Children Stories
7:38 PM
Hunt for the sugar canes
[The charming story of school going kids how they loot sugar canes
when a tractor load of it turned upside down due to an accident]
It
was the year 1983 then I was a student of Class 7th of the historic Prithviraj
High School of Balangir. Though I was an average student in the class, but happen
to be an obedient and a loyal follower of my school teachers. By nature I used
to be very shy and calm. One morning on reaching the school my batch mate Bhuska
(literally means hefty) told me that a tractor over-loaded with sugar canes has
turned upside down by the side of the road. My batch mates lured me to invade
the place and to steal the sugarcanes that taste sweet when chewed. They
instigated me to join them. They said together we shall invade the place that
is located one kilometre away on the outskirts of the town. Previous night that
tractor was overturned while ferrying the sweet canes to the sugar mill
situated at Tora of the Bargarh district.
[Prithvi Raj High School, Balangir] |
Bunking
the first class of the day i.e. mathematics, I joined the league of my friends.
We might be six or seven students who picked our respective cycles and headed
for the site of the accident. On reaching the location we found the presence of
few residents living near around. They were gathering the scattered sugar canes
so as to carry their homes. We were informed the tractor driver and the helper
were injured and admitted in the district hospital. And their left no one to
guard it. Immediately we took possession of the trolley as if we are the
guardians of it. We started picking the sugarcanes. Holding each of the cane on
the either side we broke them with our knees. Seating there on the side of the
trolley we started chewing the sugar canes. My hands and the mouth were strewn
with the juice of the sugar cane. While we were chewing the sugar canes a
couple of buffalos reached and started pulling the leafs of the sugar cane out
of the trolley load.
At
the venue of the tractor accident we too gathered a bunch of sugar canes and
tied them with the leafs of it and loaded on our cycles. Even tried to
fill our rectangle school cloth bags
with its pieces. In the mean while a friend spotted a jeep was approaching us.
One of the batchmate Bhoku (literally means barking) raised the alarm, “It’s a
police jeep, It’s a police jeep”. As if the culprits, out of fear we all fled
from the place while carrying some sugar canes. It was noon hours and I
straight away went to home for lunch. On reaching home my mother asked, “where
have you been?”. While throwing the
school bag on the sofa with a exhausted voice I lied “To the school”. She
pointed her finger on the collar of my shirt and asked what these dark spots
are. I lowered my head and narrated the story of the invasion in which I
participated along with the friends. She said the stains of the sugarcane juice
will never erase during its life time and as a punishment I have to manage with
that shirt until the end of the academic year. At evening I took out the school
bag to do the pending homework, but was disturbed as could not find my
mathematics notebook. I thought I might have left it in the classroom. But I wondered where it went, as I did not
entered the class room that day at all.
Next
morning on reaching the school the peon came to the class. He asked me to summon on the Office of
Head Master. I started shivering. He escorted me to the office of the head master. I was nervous
since never before I was summoned like this. I guessed something terrible is
going to happen. I went to his office to face the worst court martial ever. I
entered his chamber and stood numb. He was evaluating the answer sheets of the just
concluded half-yearly exams. He removed his thick black spectacles from his
face and placed on the table. And he lifted a notebook and handed over to me.
It was that missing mathematics note book, carrying my name in it. He asked if
I was travelling in the sugarcane tractor that over turned two days back. I
started shivering and sobbing. I was speechless. He said the police have
recovered my note book at the spot of the accident and sent to the school. In
the mean while the bell of the first class of the day rang. He alerted me saying
“You may go to the class, but remember not to spill the beans while gathering
the grains”.
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