Behind the rigidity

A lesson from the past

"What happened little man ? Aren't you excited to tell about that incident ?" Samarth questioned when Ved stood there silently.

Vedant was feeling betrayed thinking that his mother had revealed his not so little secret to his father when he specifically requested her not to.

Samarth could read his thoughts and decided to put a full stop to it so that they can focus on the main matter of discussion.And also,he didn't want Ved to frame a wrong image of his mother in his mind.
"Don't worry mister, it wasn't your Mumma who told me about your little adventure.If she did you wouldn't be standing here alone."

It was actually the truth,if Bhavani ever complained about a serious issue,she mostly managed to stay beside him, at least .

"Ab if you're done running the horses in your mind,tell me everything.All of it." Samarth said sternly this time.

"Pa-Papa wo- " he began but stopped midway and stood up as he saw his father bringing out the wooden ruler on the table.He started shaking his head immediately looking at it.

Samarth unaware about his sudden paused,followed his line of gaze but refrained himself from addressing the matter."Kya hua ?Start talking now" he said instead.

When Vedant still didn't utter anything he sighed
"Filhal toh I need this for my file work but you can always decide its further usage." He said the last part as nonchalantly as possible.

"No please.mai bolunga sab.Wo wo today while we were playing,we got the idea of getting something from Ramesh Uncle's shop.Humne le bhi liya tha but then..wo.." his voice trailed down.

"And how did you exactly plan to 'take' that something?" Samarth mock questioned quoting in air

Ved looked down.

"I asked something.How !? " his voice rose some decibels now "And why did you even think something like that"

"We..we thought of having some fun" Ved's voice was nothing more than a whisper

"Fun ?" Samarth was astonished
"Again ? Did you already forget the previous lesson Mr.Vedant Chaturvedi, that you did something like this again just for 'fun' ? Wasn't that enough last time ?"

"Nahi nahi I'm sorry Papa" Ved clearly didn't want a repeat performance again

"Then Why ?" Samarth asked glaring at him,as if challenging him to utter something stupid.

"Papa wo Ramesh uncle,he always scolds us everything without any reason.He is very rude Papa.He doesn't even let us play in front of his shop.Even though we try to make less noise for him,he always threatens to complain  about us to our parents." Vedant was suddenly worked up,as he continued,

"Even today he was doing the same,after which only we thought of this.Bas ek hi cake tha which too got dropped down by Akash.We said sorry but he scolded us so badly and wasn't letting us come back home.He even punished us in front of everybody."
It seemed as if Ved was pouring down all his grudges

"He was repeatedly telling us that we stole from his shop but hum bas choti si masti kar rahe the Papa just like we do with Hasan Chacha humne chori nahi kiya,sachchi"
he said the innocently pinching his throat.

The look on his face and his last words stirred something inside Samarth that he didn't want to erupt again,ever.Inspite of his several tries he saw the same thing he didn't want to.Probably anybody in his place would melt seeing the look at the kid in front of him.

Every thought of scolding him seemed to be flying out of the window .He needed to use another approach.So he decided to give himself a few seconds to regain his composure before dealing with the matter.