Little Snippets

Cupcake

When the cat's away, the mice will play (no leap and separation in this story)

Priya turned off the airplane mode on her phone while she was waiting to pick up her luggage at the airport. She had just returned to Bombay after 4 days in Delhi where she had to represent her college in a teacher's federation conference.

Her phone started buzzing as notifications started sliding in. She opened the call log to see some missed calls from home, 1 from her sister and there were 4 missed calls from an unknown number. She was about to dial back that number when another call came in which was from Pihu's class teacher. She hurriedly picked the call as she wondered if something had happened to Pihu. The teacher asked her to come to school not revealing much but assured her that Pihu was fine. Ram had already sent a car to pick her up from the airport so she told the driver to take her to school.

At the school, she was escorted to the Principal's cabin where Ram was already sitting. She heaved a sigh of relief seeing him as she thought he must have handled the situation by now. It had completely slipped her mind to inform him about the call as she was so worried for Pihu.

"Hello Mrs Kapoor, Please have a seat" The principal greeted and Priya nodded and sat down next to Ram.

"Is everything alright Ma'am" Priya asked the Principal who just stared at Ram. "Ye baat aap Mr Kapoor se puchiye" Principal said sarcastically and Ram squirmed. Priya turned towards Ram and gave him a questioning look.

"Wo kuch nahi, Pihu ki class ka ek ladka usse bully kr rha tha...." Ram started unconvincingly

"And?" The principal added and Ram averted her gaze.

Priya was hell confused at what was happening. Why did it seem more about Ram than Pihu. And Pihu was nowhere to be seen.

"Kya chal rha hai" she asked Ram as she was losing patience.

"I'll explain Mrs Kapoor. Firstly it was not bullying, that boy is the class head who just asked Pihu to show her homework as directed by the teacher." The Principal started

"I think this counts as bullying. Koi equality he nahi hai aapke school mein. Sab bache barabar hone chahiye. Aise kaise ek bache ko baki bachon ka head bna diya. Aapke school mein akal he nahi hai. Aise he kisi ko bhi authority de dete hain puri class ki" Ram spoke out of turn and Priya just looked at him in shock.

Priya did not understand the whole situation but one thing was clear, by the end of the meeting she would have to apologise on Ram and Pihu's behalf. The only question remained was to how many people did she owe an apology.

"Agar isse bullying kehte hain to jo pihu ne kiya usse kya kehte hain Mr Kapoor. " and then the principal turned towards Priya "Mrs Kapoor, Pihu ne next day lunch break mein uss bache ko classroom mein lock kr diya"

Priya looked horrified as she could not believe her sweet little girl was capable of doing something like that.

"And, she used a remote control rat toy to scare the poor boy" Principal added

"Huh!! Aree chuhe se kaun darta hai, aap to aise bol rahi hain jaise chuha fudak kr uss bache ki pant mein chla gya ho" Ram remarked and Priya gave a murderous look which made him shut up.

"See" the principal gave a frustrated look to Priya and Priya whispered a sorry to her.

"Mrs Kapoor, in my 30 years of career as a teacher, this is the first time I had to call a Parent Teacher meeting to complaint about a Parent to the other parent." Principal said and Priya just lowered her head embarrassed.