SCHOOLING

:SUKESH SAHNI
"May I come in, Sir?" He shook with fear as he sought permission to enter the class-room.
"Late again today?" Go and stand up on your seat."
He rapidly advanced towards his seat... "Stop!" The teacher's stentorian from behind hit his ears like a projectile fired from a mortar. His feet took root on the spot. He sensed fast approaching steps. "What have you got in your pocket? Take it out!"
His bulging pockets became the focal points of everyone's eyes in the class room. He began to take out the contents of his pockets one by one....marbles, pebbles of various hues and shapes, coloured pieces of paper cut out from magazines and Dailies, a broken electricity tester, some rusted screws and machine parts........
"What other things are there? I will myself search you." His strong hands started feeling for things in the small pockets. In the course of frisking, his hands started crawling from the neck upward to the head. "What have you concealed here?” His hard fingers bored into the skull and began to poke every where in the brain.
He shrieked out in pain and woke up.
"What happened, my son?" his mother anxiously inquired.
"Mother, I am having a severe pain in my belly."
He lied to his mother for the first time.
"I won't go to the school today."