The Art of Fart

I recall an event of my school days during the ‘80s of the last Century. Then I was a student of Class 8^th of the historic Prithiraj High School of Balangir. We had our Christmas holidays. On 2^nd January our school reopened. Outside the school campus my batch mate Tingalu Bagarti spotted me. He was the notorious boy of our class. I use to be associated with him so as at the time of need he will safeguard me from the senior students of the school. I expressed my anguish to him, that I have not done my home work of the mathematics. He said “Just fart, when you can’t solve your math”. I was clueless on whatever he said. I wanted to know what does he mean, but he laughed loudly and ran towards the school gate.

The first class of the day was mathematics. The teacher entered the class room and took the attendance. Now I started shivering. In life I was never a topper in the class. I used to be a mediocre student, but was always obedient. I was occupying the front row of seats. The teacher made the students stand one after another and asked to show the notebooks. When my turn came I was shivering. I stood, bow down my head and told, haven’t done with the home work. He raised his stick and pointed its tip towards me and asked to stand on the bench holding both the ears with hands. By the time I took the elevated position as directed by my class teacher Taklu Sir, I sensed a bad smell. The teacher shouted, who the hell it is and if not attended the toilet since the day school was closed.

I recalled the brief conversation that I had with Tingalu just before entering the school. I looked towards Tingalu seating on the parallel bench. He smiled and looked towards the teacher as if an obedient student. Taklu Sir scratched his bare head with the fingers and asked me to seat and went to the corridor to take a fresh breath. When the class was over I expressed my gratitude to Tingalu. He said in the morning he had taken basi pakhal with raw onion. He asked if I have done the homework of science subject. I asked, but why ? He said in the lunch hour he would go home and will equip his stomach even with a more powerful punch i.e. Basi Pakhal with muli, the radish.

Whatever the food or drink we consume would come out of the body in one or the other form. The solid substance comes out as excreta, while the liquid portion comes out either as urine or the sweat. On the other hand the gaseous form is emitted as flatulent.  Fart occur when the gas that was generated in the intestines get discharged through the anus. In India the act of farting is considered as a taboo in the civic society. If somebody farts with a noise then people around looks at him with an annoyed face. So it tempts people to fart without letting others know it. But certainly people get alert if the fart emits bad odour.

Note : The pupil shown on the image are different from the characters narrated in this post. At places fictional names has been used to safeguard the dignity of the persons.

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