Shala (24 page)

‘What does it say?’

‘The same message—Emergency Murdabad!’

‘They should stick them everywhere, bhenchod,’ Surya said. ‘I would have put them up if I had them.’

‘The police will put you in jail, understand?’ Chitre explained. ‘Take these out before your dad thinks you put them up.’

Phawdya came in and told us that the posters were all over the marketplace and that the police were removing them.

‘How do we remove them?’ Surya asked, looking around. ‘They are so high up. How did they put them up in the first place?’

‘They must have used your ladder,’ Chitre said. ‘Look, I can see the ladder there.’

Surya put the ladder against the wall and we stood looking at the posters when I said, leave it. People may think you are putting up the posters. Why bother?’

Surya agreed and got down the ladder keeping it on one side.

‘Leave it, bhenchod,’ he said. ‘My dad will take care of it. Come, let us go and sit upstairs. How was your camp? Our camp, Ichibhana, was fabulous!’

We bounded up the stairs. The work was almost complete and the floor tiles had been set. The bamboo poles had been removed and now one could not hide behind them. The dampness of the walls was gone and the room was not as cool as before. But there was a lot of space for us to move around.

‘We had such fun, you know,’ Surya said.

‘We teased the eighth standard boys a lot,’ Phawdya said. ‘That stupid Vichare had got some laddoos in a dabba. We found that out, ate the laddoos, and replaced them with small stones.’

‘I tell you, bhenchod,’ Surya said. ‘And tell them what we did to that Pendse.’

‘Chaila! Unfortunately for him, he was in our barrack. That night, Surya took his toothpaste and emptied the entire tube into his trousers after unzipping them.’

‘Oh boy!’

‘You bet! He started crying and was quite sure Surya must have played that prank. But we kept our mouths shut. He could not prove it.’

‘Wasn’t your sergeant present?’ I asked.

‘He was. Pendse went crying to him, but he shooed him away saying, “tum kuch bhi karo, bhosadike.”

‘And those guys from Shivaji High School? They had got a bottle of brandy, you know?’ Surya said. ‘They offered us some too.’

‘Were there students from other schools too?’

‘What do you mean other schools? There were three thousand students!’ Phawdya said.

‘You have no idea! We could do whatever we felt like. It was total ruckus.’

‘But was there no one supervising you guys?’ I asked.

‘Yes. There were supervisors. But they were bothered about discipline on the ground. In the tents, no one bothered. That havaldar would kick us if we tried some prank on the ground. There we would behave well. And we had mutton four times. It was total dhamaal!’

‘Anyway! Forget our tales. Tell us, how was your camp?’ Surya asked.

Chitre and I looked at each other. We did not know what to say. We had not had their kind of fun. We were with our own schoolmates and teachers. We had made khichdi and onion-potato curry.

‘Tell them,’ Chitre nudged me.

‘No. Why don’t you tell,’ I said.

Chitre thought for a while. He had to make our camp experience feel better than the NCC one.

‘The boys and girls stayed together in our camp,’ he said.

‘What!’ Surya and Phawdya exclaimed at the same time.

‘Together, meaning next to each other. Not exactly staying in the same room,’ Chitre explained ‘It was like being at home. We were all bindaas—all the girls and boys.’

Phawdya and Surya were all ears now.

‘What are you saying?’ Surya asked, not believing what he heard.

‘You bet! We went for walks together. We cooked together; someone would make chutney; the other person would make subji. The girls were really free and chatting with everyone. We all sat close together on the bus.’

‘Ichibhana, it must have been fun, isn’t it?’ Surya exclaimed.

‘Of course! Joshi was in his true spirits. He was busy chopping vegetables, running errands for them. He even got a toffee in return for his efforts.’

‘Hey, shut up!’ I said.

‘Why are you asking me to shut up? Didn’t that Shirodkar give you a toffee? That too, at the camp fire, when no one was looking, isn’t it?’

‘That’s nothing special. The girls were giving many people such toffees.’

‘Chaila! You guys had all the fun,’ Surya said. ‘Phawdya, we too should join the Scouts now.’

‘What is so exciting about this?’ Phawdya asked. ‘All girlish activities!’

‘Wasn’t Kevda there?’ Surya asked.

‘No. The girls from eighth standard were not there.’

‘Then it is fine. But tell me, were the girls really interacting with you guys? You should have taken one of them into the woods in the dark of the night.’

‘Don’t talk crap!’

‘What do you mean crap? Were there no woods around? If I was there, I would have taken one of them out. But I am sure you sissies must have sat and just talked the whole night.’

We did not comment. Surya would not appreciate the kind of fun we had there and it was useless trying to make him understand.

There was not much discussion on the posters in school as most of the idiots would not have understood or even seen them. But during our mid-break, when we were standing near the water taps, we heard Redkar sir saying, ‘This is going to increase now!’ Prem Chopra commented, ‘These people are not going to keep quiet.’ Unfortunately Manjrekar sir did not have a class else we would have encouraged Bibikar to ask him some questions in this regards.

But Appa gave a lecture during the last period when the entire school had gathered in the ground for PT. We were made to sing the song, ‘
Anushasan parva shuru aaj se
’. Someone got the harmonium down from the office. Sontakke from class ten is always ready to play it and she sang, ‘
Ma tere beeson sapne pure karenge hum
’. Appa’s lecture, as always, lamented on the lack of discipline, how indiscipline was rampant and why people do not like discipline, how the country moves ahead only when there is discipline, and then he gave examples of Japan and Germany and their discipline! He espoused discipline all over, be it in school, at home, on the roads, in railway stations and in queues. The students had no choice but to endure the lecture.

We were hoping Appa would stop after five minutes. We would gladly do ten hours of PT in lieu of listening to him for ten minutes. But Appa was relentless. He went on and on and on. The teachers, zealously patrolling the crowd, too got bored. The boys were restless and a mild murmur started in the crowd. Someone commented, ‘Please note; it is PT period.’ Whoever said it had said so in a low but deliberate voice, clear enough to be heard by everyone. It must have been someone from the tenth standard. But Appa did not hear it. We tried to stifle our laughter. The same voice said, ‘Children need exercise.’ The teachers were now alert and looked around trying to spot the culprit. Appa’s lecture finally got over. He was in consultation with the teachers over the next steps, with his back towards us, when someone from the crowd shouted, ‘Emergency Murdabad!’

Appa turned around sharply. The teachers were taken by surprise. We too were surprised but we continued to stare ahead. The rule was to either look straight ahead or look down. One should never turn back or look around. There was a chance someone may bash you up later if you were found doing so.

‘Who is it? Who is it?’ Appa shouted angrily. Sycophants like Prem Chopra immediately came down to investigate. Bendre ma’am, standing near the girls, came towards the boys’ side. But there was nothing to be gained. And frankly speaking, there was nothing to get angry about. But Appa was angry at the indiscipline of the students.

‘These fellows will not listen! Let them run around the ground. Right now!’

The whole school was then made to go round the ground in a line. It looked like a long train. The girls too were asked to run. It was good that boys like Surya were not leading the train, else they would have deliberately taken a zigzag route. But the boys from tenth standard managed to break the line and then within moments, there were a few trains running around the ground. The boys were having fun. Prem Chopra tried running along with us for a while but gave up soon. Someone shouted, ‘Emergency Zindabad!’ The whole crowd started shouting, ‘Emergency Zindabad, Emergency Zindabad!’ Appa had no choice but to ask Ganoba to ring the bell, thus ending the day.

T
he classes began in earnest after the school gathering. The fun was over. All that remained were the months leading to the final examinations. The road ahead was stark. It grew hot in the afternoons. The grass in the playground had dried up long back and it was dry and dusty.

The atmosphere in the classroom was back to normal; boys and girls kept to themselves. We exchanged a few words during the gathering, but in the classroom we did not talk to each other. It was as if the intermittent period when we spoke did not exist. Bendre ma’am continued her torture as before and so did Redkar sir. He had become even more boring than before. The Maths classes were getting tougher. Luckily, Zende sir’s and Manjrekar sir’s classes were fun, as usual.

But that day in the fifth period, when Manjrekar sir came into the class, Ambekar stood up and said rightaway in English, in a clear, loud voice, ‘Sir, these girls are talking about you and me.’

Most of the class did not get the drift of it. They were yet to settle down after the break, and many had just managed to enter the class after a last minute dash to drink water and were wiping their mouths with the back of their hands. I had managed to steal a glance at Shirodkar while looking around. But I had noticed Ambekar getting up and had heard her clearly.

Sir was trying to figure out what she was hinting at when she repeated in English, ‘Sir, these girls are talking about you and me.’

Surya poked me with his pen asking what she meant. I indicated to him with a wave of my hand to keep quiet.

‘Who?’ Sir asked.

‘Those four on the first two benches,’ Ambekar said, pointing to the birdies in the front row. ‘And Mane.’

The birdies realized they had been targeted and murmured, ‘Aiyaa
,
aiyaa, what have we done?’ amongst themselves while Mane joined the chorus. Everyone by now was fully clued into the situation. They looked at sir, waiting for his response.

‘Sit down,’ Sir said, without showing any emotion. He then opened the textbook and said, ‘Please turn to chapter four—types of weather.’

Ambekar was not convinced, but getting no reaction from Sir, she was forced to sit down. Sir continued teaching as if nothing extraordinary had happened, but his sense of humour was missing. He would normally crack a few jokes. We patiently listened to him, but most of us did not understand a word of what he spoke that day.

The next class was Rajguru sir’s. Manjrekar sir continued his class a few minutes beyond the time while Rajguru sir waited outside. When he got up to leave, Ambekar followed him. We heard her saying, ‘Excuse me, Sir’ to Rajguru sir as she exited the class to talk to Manjrekar sir.

We then came to know that all the girls teased Ambekar. They believed she had a crush on Manjrekar sir. It was not without reason—while Manjrekar sir did not take any tuition at home, Ambekar would go over to his house to clear her doubts. Dongre, one of the birdies, stayed close to sir’s house and had seen Ambekar coming there. The birdies needed a reason to gossip. Sir had refused to take tuitions when the girls had requested him earlier. Mane had been waiting for a chance to get even ever since the sports’ meet. And people like Sukdi would happily join in whenever they got a chance to tease Ambekar.

Ambekar returned to the classroom and sat down quietly. She did not look up throughout the drawing class. She had stopped talking to us boys ever since the girls teased her. The boys too were not showing any interest since they had found out that she was not responsive. Even the boys from the senior classes had realized that.

D
eshmane sir had taken leave on Friday and Saturday and hence we had a Sunday morning class from ten to eleven. It was too good an opportunity to lose. It was becoming impossible to speak to Shirodkar these days. It got dark early in the evenings and she did not have the courage to bunk classes and talk, standing in that desolate lane, for long.

I followed them the moment the class got over when Pingle caught me and asked, ‘What buddy? Off to meet Misal again?’

His tone suggested he was in the know. He winked at me. I said coolly, ‘Yes. Do you want to come along?’

‘I would, if you were really going to his place.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Nothing really,’ he said. ‘You carry on. Do you think we don’t know you are following those girls?’

I did not say anything.

‘Which of those three are you after?’ Pingle asked.

I felt relieved. It meant he did not really know. He was trying a shot in the dark. I had my answer ready, ‘I am trying to get any one of those—whosoever falls for me. Want to come along?’

‘Huh! I am not into all this,’ he said.

‘Bloody scaredy cat!’ I said, hitting him on his back. ‘It is easy to tease others. You need guts to do something.’

I had managed to silence Pingle, but I needed to be careful henceforth. Juvekar was already in the know and it was natural for Pingle to harbour a doubt. He was a little naïve, but any other person would have quietly followed me to check. And God help me if that Mande came to know! The whole school would know of it the very next day. As it is, Chitre had already guessed.

For a moment, I was in two minds whether to follow Shirodkar and fuel the suspicion of these people or not care a damn. I remembered Naru mama’s words—one should never be scared. You are dead if you are scared. Let things happen. I had a brainwave. While Shirodkar and Juvekar were still chatting and had not left, I moved ahead to wait for them en route. That would kill two birds with one stone: guys like Pingle would not think that I was following the girls and Shirodkar would know that I was already on my way.

I waited for her below the peepal tree. I knew Shirodkar may while away some time with Juvekar but was bound to come that way. My chest was not pounding as it normally would. I felt relaxed.