A Heart of Stone with a Coat of Gold

The Rattlesnake

"This one is wrong. This is too. You only got 6 out of 10 right, even after explaining so much. Little girl, are you purposely trying to make it so hard for me or are you seriously that stupid?" Neel grumbled, his brows drawn tight in a frown, his face giving away his exasperation. 

He was sitting on the study desk beside Reema, her textbook and notebook spread before them. His arm encircled Aryan, who was desperately attempting to free himself from his father's tight grasp, in a bid to leap into the air; a flight towards freedom. The other hand, held a pen, occasionally breaking the silence into sporadic bursts of wooden beats, as he impatiently tapped it on the table. 

Anu leaned against the door, watching their backs intently, observing them in silence. She had been waiting for Neel to return in his study, but finally ran out of patience. Stepping outside, her ears had caught the voice of a man instructing and the  few-and-far-between protests of a little girl, who seemed to be following his directions. She had headed towards the source and reached Reema's room to witness this strange sight.

Like Neel, she too had an annoyed expression, but for a totally different reason. Was that the way to teach? How could a man be so rude to a kid? 

At the moment, Neel reminded Anu of her old Sanskrit schoolteacher, a mean grumpy old man, who had once punished her. The homework had been tough, nigh impossible, and nearly the whole class had it incomplete. Yet, she had been the only one to be punished; not because she hadn't done it, but because she had done it, but the old geezer had found 2 out of 10 questions incorrect.

However, Reema seemed unperturbed by his rebukes and simply rolled her eyes. "Don't make faces, girl. Ok. I will repeat once again." Neel said with a deep sigh. His pen scratched on the paper as he wrote 'BODMAS' in bold. "First open the brackets. Do not worry about 'O' for the moment. Then do division, followed by multiplication, followed by addition, followed by- ".

He paused, his mouth half-open, urging Reema to complete. She, on the other hand, had phased out way earlier, after the 'brackets' part. Neel's gesture jerked her back to reality, as she fumbled to answer. Her eyes focused on the 'S' on the blue 'Bodmas' shining brightly on the paper before her.

"Ummm...squaring the number." She answered with a triumphant smile, followed by an enthusiastic wave of her hand.

As if in a slow-motion movie, Anu eyes grew wide as she witnessed Neel's pen land on the ground with a loud clack, his hand falling limp by his side.

Sometimes the way to escape one's sadness is to get sadistic pleasure from watching another's. At the moment, Neel's frustration was far too amusing to witness. So inspite of how she had been feeling just an hour earlier, Anu couldn't stop herself. Her face broke into a small smile. That's life for you, sometimes you smile, sometimes you cry, Anu mused.

She cleared her throat. "Neel I wanted to talk to you." Both Neel and Reema turned around. Neel looked livid. He threw a furious look at Reema but nodded at Anu. "First, I have to order dinner. After we have it, meet me in the study." 

He got up and started leaving with hurried strides; He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. A thought had struck him; He couldn't lose to this little ill-mannered girl. He turned around. "Reema, go through the textbook and learn BODMAS. I will test you later. And you better learn it."

Reema mustered a smile which didn't look sincere to Anu in the slightest way. "Bodmas. I will read it. Sure, Uncle." She gave him a thumps-up. 

Neel remained impassive but reached for the door. He snarled at Anu, just before banging it shut. "Anu, you should teach your sister some manners. Her impudence grows more day by day." Then he left. Both sisters were finally alone in peace.