the feeding frenzy

A Story by prowayne

The story is just a glimpse into the life of a school kid who grew up in early 90s of india.

THE FEEDING FRENZY
It was many years ago that the boy to be mentioned here was around eight years of age. His parents would have named him by then, but we don’t have any clues of what it might be. So what shall we call him? A thingummy! Certainly not, since it would call upon utter crassness on my self and the fact that you would not be interested in a thingummy , the onus is upon me to give a name to the boy that’s either acceptable or amusing, that you would love to call. Many names zip past through my mind but this one intrigues me, so leaving aside, the numerology, astrology or whatever-logy they have newly found, without any compunctions, let me name him ‘Gullu’.
It was a Friday afternoon and Gullu was standing upon the bench with his forearms crossed across his chest on which he felt the palpitations of his thumping heart. He was in colour dress ask what they called the un-uniform dresses worn by them particularly during Fridays of every week. Only moments ago, the boy caught the attention of the science master who has been teaching the pupils about the food habits of the animals. He was telling the class “ The animals which eat only the plants are called herbivores ”. The science teacher’s method of teaching was almost ritualistic , because he strongly believed that repetitions makes your mind to register, understanding was never his priority, willy-nilly assume or say so. The sentences he read aloud, has to be recited by the class in unison (as if they are chanting a mantra ) for five times to make them register in their minds.
Gullu felt exhilarated when he heard the bell rang signaling the end of the sixth and commencement of the seventh and the final period of the day, the science period. It was not because of his interest in the subject or the teacher in particular. It was due to the fact that when the next forty five minutes are over he would be hearing the final bell of the day. In this anticipation , the seconds seemed to be crawling and the period never ending. He even suspected that the school clock went amiss. With these conjectures jamming his mind, he became aware of the surrounding only when the teacher read aloud the line ‘ The animals which eat only the plants are called herbivores ’. Earlier , the teacher who had entered the class after the bell rang, enquired the students whether they have studied the yesterday’s lessons and asked them to go through the last chapter he taught, while he went through the lessons to be taught that day. Gullu was not engaged to any of these happenings that happened around him, he was attached to the thoughts anticipating the final bell of the day.
After the teacher read aloud the sentence, the class started chanting. Gullu never felt this rituals intriguing , right from the day this ritual became part of his class room schedule. until that day he had no particular reason to back it. He somehow chanted the sentence unwillingly and started thinking about the final bell. So when they chanted for the second time , he played mute , yet he managed to move his lips in sync with the class . By the time they started to chant again, he almost became restless and couldn’t hold his urge to know the time.
He was seated on the aisle side of the bench as it was a customary seating arrangement for the bench monitors. Of his bench mates of six, only the boy seated fourth to him had a T digital watch or whatever brand, all he wanted was to know the time. The boy with the wristwatch whose father was a seaman, had the watch peculiarly tied to his right wrist. While the class was engaged in performing the ritual , Gullu leaned to his left with his arm by his side pressing firmly on the bench as fulcrum, brought his neck as close to the left shoulder and tilting his head towards the wrist which held the wristwatch. He tried to focus his vision on the watch to know what time it is. He couldn’t guess the numbers displayed even after his meticulous manoeuvres. When the chanting continued for the fourth time , he decided to move and get as close to the watch as possible. As he was trying to figure out the numbers and gauge the time, the one next to him who had leaned backwards leaving space for Gullu to peep at the watch, patted him alarmingly to intimate that the teacher has been watching him.
The science teacher had a good reputation among the students since he always spared the cane even at the moments they were mischievous. So when he caught Gullu , he asked the rest of the class to stop the chanting, and asked him to stand upon the bench. The class continued their chanting after he stood up. Gullu was standing on the bench with his face looking dejected. It was not because he was given a punishment but, it was the futile attempt to know the time, that hurted him more. He stood there with his arms folded across his chest with his eyes fixed to the black board consciously and thinking, when would the bell ring.
Now the teacher started reading aloud the second mantra to be chanted, ‘ Animals which feed on other animals are called carnivores’. The boys chanted the second mantra. while they were chanting it for the third time , the bell was ringing and the teacher told the boys to read the rest and they would have a test on Monday. The boys started packing their bags and hurriedly slid their arms into the shoulder straps and held the lunch bags in their clutches by its ears. They were waiting to evacuate the classroom like people evacuating the city during the times of impending disaster, the waiting here is not for long but from the time they hear the bell to the moment the teacher starts stepping out of the class. As it was Friday, every boy was eager to get home quickly and start playing , adding to this fact that they seemed to be at joy for not having to come to school until Monday. As for as Gullu is concerned he had more reasons for his eagerness to get home soon, which started right from the moment the last period began.
So what is that reason that made Gullu restless and eager about getting home from school too soon. Before going to the depths of reasons, there’s another fact that gullu had waited for Friday, right from the evening of the Wednesday. On that day's evening gullu’s father left for K on official purpose. He heard from this mother that his father would be returning home by Friday evening. Hearing the word K he importuned her, if dad would buy him the halwa which was a delicacy there, on his return. Before going to bed he insisted his mother that she should give him more halwa than what she will give to his two elder sisters. The same continued for the next day, and before leaving for school on Friday, he reminded his mom about the halwa deal.
With the halwa deal in his mind, gullu paced through the corridor and hurried down the steps. On reaching the level ground he scurried to the vehicle stand to get to the rickshaw, waiting there to commute to his home. As he almost sprinted to the vehicle stand he was short of breath and gasping , climbed onto the rickshaw and urged the rickshawman to depart from there soon. Gullu was asked to wait until the other two boys arrive, his mind was focused on halwa, he even cursed the other two for coming too late. It was about ten minutes travel from school to his home. Usually during this ten minutes travel, he would enjoy looking around the people, vehicles and the animals usually the stray cows , dogs roaming around near the roads. He had this penchant for watching the cows, eating the cinema wall posters and the way it manoeuvred its head to eat the posters tearing it off the wall. Today nothing seems to interest him , he asked the rickshawman to pedal fast to reach home soon. When he was nearing his home, he got down off in a haste and ran through the alleyway which extends from the entrance to the staircase to his home on the first floor, shouting mommy! As he always used to do and even with a greater enthusiasm on this day, as you know the reason. He scampered into his home looking for hints of his dad’s presence, he felt disappointed and inquired his mother if dad had come home, she replied in negative.
The clock kept ticking and Gullu’s wait continued, his neighbour and friend ram asked him if he would join him in their game of police and thief. Gullu declined as he was keen on waiting for the halwa, but for another day he would have ran off to play outdoors. He kept vigil on the street leaning on to the parapet wall of the balcony. He carefully noted the silhouette of the figures that appeared distant in the street and looked on to it till it became clear or when it was close enough to be identified in the hope that his father might be coming anytime soon.
As his father hadn’t arrived even after he had his supper, he went to sleep as usual,as any other day. He promptly reminded his mother to wake him up when his dad's home, his father came very late in the night and had brought 100gms of K halwa for the children. Gullu’s mother kept it in the shelf, the halwa package was wrapped in dry lotus leaf and wound by thread. She didn’t wake up her son as he was in deep sleep and thought that the halwa could wait till the morning.
The next morning, his mother woke up and went do her usual chores. Gullu woke up late in the morning but earlier than his sisters. Even before becoming fully aware that he has woken up , he went to his mother who was washing the utensils and inquired about the halwa , She said she’s busy and asked him to wait. How could Gullu wait? He urged her to tell her where it is. Gullu learnt from his mother that it was in the corner of the top shelf.
The top shelf was little bit high for him to reach, so he ran inside and looked for a table. He brought the table into the kitchen and put it nearby the shelf and climbed on it. Even after getting on the table he could not reach the top shelf. So from the table he climbed on the shelf grabbing the slab of the top shelf with both hands and standing with the left leg on the second shelf and right leg on the rim of the wash basin nearby. Now balancing with both legs and holding the slab of the shelf with the left hand, he slid his right hand into the corner of top shelf, he grasped the leaf package and suddenly felt a crawling sensation over his hand, he withdrew his hand back swiftly and jumped down from the shelf wiggling his hand in pain. An army of little red ants that crawled over his hands and bit him, had consumed the K halwa overnight, the meager amount left within the leaf package fell to wash basin as he writhed and wiggled his hands in pain.
Rubbing his right hand with his left hand to ease the pain, he looked in despair with an anger that can’t be described and which could only be understood when it’s felt. He was almost sobbing due to the pain in his hands and the heartache at the loss his halwa. His mother consoled him that dad would buy him more of it and he can have all of it.
Later in the day, Gullu sat down to study for the Monday’s test. He read “Animals which eat only the plants are called herbivores”
“Animals which feed on other animals are called carnivores ” pausing for a moment, he wondered ‘ what would they call the ants which ate all his halwa and bit his hand’.