Shala (33 page)

Kevda nodded without speaking.

‘He had followed her right upto our house once,’ her father continued.

‘Oh, I see. Brilliant!’ Appa exclaimed.

‘And these boys sit there in the building and tease the girls going by,’ Bendre ma’am added. ‘I have seen it myself.’

‘Oh, I see!’ Appa said. ‘I am getting to know my students better now.’

We are in for a huge trouble. If Bendre ma’am enquired in the class, more than twenty girls would speak up against us. Appa sat there nodding his head, muttering, ‘Oh, I see.’ His cane rested on the table. Appa’s posture spelt danger. It was better for him to cane us. We stood there with our heads hung. My palms were hurting badly. Surya’s body must have been burning all over.

‘Sir, how are we to send our girls to school if we have such boys around?’ her father asked. ‘This boy accosts her in broad daylight and that too on the way to school.’

We were looking down, but I glanced at Jangam sir who seemed be nodding in acknowledgement.

‘These boys are beyond redemption,’ he said.

‘There is no discipline,’ Bendre ma’am added.

‘Whose son is he?’ Kevda’s father asked.

Appa asked, ‘Aren’t you Mhatre sheth’s son?’

Surya nodded.

‘See! His father is one of the donors to this school. We started this school for their convenience and look at what these guys are upto!’

‘Sir, don’t just sit and watch. We need to take some action,’ Kevda’s father continued. ‘These guys have accosted my daughter. They may do something else tomorrow. How can we allow our girls to study here?’

‘They need to be given a strict punishment,’ Jangam sir said.

‘Punishment? What are you saying?’ Kevda’s father interrupted. ‘These boys need to be rusticated and sent to a remand home. What do you think—these guys will improve if punished? They need to be handed over to the police. Just look at the way they stand there with their mawali faces!’

I was taken aback. Surya too must have been taken by surprise. We had not expected this. We were expecting Appa to spank us and Bendre ma’am to add fuel to the fire at the most. We were prepared for some more caning. We did not mind that. But Kevda’s father seemed to be on a different track. Rusticated! Surya would not have understood the meaning of the word. And police! Remand home! This was getting too dangerous.

Kevda’s father’s request took Appa and Jangam sir by surprise. They were quiet for a while.

‘We need to punish them for sure,’ Appa continued and then, turning towards Jangam sir, said, ‘Call their parents. Prepare a letter and let them know what their children are upto!’

‘No. There is no point in just calling their parents,’ Kevda’s father erupted. ‘You must complain to the police. If you don’t want to, I will do it. We cannot allow them to go scot-free. This is no ordinary matter.’

‘I agree,’ Appa said. ‘But their parents need to be informed first. Jangam sir, please get the letter drafted right away and give it to these boys. Ask them to come with their father tomorrow morning at eleven. Gupte saheb, you too come at that time.’

‘I will come, but we need to register a complaint with the police.’

Appa nodded but did not say anything. He then looked at us and growled, ‘Go home and give the letter to your fathers. If you lose or do not give it, there will be no one worse than me. Understood? I will throw you in jail. And come with your fathers here tomorrow at eleven. Okay?’

We both nodded our heads.

‘Now go back to your class,’ he said. ‘Ganoba will hand over the letter to you.’

We came out of the room but did not dare go back to the classroom immediately. We stood in one corner. My hands were hurting and I was sure that Surya’s body was burning badly. Surya looked at me and, rubbing his shoulders, asked, ‘Ichibhana, what crime did we commit?’

‘You asked her out,’ I said.

‘But I never touched her. She’s lying.’

I kept quiet. Surya was right; these people had misunderstood the whole episode.

‘What will happen now?’ Surya asked.

‘Let us go back to the class now. We will see later,’ I said.

The class was on. We stood near the door when ma’am indicated with her head for us to come in. We went and sat down at our places. I looked at my palms. There were thick, red lines on them. I was desperate to run my hands under cold water. I wished I could cut them off.

The boys around us murmured, but no one dared ask us anything. I glanced at Shirodkar. She continued to look down at her notebook. No one knew what had happened. Teredesai raised his eyebrows, but I nodded, indicating nothing had happened. Phawdya asked Surya and he mumbled, ‘Will tell you later.’ Chitre looked askance and I indicated the same. Ma’am continued to teach.

The boys’ curiosity got the better of them the moment the class was over. They gathered around us and asked, ‘What happened? Why did Appa call you?’

I did not know what to say. We would have to say something. But I decided to keep quiet. Then Surya said, ‘We spoke to Kevda yesterday. She went and complained to Appa.’

‘We?’

‘Surya,’ I clarified.

‘What?’ Chitre asked.

Surya fumbled for a moment. He looked around. Barve ma’am was likely to come in any moment.

‘I went and asked her whether she would come out with me,’ Surya said. ‘That’s it! She promptly went and complained to Appa.’

‘Chaila! That’s all?’ Phawdya asked. ‘What did Appa say?’

‘Appa was wild with rage, bhenchod,’ Surya said. ‘Look at this! He literally tore my shirt. There are red marks all over. Ichibhana, we will teach him a lesson one day.’

‘I too got caned,’ I said, showing my palms.

‘Fuck! You got beaten black and blue,’ Santya exclaimed.

‘You were trying to act smart, bhenchod,’ Harishchandra said. ‘Who asked you to go and accost her?’

‘Joshi asked me to. So I did that!’

Chitre stared at me. I clarified, hurriedly, ‘I never asked him to go and accost her right there on the road. I got sucked in because of your foolishness.’

‘Did you not tell me to ask her?’ Surya challenged.

Barve ma’am entered the class before I could answer. She banged the duster on the table to disperse the crowd around our bench. Chitre gave me a look, which made me want to hide my face under the table.

Barve ma’am’s class got over without any untoward incident. The next class was Bendre ma’am’s. She was at the door even before Barve ma’am left and we did not get a chance to continue our discussion. She looked at us as she entered, but we kept our heads down.

But that ploy did not work. She was explaining the meaning of the word ‘smart’ and she got a chance to hit back at us.

‘Smart means someone who thinks beyond his capabilities. For example take, some of the boys in our class! They try to act smart. They accost girls on the road and ask them whether they would reciprocate their love. But they get their reward. What do you say, Mhatre? Joshi, am I right?’

I wished I could disappear. It was out now. The girls in my class may have been a little stupid, but ma’am’s comments said it all. A murmur rippled across the class. Some of the girls stared at us.

In the next period, Halbe sir was teaching us when Ganoba came in and spoke to him. Halbe sir looked at us. Ganoba handed over the envelopes to us and took our signatures in the outgoing register. I had assumed that Appa would probably not send the letters. He would manage to pacify Kevda’s father. After all he had already spanked us. But the threat was for real. There was no escape.

The boys stared at us but I casually kept the envelope in my bag, as if it was nothing important. Then I continued to concentrate on what Sir was writing on the blackboard. When he turned his back to us, I opened the envelope and quickly took out the letter and hid it in my notebook. Teredesai raised his eyebrows, but I signalled to him to look ahead. Then I opened my notebook and read the letter.

The letter was typed on the school letterhead. Only my father’s name was written in ink. The letter began with the usual salutations and then went on to state, ‘your ward…followed by my name in ink…has been found to be seriously misbehaving with a school girl. In this regard, you are requested to meet the Headmaster tomorrow, eleventh March, at eleven o’ clock in his office.’ It was then signed by Appa followed by a seal of the headmaster. Surya too must have received a similar letter as this was a carbon copy.

My legs were shivering after reading the letter. I was sweating the way I once did when I had taken some medicines for fever. My body was wet. My palms stained the pages of the notebook. Seriously misbehaved! And that too with a school girl! Earlier I was a little relaxed that I was not party to the crime. I was not happy that I had been subjected to the caning, but the letter made me look like a criminal.

I tried wiping my face, but the sweat continued to pour. I knew that phrases like ‘serious misbehaviour’ were dangerous and the event may even get reported in the local newspaper. The police would arrive in no time then. This is what had happened to Manjrekar Sir. The police then take you into custody and hammer you black and blue. They must have done the same to sir despite him being innocent. A few days back some of the boys had made cat calls seeing the girls from Tope High School near Anand Talkies. The local faujdar had rounded up the boys and beat them up. He had made them shave their heads. We may be sent to the remand home as we were juveniles. That’s it! We would be housed there with criminals—pickpockets, thieves and so on. Then I might as well forget school or anything else in future.

I turned around to see Surya looking at me. I knew he too had read the letter. His situation was worse than mine.

T
he boys gathered around us in mid-break. I had kept the letter back into the bag, but Surya’s letter lay on the table. Phawdya read it, followed by Santya and then Harishchandra. Teredesai and Bibikar came in to enquire, followed by Ghasu Gokhale, but Phawdya threatened them and shooed them off saying, ‘Get lost, you all! There is nothing for you to know’. They left. Sarwate and Deshpande were sitting in the classroom, eating from their tiffin boxes, but there was no one else.

‘My dad will kill me,’ Surya said in a hoarse voice. He then put his head on table and started sobbing.

We did not know how to react. We had never seen Surya cry. But it was true. Anyone in his place would be scared like him. Surya’s father was a terror. I realized there would be chaos when I showed the letter at home. Baba may not spank me but he would be very upset. Aaisaheb would make a hue and cry. I was not sure how I would raise the topic. I would have to explain everything to them. I had done nothing wrong, but I would have to tell them everything; why we assembled at the building, who Kevda was and so on and so forth. I started sweating again. I tried using my handkerchief to wipe my face, but it was already drenched.

‘I will have to run away from home,’ Surya said, wiping his face with his shirt sleeve.

His comment made us sit up. We knew that he was really scared.

‘Come on. Let us not sit here,’ Phawdya said. ‘Let us go and sit in the woods.’

We went and sat in the shade of the trees.

‘Don’t show him the letter,’ Santya suggested.

‘Appa would send Ganoba immediately,’ Surya said. ‘I cannot avoid showing him that.’

‘You tell your father that you did not do anything.’

‘My father is not a chutiya. He would not bother to ask why he has been called,’ Surya explained. ‘Ichibhana, I can’t go home.’

‘Then where will you go?’ Harishchandra asked.

‘I will go and stay with my mavshi in Kharpada.’

‘Sure! Go! That mavshi’s husband will be the first one to bring you here.’

That shut him up for a while. He had no place to hide.

‘What made Appa get so wild?’ Harishchandra asked.

‘That’s what is surprising,’ Surya said. He looked at me and asked, ‘Yaar, what crime did we commit? We did not touch her. She’s lying through her teeth that I held her hand.’

‘That’s right. But Appa never hears us out first.’

‘But what do I tell my father? He won’t believe me one bit. I cannot escape the beating today.’

I was silent for a while. We needed to do something. There
had
to be a way for Surya to escape his father’s wrath. But the matter would become more complex if he ran away.

‘Do one thing,’ I said, my mind racing in circles. ‘Don’t mention the letter at all. Tell him Appa has called him for some discussion.’

‘But won’t he get to know when Appa tells him that? He would beat me up then and there.’

‘Then do one thing,’ I continued. ‘Tell him that a girl is falsely accusing you and that you never did anything, but Appa has called him to discuss the case.’

‘Yes! That’s a good idea,’ Phawdya agreed. ‘You say that he needs to come to the school and when he asks you why, say that Appa wants to discuss this matter.’

‘My father is not like yours,’ Surya said. ‘He will not believe me.’

‘But you need to explain the situation to reduce the punishment,’ I said.

Surya was not convinced.

‘I think I will run away,’ he said. ‘I will hide somewhere and return after a few days.’

‘Very good!’ I said. ‘These people will inform the police that you are absconding. Your family will lodge a complaint with the police that you have gone missing. The police will be searching for you all over. It is better that you tell your father the truth.’

‘He is right!’ Harishchandra said. ‘It is not good to land the tag of an absconding criminal.’

‘What do you mean he is right?’ Surya said. ‘I am in this situation thanks to
his
advice.’

‘What do you mean my advice?’ I asked. ‘Did I not say let us not rush?’

‘But the idea was yours to begin with.’

‘Yes, but that does not mean you have to implement it immediately. I too am stuck. I too have got the letter.’

‘Hey, don’t fight, okay?’ Phawdya said. ‘We need to plan the next steps.’

‘Next steps?’ Surya asked. ‘Ichibhana, the next step is to get hammered. I got bashed up today and will get beaten up tomorrow too.’

We were quiet for a while. Despite the shade in the woods, it was getting hot. My palms were not hurting as much but the marks showed. Surya’s body must be aching, but he was more worried about what he would undergo next.