A Girl from The Village : Sometimes the past can't be just buried...

The Village

The 5th of September i.e. Teachers' Day. Some of our classmates were playing the role of teachers as a tradition of our school. The senior most class chooses the subject and teach the junior class. Vivan was physics teacher. I didn't take any role, I just wanted to enjoy the day with junior students. I came to her class and sat on the second last seat with one of my classmates. As per the plan Vivan had to come there. He came and every student greeted him in a little funny way. He offered students to present anything like jokes, songs etc. After entertainment I signaled Vivan and to ask one simple question. He asked one simple problem and everyone raised hands. Then Vivan called her to solve it and gave her chalk. She solved it and instead if giving chalk to him she turned back and threw it backward and sat into her seat. Vivan felt insulted but because of me he didn't say anything. He went to her seat and said politely, 'Never throw chalk in the teacher's presence.'

'Sorry.' She replied.

We went off from there.

As our pre-board exams were approaching so we were busy in preparation and homework but still at least once a day I had to see her.

It was the day of exam. I was nervous because chemistry used to be a tough subject for me. I saw her in the morning, standing in front of the medical room. She was not looking well. Her expressions were crumbled. After assembly, we had 1 hour left for exam. I went to nurse Ma'am with Vivan. Nurse Ma'am was very friendly to senior boys. I asked directly what had happened to her. Ma'am replied that she had infection in her stomach and she would be taken to doctor in the city. Vivan asked if we could go for eye checkup.

'First finish your exam then tomorrow we will see.' She replied.

Vivan asked when the school van would go from here. She replied that they would go around 11 am. There was nothing wrong with our eyes but Vivan didn't want to miss the chance to go with her.

'Ma'am, can you please shift the schedule of the van to 11:30?' He requested.

'Tomorrow we can't go, we have math's exam day after tomorrow so we have to solve practice papers, please take us today there.' He tried to convince her.

'But, how will you finish your exam in one and half an hour?' Ma'am asked in a slightly loud tone.

'It is not a tough exam; we will complete it before 11:30.' I replied gently.

'I won't wait if the van is full.' She said.

'Ok, thank you, Ma'am.' We touched her feet.

'God bless you, now go.' She said and showed some anger.

Our exam started sharp at 10 am, and it was a bad luck that the duty teacher was itself chemistry Sir in our class. Exam was tough for me. I completed easy questions and some theoretical questions as fast as I could do. I was in a hurry. I stood up and submitted my copy to Sir saying that I had completed at 11:15 am. Sir knew me very well that I was an average boy. He refused to take copy and ordered me to sit back and revise it keenly, but after 5 minutes, Vivan submitted his copy. Sir was shocked.

'The questions in the examination are not too easy, how can you complete it so early? Go back.' Sir ordered but Vivan refused.

He replied, 'Sir, I have completed as much as I knew, so please let me go.'

Then I came there and said 'Sir I have revised, I did as much as I know.'

Everyone was watching us. Sir didn't say anything. He took our copies. We ran to outside the main gate and asked peon where the van was.

'Van has gone...you are ten minutes late.' The peon replied. We looked each other like we had lost the most precious thing in the world. We didn't speak to each other for ten minutes and sat in the playground.