I go ready and went to school
In the first period, our class teacher, who taught us English, told us to take out our
composition notebook
I took out the mathematics notebook by
mistake
I replaced it quickly but the teacher, perhaps, had kept her gaze fixed on me
She shouted, ''Come here with your book,
Sayali!'' I obeyed her but her angry looks made
my leag tremble and when l reached her chair,
the notebook fell on her feet
Some girls laughed loudly the teacher
thought that I had dropped the notebook on
purpose
She stared at me with an all-devouring look
''Go and stand near your seat,'' she yelled
I kept standing, punished for the whole period
The next was History class and my favourite subject
The teacher had asked us to memorize the causes and effects of the Battle of Panipat I was well-prepared
She began testing all of us, one by one when my turn came I went blank
The teacher gave me a stern stare, while I
stood there stuff, still, with my head hanging
down in shame
Mama and papa continued their never-
ending tiffs
Papa used every opportunity to express his annoyance
Mama on her part, did not allow any such occasion to slip without turning it into a
vociferous quarrel
The quarrel was between the two, but the
punishment inevitably descendad on a third one, that is me at school
Wherever and whenever I heard raised voices, I felt as if mama and papa were
quarrelling
Sometimes, even in the midst of silence,
Mama's screams came piercing through my
ears
And, whenever I heard Mama's high-pitched
yells, my legs quivered
One day, I was coming down the school starts
Somebody from the top gave a frantic scream
I fell and came tumbling down about seven
steps
My elbows and knees were badly bruised my new frock was torn at the seams
When I reached home, Mama shouted,''I am
sick of you
When will you stop making me pay through
my nose for such extravagant losses?''
Mother seized me by the arm, gave me a good jerk and seated me on the bed
She fetched an antiseptic lotion and applied
It to my elbows and knees; but did not hug me
Within me lingered the yearning that she would hold me and console me!
Even if she had given me just a sympathetic
pat, my smarting limbs would have been
soothed