr. Rajesh with a terrorizing expression on his face.

We had forgotten all about the library filled with students next door and also that the loud noises from the cubical carried all the way there.

“Oops!” Pratishtha said, trying her best to compose her expression into something sombre. It didn’t work. It merely seemed as if she had a painful toothache.

Mr Rajesh stared at her odd face and finally shouted, “You girls have all of class fifth B into peals of obnoxious laughter. They don’t even have a reason to laugh. They are just following your voices and the library’s in a mess.”

“Sorry sir!” Sakshi managed to say seriously enough, “We forgot about the library. We will be quiet now.”

Giving us a last exasperated look, he left.

“Ooh.. that was good!” Sakshi said, “ A  great break from the studies.”

“Come on ”, Pratishtha said, getting up and flexing her hands, “ Lets go for a stroll in the football field.”

We packed up our bags and set for towards the staircase across the library where Mr. Rajesh glared at us with narrowed eyes. 

Grinning to ourselves, we were just about to make our way down the stairs when a familiar voice summoned us from behind.

“Wait girls!” Mrs. Bandi called, flipping through her folder and walking towards us.

“Hi Ma’am!” I said as we waited for her to join us.

“Hii!” she replied, in her soft and melodious voice, handing out our test papers, “here are your test-papers. Sonal, your graph had gone slightly low this time because of Shares chapter and Mallika, there’s still scope for improvement. It seems you have stopped trying for better marks now that you cross the passing line, haan?”

“No Ma’am” I said earnestly, “I have a problem with shares too ..”

“Okay, get these papers signed from your parents as usual and I will see you all in the class tommorow!”

We were all busy scrutinising our corrected papers and waved her goodbye distractedly.

“ Hey, listen girls!” Mrs. Bandi retreated and walked to us “ someone just said downstairs that Mrs. Bhan is leaving the school. Is this true?”

Our heads snapped up and we stared incredulously at her.

“What?” Sonal exclaimed, frowning, “Who said that?”

“A couple of teachers in the staff-room were talking to each other about it!” Mrs. Bandi said anxiously.

The four of us looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“Today is a funny day!” Pratishtha said, shaking her head.

“People here will believe anything!” I said, rolling my eyes, “Ma’am, these are just silly rumours. I mean, Pride Education without Mrs. Bhan?? Come- ooon, is that possible?”

Mrs. Bandi was still looking anxious so Sakshi draped a hand over her shoulder and

led Mrs. Bandi towards the library with a meaningful look at me behind her back.

Taking the cue, I followed both of them to the library’s entrance and nodded to Sakshi.

“Forget it ma’am!” she said, grinning, “ let us show you something interesting in the library.”

By now, we were in the midst of library’s  double doors. I could see Mr. Rajesh observed in some paperwork at his desk. Luckily, He did not see us!

“Ma’am  look!” Sakshi said, pointing to nothing inside the library.

“What?” Mrs. Bandi peeped in the library with a blank expression on her face.

“Look Ma’aaaam!” I said, pointing too, “right there?”

Mrs. Bandi walked a little more into the library looking here and there for something which was apparently very interesting.

“I can’t see anything!” she said, puzzled.

“Just walk two steps more and you will see it ma’am!” Sakshi said.

Now Mrs. Bandi was fully in the library. Mr. rajesh looked up and sensing trouble rose from the table and started heading towards us.

“NOWW !”  Sakshi bellowed.

Both of us grabbed each door and slammed them shut loudly, cutting out any sound coming from within. 

Library’s doors always remained open and we had always wondered what fun it would be to bend the rules a little and slam them shut.

“RUUUUN!”  both of us shouted and we four ran down the stairs, laughing and looking over our shoulders just in time to see the doors open briskly and two faces looking at us – Mrs. Bandi’s confused one ( we wondered if she guessed that there was no interesting thing in existence!) and Mr. Rajesh’s red, furious one.

“Mrs. Bhan leaving Pride…” I thought to myself as we ran, smirking  “Hah! Where did these rumours originate from???”

And we had forgotten all about this fragment of someone’s imagination in the next two minutes when we once again indulged into the magic piece of paper which showed us our career destinies.

   

That 'F' word!

The day began on a bad note! It was a chilly morning and I was running late. As I ran towards my bus-stop at a top speed lest I missed my bus, my toe tripped over a stone and I grabbed the first thing which was within my reach : an arm of a passing lady. I fell hard on the concrete road anyway and heard the unfailing sound of the cloth ripping. I landed hard on my knees and I felt my brand new salwar tear and the harsh surface cut my flesh. Slowly, I rose to my feet and dusted my self. My fresh ‘out- of- laundry’  kurta was now dusty in places and blood was trickling from my knee which was exposed due to the tear.  I was about to resume my run to the bus-stop when a hand grabbed the back of my bag and stopped me from moving. I turned to look into the narrowed, brown eyes of a stern looking woman who was eyeing me with disdain.

“Where do you think you are going?” she inquired in an angry, high-pitched voice.

It was the lady whom I had grabbed to break my fall. She was an extremely fair and stout lady with curly black hair . She had a torn sleeve too from where I had grabbed her arm and  looking at her fuming composure, at once I knew that I couldn’t have chosen a more sterner person to annoy!

“Oh right!” I said, looking over my shoulder to check whether the bus is approaching or not, “See, it was an accident aunty. I am really very very sorry!”

I started towards my stop but again she blocked me.

“Don’t you have any manners?” she said, “You tear my clothes, almost push  me on the road which by the way, could have broken my leg for all you care and u have the cheek to just walk away with a mumbled apology and a sneer on your face.

I blinked at her.

“Sneer?” I thought, “ God, who was this person?”

“Look Madam!” I said “I am really going to miss my school-bus if you don’t let me go. I am really , really, extremely, genuinely, truly ,actually sorry!”

“So now you are being sarcastic haan?” she said, “ Go, you have already spoiled my mood on the morning of my new job”. Letting me go, she walked away, muttering under her breath, “Teens  nowdays have no manners at all!!”

I ran past her and reached my bus-stop just in time to see the bus emerging on the corner of the street.

“Oh thank God!” I gasped , clutching the side of my stomach and gasping for my breath. The tear on my knee was stinging badly by now and all the running had made me thirsty.

“Mallika!” Shama aunty exclaimed, coming to my side. “What happened?”

“Nothing!” I said, “Just had a small fall!”

The bus soon arrived and as it came to a halt, I saw the lady whom I had bumped into, walking towards me.

“Good Riddance!” I thought and waving to Shama aunty, hopped quickly onto the bus  to avoid another encounter with the angry lady.

 To my horror, reaching the bus, she followed me and stepped onboard too. Was she coming to slap me now?

I saw as she sat on one of the front seats of the bus and inroduced herself to another teacher.

“Hello! I am Mrs. Das!” she said,  “The new science teacher for senior students.”

“New job!” I thought , comprehension dawning onto me. “She is a new faculty member.”

Catching a glimpse of me, she gave me a look of contempt amd I hurried to the back of the bus to get out of her sight.

“Don’t even ask!” I muttered at Venky as he raised his eye-brows at my dirty form.

Reaching the school,I told him to proceed to the class and I walked towards Gopal bhaiya to ask for the first-aid box.

“Mallika!” he said, even before I could say anything, “Mrs. Bhan wishes to see you in her office before the assembly.”

All my worry about my injury vanished on hearing this information and I turned and made my way towards the headmistress’s office.

“May I come in Ma’am?” I asked at the entrance of her room.

Mrs. Bhan was sitting on her desk, looking over some papers. Today she was dressed in maroon cotton salwar-suit and her spectacles were perched up on her nose and hearing my voice, she looked up from her work.

“Ah, Yes Mallika! Do come in!” she said, removing her glasses and closing the file of sheets.

“Good-morning Ma’am!” I said.

“Morning Mallika!” she said, “Please sit down!”

Looking at Mrs. Bhan’s grave expression, I could make out that she had  surely not called me to bestow accolades on some task which I may have done..

“You called me Mrs. Bhan?” I asked, sitting gingerly on the chair across her.

“Yes!” she said, “To tell you the truth, I was very disappointed when one of the teachers complained about you to me yesterday.”

I was completely taken aback. As far as I could remember, I had not crossed any teacher in the recent past and my academic graph was going on well too. Mrs. Bandi had appreciated my effort at studies,just two days back during her class.

“I am sorry I don’t understand Mrs. Bhan!” I said, puzzled.

“Well” she said, “ a junior teacher has complained that a couple of days back when you might be in the field during the lunch break, she heard you saying the offensive ‘F’ word on the top of your voice.”

“WHAAT??” I exclaimed, bewildered.  My voice had gone all squeky. “Mrs. Bhan! I swear thats not true! I have never even uttered this word out of my mouth, let alone shouting it out in front of everyone on the field and I wince when I hear the boys of our class saying it sometimes. My friends can vouch for me that I never ever use bad language. And using such a bad word is completely out of question! Please believe me Mrs. Bhan! I didn’t say it.”

Mrs. Bhan was listening to me in a serious manner and I could not make out whether she believed me or not.

“Ok Mallika!” she said finally, “ I did ask her if she was sure it was you or not and she seemed be be sure that it was indeed you she saw. So, if it is true, please take care of it in future and well, if it is, according to you, untrue and you didn’t do it, then it’s fine!”

I could see that I had failed to convince Mrs. Bhan and realised that she must deal with students covering up their wrong deeds in such a manner everyday.  So, it must be difficult for her to believe me.

I got up and slowly made my way towards the class with my head bowed low. Indignition bubbled inside me like hot lava. It was so unfortunate and unfair! I wondered which teacher had mistaken some other misbehaving student for me. I had always been close to Mrs. Bhan and I grimaced when I considered what she must have thought of me after hearing this false accusation.

“Hope the new teacher from my bus doesn’t complain about me too. What a morning!” I thought.

As I reached the class, I was annoyed to see that the door was not open ajar as usual but was just a tad bit open. Moodily, I pushed it and stepped in the room when something fell hard on the top of my head. It was the class dust-bin which Avtar, Amitayu and Aniket had kept on the top of the door so that it falls on the top of the person who enters the room.

On top of my dusty clothes, and torn knee, I now had strewn bits of papers and other garbage all around me and I looked up to see all my class-mates roaring with laughter and pointing towards me.

Hot tears filled my eyes and I ran out of the room towards the wash-room. The day was beginning to be a torture and it was not even assembly time yet. Reaching the washroom, I locked myself in a cubical. I could not stop crying!

Okay, to make things clear, I am definitely not a cry-baby who starts howling at drop of the hat but whenever I cry, I am unable to stop for some time. This is one of the things which I loathe about myself. I have always wished to be one of those people who are strong and do not cry in any situation but I suppose every girl has  hidden taps inside her eye-lids which cannot wait to go off. This is so unfair too!!

On the sound of people entering the washroom, I tried to get a grip on myself and took long gulps of air to steady myself. I wiped my tears and stepped out of the cubical. Sakshi, Pratishtha and Sonal were standing outside, apparantly at a loss to say anything. I passed them and went to a washbasin to wash my face. As I wiped my eyes with a towel, I saw that the person staring back at me from behind the mirror had red, bloodshot eyes and nose which was an alarming bright shade of pink.

“What happened Maalu?” Sonal asked, gently.

“Nothing!” I snapped.

“Something must have happened for sure!” Sakshi said, stepping towards me. “You never lose nerve on practical jokes .On the contrary, you laugh the loudest on them. Today your mood is not right and you have  torn and dirty clothes too. What happened?”  

“Well, I am having a lousy day!” I replied waspishly “and you guys are doing nothing to make it better. Just see how a person’s mood is before you hurl a dust-bin at them. Just leave me alone.”

“Come on Maalu!” Pratishtha said angrily “You know that we all play such jokes on each other everyday. Sonal, amitayu and I, we all have had the same prank played with us too. How would we know that you are not in a good mood? It was an innocent incident. You are over-reacting!”

“Fine then!” I snarled, “I am the one who is at fault right? That’s why I am telling you to leave me alone! Go away!”

“Fine!” she said, starting towards the entrance of the loo “We can talk when you come to your senses, if you ever do.”  

“You can go too!” I shouted at Sonal and Sakshi after Pratishtha had walked out “ Don’t let me waste your time.”

Both of them followed Pratishtha and after a few minutes I walked out of the washroom and went to join the class for the assembly.

The rest of the day was as bad. I kept brooding the whole day and my three friends did not try to talk to me again, contrary to what I had expected. As I calmed down, I felt lonely and sad when I saw  the three of them talking to each other in the usual manner but turned my face in the other direction when they glanced at me. As we went to the main class for Mrs. Ghosh’s lesson, the boys kept on pretending to shake with fright when I passed them and I was glad that they had not taken offence on my outburst but seemed to find it funny! On the way back to home, I pretended to sleep in the bus in order to avoid Venky asking me questions. Overall, it was one of the worst days of my school life. Started with an injury, scolding from a new teacher, outrageous untrue complaint against me to Mrs. Bhan herself , made a fool of myself  by crying over a petty matter and picked a fight with my best friends. By the time I reached home, I had developed a throbbing head-ache and I slept the afternoon away to forget the happenings of the day.