Chapter 3 – Daredevil Nandu
Though there were few instances before the interval, like in-between period change, still Ekam waited till then to collect what small amount of courage he can muster and approach Kannu. If boasting to a teacher’s kid about you and your friends playing cricket in class was an unforgiven crime, bad-mouthing teachers by calling them stupid was beyond that. It was nothing less than suicide. Collective bravery of complete primary wing students will not be sufficient enough for the unfortunate achievement, that Ekam has achieved single-handedly. Why he must be so open in his first meeting? Ekam was kicking himself for not following his mother’s advice, of not talking to strangers, to the T.
When Nandu saw Miss Rachna
leaving the classroom after the first period, he did not waste any time
narrating Ekam about what happened when he left for the staffroom. Their
English teacher was going through the admission forms when Shakun Arora their
Social Studies teacher came into the class and started asking about how was
Rachna’s vacation. Though there were two teachers in the class the moment
students found them distracted in their conversation, a slow buzzing of their own
whispers started. While everyone had their bench-mate to talk with, Nandu had
no one. Nandu was getting bored as from teachers to students everyone seems to
be enjoying their whispers. And then suddenly he heard his friend’s name floating
in thin air coming directly from the direction of the teacher's table.
Nandu pricked his ears and tried
to eavesdrop on their conversation but to no avail. Normal Nandu could have
left it there but Nandu friend of “going-to-be-super-detective” Ekam, cannot
throw his hands in the air and admit defeat. Nandu rubbed his marbles together
and hatched a plan.
He left his seat and went slowly
towards the teacher’s table where both Rachna and Shakun were busy talking
about the new designer suit which the latter chose for her first day at school
after vacation. They were so busy in their talk that for the first few seconds
they didn’t notice Nandu standing on the other side of the table. It took a
gentle nudge from Shakun, for Rachna to realize the unwanted pair of ears.
Now to understand Nandu’s plan,
one should know the rich history of class 5th B and its notorious
fame of eating lunch in the disguise of paying full attention during class.
Students of the class understood hunger and the means to satiate it. That is
why when they feel stomach grumbling, they knew what to do – open the lunchbox
and eat, simple. And if some teacher is in-between the lesson, wait for the
teacher to turn its back to write on the blackboard and then eat, simple yet
again.
But what they cannot control, is
the teacher’s sensory senses to smell the aroma escaped from the thin rupture
of the tiffin box. And this usually became the reason for them getting caught
red-handed, and in this case, red-handed with a mouth full of evidence. After
numerous such occasions, finally teachers came up with a plan. They asked the
class monitor to make sure everyone is keeping their tiffin box on the
right-hand side wall of the teacher’s table, first thing in the morning. And if
still someone got caught eating during class, along with the culprit, the
monitor will also face punishment. Students were children and naïve enough not
to understand that what teachers have done with them, English had done with
Indians for two hundred years. The plan worked for teachers and students left
craving for food with unattended hunger revolts till the first bell of the
interval. When few students started quenching their hunger fire with long gulps
of water, to avoid unnecessary toilet breaks teachers asked the monitor to
accompany student's tiffin boxes with their water bottles as well. This might
sound evil but teachers had their reasons, justifiable or not depends upon
which side of the table one is standing on.
When Rachna and Shakun saw Nandu
standing in front of them asking for permission to drink water, they didn’t
have an inkling of an understanding of what Nandu is conspiring in his own
little mad-genius way. After the permission was granted, Nandu snailed towards
his water bottle and started to loosen the cap. It didn’t take much time for
Nandu to put two and two together when he heard Rachna mentioning that her
daughter is joining their school from today and as she was getting late for the
class, she asked Tanwar sir to complete the remaining paperwork on her behalf.
Ekam was spellbound when he heard
Nandu’s plan in action for the first time. And then it started to lose its
sheen with each iteration where Nandu started to add more and more heroics to
his storytelling. Though that was not purposeful from Ekam’s end as he knew
this story is going to be on their list of talking points for a very long time,
but due to the looming uncertainty of whether Kannu will tell her mother about
what he said during their brief chatter?, Or more dreadfully, what if she has
already told her everything? made him lose all his interest in Nandu’s feat and
started concentrating on the uphill task of how to approach Kannu.
She was looking for something in her
school bag when Ekam approached her with sweaty palms. Though Ekam was trying
to not show on his face that he is afraid of Kannu telling her mum about him
and his friends' school rules defying pastime, but he was falling short of the
mark.
“So, how did you find the first
four periods of your first day?”, Ekam’s moisten palms were losing grip on courage.
“Same old, same old.”, with her
hands still in her school bag, Kannu replied coyly as if she was expecting him.
“I usually like the latter half
of our periods more, as my personal favorite teacher’s period falls
then.” Ekam tried a weak smile.
“And let me guess English is your
favorite subject?” With a completely straight face, she asked. Seeing her straight face, Ekam knew for a fact
that she has told her mum everything.
After two long heartbeats, Kannu
took her hands out of her school bag clutching a big ball of crumpled paper,
and threw it towards Ekam to catch. Ekam though catches the ball but wondered
how their paper ball was in Kannu’s bag? And then he saw that
two-front-teeth-missing grin reaching from ear to ear on Kannu’s face and he
knew at once he can relax.
“Did you really thought I am
going to tell my mum about my first friend from new school?” she inquired in
her coy way.
With imminent danger passing,
Ekam again started to come into his usual confident ways. But for some reason,
he could not lie to that toothless grin. And he slowly nodded his head with a
sheepish smile. “I thought something on those lines.”
Seeing both of them laughing,
Nandu approached them and without missing a beat patted Ekam’s back and joined
laughter saying, “Teacher kid or not, I told you she is one of us.”
Ekam gave a knowing look to Nandu
but till then Nandu was well past him and had started taking interest in
Kannu’s just opened tiffin box, meanwhile querying about her previous school.
Ekam quickly grabbed his and Nandu’s tiffin box from the front and then the
conversation around Nandu’s heroics started to flow. Full exchange was marked
with pauses of laughter. They talked about Ekam’s super detective dream along
with how Kannu spotted the ball on the floor near her seat and quietly pocketed
it before anyone noticed. And yes obviously for the umpteenth time, how Nandu
covered the hazardous distance between his seat and the Teacher’s table and
without thinking twice about any peril, he eavesdrops on the teacher’s
conversation. They laughed each time a little harder than the last time.
Kannu and Ekam shared a look and
they knew they are laughing at the same thing.
The remaining of the first day
after summer vacation was going to be uneventful, till Kannu broke the news to
his new friends that, her mum is taking a half-day today for some bank-related
work so she is going to miss the fifth period after the interval. This day
could not have become much better than this for 5th B.
And then Kannu had her first paper
ball cricket with her new classmates in the back of the class. If passing by
seniors would have peeked in the class, they would not be able to tell which
one of them is the new joiner.
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