THE ERRANT EXPEDITION

This is about a real incident happened in my life. Though I was born in madurai, early part of my childhood was in tirunelveli , as my father worked there. I studied till 3rd std there, though it’s been more than 10 years since we left tirunelveli. Still I have fresh memories; those days were like a picnic to the heaven. My home was in a puny colony of four houses, our house was a small one which had a rectangular verandah upfront where I and my dad used to play cricket. And then two rooms , one of which was assumed to be the hall or the living room and the other was the bedroom. A small kitchen adjoining the hall and it was all. There was a colony adjacent to ours where my friends lived. There was a open space in their colony where we usually played in the evenings.

The shrill voice of my mom,” gokul gokul “calling me across the wall, ‘pestering me to come home’ still rings in my head.

I studied in a unpopular school called ‘presentation convent' which was a primary school. Hence when I went to mahatma school in Madurai later, I was awestruck, didn’t know that schools were this big. My school(pres.con) consisted of three sections. One was a small office room which was usually occupied by a nun, our headmistress. The second building was comparatively a bigger one with a number of class rooms and the third was a church above which there were few class rooms as well. There was a open space outside the church where we usually played football. More than 30 of us would run behind that torn ball,………. it was all fun. We used to have lunch outside, below the trees sitting in a circle sharing each other’s food. Those days would never come back.

So let me come to our interesting incident, I was in 2nd std; I usually went to my school by auto; it would take about 15 to 20 minutes from my home. In the evenings we used to keep our bags under a tree and play nearby till our auto came. It was usually short-lived as our auto usually came within 10 minutes and on this particular day our auto was nowhere to be seen, 10 …. 20 …. 30 ……40 mins and still no sign of our Benz. We played gleefully till our legs were tired. We sat down under the tree and wondered ‘what to do now’ .

There was this one friend of mine. I don’t remember his name right now, so lets name him santosh. Santosh sat beside me putting his arms around me, wearily I muttered, ’ I don’t think the auto will come today’. ‘Hmmm…. Yes’ he replied and after a few seconds he beamed ‘ let’s go on our own , I know the path ’. Immediately I refused,’ no chance da…. My dad will kill me, auto will come in a few minutes… wait’. He seemed disappointed and remained silent or a few seconds and exclaimed, ‘ there is a pond nearby we can go and play with the ducks and on our way home.... ill buy u lollipop da I have money’. My face brightened, I had seen the pond earlier I knew there were ducks and I had yearned for a long time to play with them …. And the idea of lollipop excited me even more….. santosh’s home was near to mine …. So It all fell in place ‘ I quicky nodded to my friend and he gleefully got up, urging me to hurry up.

So we set for our journey, there were two exits … one was the main road and other was a small trail. We went through the trail with thick bushes on either side. Now fear slowly started creeping into me… my parents usually came home late as both were working but ‘’what if they find out????’’. We moved at a brisk pace now clearing ground faster. I clutched my lunch bag closer to me as it brushed against the bushes and ....atlast we were in the open space and in front was the pond. The small pond was usually dry except when it heavily rained…. It was one such season and there were small ducks swimming in and out of the water. I grinned … I had wanted to play here for a long time but my parents obviously didn’t allow me to….

I threw my lunch bag aside and dumped my school bag in the sand and ran towards the water, santosh ran along with me …… the water was knee deep and I moved cautiously under the water whereas santosh ran like a devil only to fall inside the water completely…… he got up grinning with mud all over him. He quickly grabbed one of the small ducks as it freaked out. I moved closer to santosh ,’’ give me that duck ’’ at first he refused and then smiling he put it on my hands . I had never handled duck before nor any other creature. So naturally my hands tumbled and the duck slipped, santosh looked at me with contempt. Shrugging, I smiled back. Now together we moved to the farther end of the pond where we found some weeds and some wild flowers. I quickly grabbed one of them and threw it to santosh. Then it suddenly it came to my senses…. My uniform was all muddy now…. My mom would scold me even for a small dirt in my shirt…. Frowning I came out of the pond and shouted ‘’ it’s time lets go’’. Santosh looked at me displeased …. And then agreed to move on.

Quickly I gathered my things and started walking towards our home…. We walked in the streets as though we were kings…. Inspecting everything around us … as previously I had never gone alone in the main streets without elders…... my socks and shoes were soaked and it annoyed me… and then it struck me ’’ LOLLIPOP’’. My parents always denied when I asked for chocolates and it made me mad about chocolates. ‘’ you promised me that you would buy chocolates for me’’, I muttered to santosh.. He gave me a puzzled look and shoved his hands into his pocket and took out a 10 ps coin.

I gave him a stare and he replied with a naughty smile… I thumped him on the head angrily and he accepted it gleefully. Irritated I quickly moved ahead of him he strode past me ‘’ do you have money’’ he asked. I shrugged …. ‘’ probably not’’. I then searched my pockets to verify… there was a coin deep inside….. grinning widely I showed it to my friend. It was a 50 ps coin. It wasn’t a great amount but still worthy at this moment…… ‘the coin must have been the change when I went to the petty shop yesterday’… but it didn’t matter now as we hurried to the nearest shop. Santosh grabbed the coin from me and gave it to the shopkeeper and exclaimed ‘’ two lollipops’’. A first grade lollipop costs 1 rs but we didn’t look in that direction now… a third grade which was 25ps it had no wrapper but it didn’t matter to us. Then he shoved his 10 ps towards the shopkeeper demanding two soodamittai… (though many of you might not have heard about this chocolate….) It was the cheap and best for us.

It was getting late and we walked faster now. After a few quite minutes we were in front of the janikiram hotel. My home was about 5 mins away now…. We walked now slowly ..Discussing about a girl in our class and how she was so stupid and so studious…. I exclaimed,’’ girls are always like this da’’; santosh agreed nodding his head vigorously, licking the lollipop merrily. There was a left turn now and in the corner sat a dog, I was particularly afraid of dogs then. It seemed to stare at me, fear clutched me and my heart skipped a beat when santosh took a stone a threw on the dog. The dog got up barking … and that was enough for us… we ran feverishly not daring to turning back ….we scampered as though we were in a race. My lunch bag swayed erratically as I moved at greater speeds and with a tumble, my water bottle fell off… but I didn’t bother to pick it up and kept running before bumping myself to a cycle which was coming from the opposite direction. I fell down immediately , a trickle of blood came from my knee . few people came to my aid…. I wasn’t hurt much… I turned to check on the dog… it wasn’t to be found anywhere…. Apparently the dog hadn’t chased us at all.

Wearily I gathered my things and moved towards my home bidding tata to my friend…. My house was a few paces ahead and I walked closer when I noticed that our auto was standing outside our colony…. I quickly got inside and found my dad talking to our auto driver…. But at that age I didn’t know of the consequences that were about to come , I shouted a ‘’hi to my auto driver ‘’ and looked at my dad . he looked at me differently, like never before…. But I didn’t care after a busy evening….. I strode towards our verandah when my dad muttered ,’’ remove ur shoes and clean urself ’’. I put my bags around the corner and slowly looked down for my shoes….. then a terrible thing happened

There was only one shoe and the other leg had only socks on it….. I slowly raised my head, my dad looked at me and noticed my missing shoe…..’’ where is your shoe ‘’, my dad commanded … I shrugged… twisting my lips as though I were innocent….. he looked at me from top to bottom…. My shirt was full of mud… blood trickling from knee…. Water bottle missing …. And apparently my auto driver had told about my missing in the school.
My dad never beats me …. He never used to scold….. so I was pretty casual…. My dad looked at me as though I were a serial killer ‘’ where did you go’’ my dad barked. I started narrating eagerly as though I had undergone an expedition and then…………. ‘’DAMAAAL DUMIEL DAMAAAL…….’’ ……….’’ Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu………''..
I learnt , ’’THERE IS A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING’’.....

MORAL: Naanga apovey rowdya form aytomla…….