An Astrologers Day and Other Stories Part 19

17.

FATHERS HELP LYING in bed, Swami realized with a shudder that it was Monday morning. It looked as though only a moment ago it had been the last period on Friday ; already Monday was there. He hoped that an earthquake would reduce the school building to dust, but that good building Albert Mission School had withstood similar prayers for over a hundred years now. At nine oclock Swaminathan wailed : I have a headache. His mother said : Why dont you go to school in ajutka ?

So that I may be completely dead at the other end ? Have you any idea what it means to be jolted in sijutka ?

Have you many important lessons today ?

Important ! Bah ! That geography teacher has been teaching the same lesson for over a year now.

And we have arithmetic, which means for a whole period we are going to be beaten by the teacher .

Important lesson !

And mother generously suggested that Swami might stay at home.

At nine-thirty, when he ought to have been shouting in the school prayer hall, Swami was lying on the bench in mothers room. Father asked him : Have you no school today ?

Headache, Swami replied. Nonsense ! Dress up and go.

126 FATHERS HELP

Headache.

Loafabout less on Sundays and you will be without a headache on Monday.

Swami knew how stubborn his father could be, and changed his tactics.

I cant go so late to the cla.s.s.

I agree, but youll have to ; it is your own fault.

You should have asked me before deciding to stay away.

What will the teacher think if I go so late ?

Tell him you had a headache and so are late.

He will beat me if I say so.

Will he ? Let us see. What is his name ?

Samuel.

Does he beat the boys ?

He is very violent, especially with boys who go late. Some days ago a boy was made to stay on his knees for a whole period in a corner of the cla.s.s because he came late, and that after getting six cuts from the cane and having his ears twisted. I wouldnt like to go late to Samuels cla.s.s.

If he is so violent, why not tell your headmaster about it?

They say that even the headmaster is afraid of him. He is such a violent man.

And then Swami gave a lurid account of Samuels violence ; how when he started caning he would not stop till he saw blood on the boys hand, which he made the boy press to his forehead like a vermilion marking. Swami hoped that with this his father would be made to see that he couldnt go to his cla.s.s late. But fathers behaviour took an unexpected turn.

He became excited.

What do these swine mean by beating our children ? They must be driven out of service. I will see .

FATHERS HELP 127 The result was he proposed to send Swami late to his cla.s.s as a kind of challenge. He was also going to send a letter with Swami to the headmaster. No amount of protest from Swami was of any avail : Swami had to go to school.

By the time he was ready father had composed a long letter to the headmaster, put it in an envelope, and sealed it.

What have you written, father ?

Swaminathan asked apprehensively.

Nothing for you. Give it to your headmaster and go to your cla.s.s.

Have you written anything about our teacher Samuel?; Plenty of things about him. When your headmaster reads it he will probably dismiss Samuel from the school and hand him over to the police.

What has he done, father ?

Well, there is a full account of everything he has done in the letter. Give it to your headmaster and go to your cla.s.s. You must bring an acknowledgment from him in the evening.

Swami went to school, feeling that he was the worst perjurer on earth. His conscience bothered him : he wasnt at all sure if he had been accurate in his description of Samuel. He could not decide how much of what he had said was imagined and how much of it real. He stopped for a moment on the roadside to make up his mind about Samuel : he was not such a bad man after all. Personally he was much more genial than the rest ; often he cracked a joke or two centring around Swamis inactions, and Swami took it as a mark of Samuels personal regard for him.

But there was no doubt that he treated people badly.

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His cane skinned peoples hands. Swami cast his mind about for an instance of this. There was none within his knowledge. Years and years ago he was reputed to have skinned the knuckles of a boy in First Standard and made him smear the blood on his face. No one had seen it actually. But year after year the story persisted among the boys . Swamis head was dizzy with confusion in regard to Samuels character whether he was good or bad, whether he deserved the allegations in the letter or not .

Swami felt an impulse to run home and beg his father to take back the letter. But father was an obstinate man.

As he approached the yellow building he realized that he was perjuring himself and was ruining his teacher. Probably the headmaster would dismiss Samuel and then the police would chain him and put him in jail. For all this disgrace, humiliation, and suffering who would be responsible? Swami shuddered. The more he thought of Samuel, the more he grieved for him the dark face, his small red-streaked eyes, his thin line of moustache, his unshaven cheek and chin, his yellow coat ; everything filled Swami with sorrow. As he felt the bulge of the letter in his pocket, he felt like an executioner.

For a moment he was angry with his father, and wondered why he should not fling into the gutter the letter of a man so unreasonable and stubborn.

As he entered the school gate an idea occurred to him, a sort of solution. He wouldnt deliver the letter to the headmaster immediately, but at the end of the day to that extent he would disobey his father and exercise his independence. There was nothing wrong in it, and father would not know it anyway.

FATHERS HELP 129 If the letter were given at the end of the day there was a chance that Samuel might do something to justify the letter.

Swami stood at the entrance to his cla.s.s. Samuel was teaching arithmetic. He looked at Swami for a moment. Swami stood hoping that Samuel would fall on him and tear his skin off. But Samuel merely asked : Are you just coming to the cla.s.s ?

Yes, sir.

You are half an hour late.

I know it. Swami hoped that he would be attacked now. He almost prayed : G.o.d of Thirupathi, please make Samuel beat me.

Why are you late?

Swami wanted to reply :

Just to see what you can do. But he merely said :

I have a headache, sir.

Then why did you come to the school at all ?

A most unexpected question from Samuel.

My father said that I shouldnt miss the cla.s.s, sir, said Swami.

This seemed to impress Samuel.

Your father is quite right ; a very sensible man. We want more parents like him.

Oh, you poor worm !

Swami thought.

You dont know what my father has done for you. He was more puzzled than ever about Samuels character.

All right, go to your seat. Have you still a headache ?