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Monday, January 18, 2010

The Untold Misery Of A School Boy-Part One

                          
                
                     "...As flies to wanton boys are we to Gods
                     They kill us for their sport.."
                      -From King Lear By William Shakespeare

No parents in this world should go through the trauma and pain the parents of Rahul,a ten year old school boy, have gone through.
I read about this highly disturbing and mind shattering tragic incident about five years ago.
As a very caring father of two little daughters I still feel truly terrible whenever this incident comes to my mind.
It was a small news column in a local newspaper but was large enough to disturb the mankind.
I tried to visualize the whole tragic incident with my creative eye and I am trying to present it before you all with as much detail as possible.
I request all those readers who are highly sensitive and emotional in their nature to stay back and not to proceed beyond this point..
I also request pregnant ladies and elderly people with heart ailments not to read this story..
Others,
Please go through....
Rahul,as I told you was a cute little boy of ten years age studying in a decent convent school of Hyderabad, India.
He was the only son to his parents and naturally was the cynosure of all eyes in the family..
His parents,Shekhar and Supriya, were decent employees in a software company and one can confidently say that they were a happy go lucky family with everything offered to them on a platter by the Almighty.
Everything was so picture perfect in their life till that day…
The day that shattered their families..
The day that has sent Rahul’s mother Supriya into coma for life..
And that day shall remain forever in the memories of everyone associated with that incident..
And On that day..
Rahul’s father Shekhar as was the daily routine dropped Rahul at the school at around 8.30 a m…
Rahul was studying fifth class in that convent school..
After saying “Bye” to his father Rahul ran into the school in a flash..
But before running into the school Rahul did not forget to kiss his dad on his left cheek..and his dad too did not forget to reciprocate the same..
But at that moment neither Rahul nor his father knew that it is the one last time that they are kissing each other in their life and that they will not be seeing each other again..
The school is quite big in size both in terms of strength as well as appearance..
The entire school arena at that time was cacophonic with children running here and there..
It was a co education school with children coming from higher middle class and aristocratic families..
The school was getting ready for the daily assembly and prayer..
In one go Rahul ran into his class room straight away,thrown his bag into his table and rushed to greet his friends..
Before the commencement of the assembly and actual classes, the children hardly get ten minutes of time to play or greet each other..
So they try to squeeze the maximum out of that time without wasting a moment..
Rahul wanted to come early that day by at least fifteen minutes but some how it did not work out.He wanted to spend more time with his friends in the ground because from the following day the school will remain closed for two weeks due to Christmas holidays..
The entire school at that time was colorful and joyous wearing a sort of a festive look and holiday atmosphere all around…
At 8.45 A M..
The assembly bell rang..
All the children gathered at one place for the prayer..
Together they very mechanically finished their prayers..
and later in a line moved into their respective classes…
At 9 A M..
Classes began..
And..
Class periods followed one after the other..
At 12 P M
Came the lunch break..
During the lunch time Rahul and his friends gathered at a regular place they normally gather for lunch..
At 12.05 P M..
Rahul opened his Tiffin box and was irritated at the sight of too much of curd rice stuffed into it..
He hates curd rice..
And he often tells his friends that one day he shall, come what may kill the person who invented curd rice..
His mother insists that he should eat curd rice often to stay healthy..
Discussions and arguments go on in the house whenever curd rice is on the menu in lunch for Rahul..
But it is needless to say who wins those arguments..
And as a result curd rice occupies maximum space in the lunch box the next day..
And same thing happened that day too..
But Rahul still was happy as he found some French fries in the next box..
So far so good..
Cracking jokes on each other the naughty friends group finished their lunch..
They sat there for some more time laughing at one another..
At 12.30 P M..
A bell rang signaling the end of lunch break..
And pretending all the quietness in the world the naughty children are back in their respective classes..
Rahul was feeling heavy and for a moment thought that he had an overdose of lunch..
He told the same to his friend..His friend laughed...
At 12.35 P M
The afternoon session of classes have begun..
Though a brilliant student Rahul was a tall boy..
In any school tall students are made to sit in the last bench and Rahul was no exception..
Consumption of too much of curd rice was making Rahul very sleepy..
There was a window beside the last bench and a cool breeze of air was blowing mildly at that time..
Rahul was trying his best to ward off the sleep..
But it was becoming extremely difficult for him to control.
He somehow managed for two periods and after half of the last period it was impossible for him to resist the sleep any further..
And the gentle breeze was playing it’s role too..
Finally it became impossible for Rahul to exercise any control over his sleep..
Starting with a casual nap..
He slowly very slowly dropped into a deep slumber..
At 4.30 P M the final bell rang..
Exactly at this time the first major contributing factor to the whole of the tragedy occurred..

Continued in The Untold Misery Of A School Boy-Part-Two