ALPHABETS
The 5 year old was strutting as round, all primed for school. New red belt was of course helping but the real reason was that she had mastered all the alphabets.
“26 mummy .. there are 26 of them. Even math has only 50 !” pranced the confident little girl.
“ok OK but take care of the belt! Its expensive and if you lose this you can face the music. I WILL SO NOT GET ANOTHER ONE!” the middle class frustration of the day to day dearness always keeping ahead of income, spoke.
“ma, I will take care of this belt. You don’t have to buy belt for another 10 years. Till I reach the highest class in the school.” Spoke the child very solemnly, wondering how big the belt would be if she pulls it out to the max. Sure it will fit her till the highest class!
“ I am sorry about the last one!”she felt really guilty about picking out the red layer of the tattered belt
‘but then those small red thingies were already coming out” defended her small self!
“yea but because you couldn’t stop yourself from ripping those things away, the “red belt” lost all its “red”” admonished her conscience.
“Poor ma” thought she looking at her mother sweating in the kitchen.
Just then her school bus honked and she rushed to the school lugging her bag.
She couldn’t contain her excitement in the class. She wanted Neena Mam to come quickly and ask the class about the alphabets. So happy was she that she didn’t even grudge Vicky taking the first bench.
Technically Vicky was right. It was his seat but she found it so difficult to copy from the board as she was in the habit of running to the board, reading them and then coming back to her seat to write them. So Vicky sitting in the front bench often allowed her to share his bench during “ board copying” but today he sat in the middle of the bench, legs spread wide, with a smirk. But she just walked past him to her seat.
Just then Neena mam came and asked all of them to walk towards principal’s room. All the kids walked in perfect line and in complete quietude for wasn’t it THE principal mam who even the parents were frightened off?
But this time the whole thing looked new. Strange People with sweetest of smiles were hovering around and each child was asked to stand at the door step of the room and read the alphabets on the white board. Every one who had taken test was excited about the white board. She didn’t understand much but knew that this was no common test of alphabets. She stood at the door step and couldn’t see the alphabets written clearly. She tried to walk nearer to the board. The lady with the sweet smile stopped her and told that she was not allowed to go near the board.
She panicked!
“ Oh god! I know the alphabets so well. Just let me near the board. Promise I won’t break anything. I have to get 10 out of 10. I know all the alphabets. “
The sweet smile lady tried three times. This time she just blurted out what ever she could make out of the blurry figures. Was it the light of the board or the lady hurrying but she knew she failed!
As they reached the class each one was given a sheet of paper, all typed and important looking.
Oh god! I have failed in the final exam! This must be the new final exam!
“ok children! Everyone has to get their parent’s signature on this paper and bring it back tomorrow without fail!”
The normally pleasant voice of Neena mam sounded threatening today!
She walked home. She pretended she forgot about the paper. And when she went down to play, she actually forgot. But as the twilight dawned her worries threatened to overpower her. Now she will have to show it to her parents, the paper which would report her failure!
Washed and refreshed, she sat down to do her homework. Her pesky little brother went on asking so many questions to her. She wished he would just shut up.
Did you finish your homework? Asked her mother
If she didn’t tell now, it would really be wrong. She would be then “hiding” things.! O the wretchedness of the crimes!
Just then her father came and picked her up and crooned over his “Gudiya rani”
Just then swirling in the air, she forgot all her worries. With tasty egg dosas and full stomach, her fears had mitigated into some mild nagging worm at the back of her mind.
The next morning however the fear of facing the teachers without the signed paper and the guilt of keeping something deliberately from parents, all flooded her system with vengeance.
She barely made it to the school bus lugging her bag. The horrid Vicky knew by her face that her papers were not signed and told mam about it. So like him. When he forgot his pencil, she had given him her extra pencil! Sigh!! Mam gave her a stern warning.
Another day of torturous worries fleeting in and out but by night she couldn’t bear it. When her dada asked her if anything was wrong with her, she burst into tears showing the paper to him.
Her father had one look at it and said, “Its OK. Your eyesight is just weak. Once we get a pair of glasses, my gudiya rani will able to see things clearly!”
“Glasses? Oh so this is not report card?”
