The Untold Misery Of A School Boy-Part Three

                       "Man was made for joy and woe;
                        And when this we rightly know,
                        Thro' the world we safely go"
                                                -William Blake


Rahul's father Shekhar normally comes at 4.45pm everyday to pick up Rahul.But on that fateful day he was late by twenty minutes due to unforeseen diversion in traffic on the way.

By the time Shekhar walked into the premises the whole school was empty.

Looking into all directions he hurriedly rushed into the school and saw the watchman coming out..

Shekhar halted the watchman and asked him,”..watchman,where is my son Rahul..Did you see him..”

“..No sir..I didn’t see him..he must have gone long ago..there is no one in the school.”Replied the watchman..

“..Did anyone come to pick him up..”Asked Shekhar anxiously

“..That I don’t know sir,I have just checked every room and locked the whole building..All the children were in a holiday mood..Rahul must have gone to some nearby friend’s house..”concluded the watchman..

That looked like a convincing conclusion for Shekhar..

Bidding goodbye the watchman who was in a hurry excused himself from the place...

And Shekhar too moved.. 

The third and another big blunder that finally led to the great tragedy…

Shekhar should not have trusted the watchman..

Because Rahul never went to any of his friends’ house in the past without informing his father..Even in the past too Shekhar came late many times..

But Rahul used to wait for his father under a big tree in the school premises and never ventured to move out of the school any time..

The watchman who was in a hurry wanted to move quickly and to avoid Shekhar he told something that worked on Shekhar’s psyche..

So Shekhar too moved..

And by moving so he committed the biggest mistake ever committed by any father in this world..

And that mistake he will regret for a life beyond life..

It was 5.15 P M

Rahul was unmoved and still sleeping in the class..

In complete loneliness..

And..

In gradually growing darkness….

The first thing that Shekhar did after coming out of the school was to go to the nearby friend’s house..

”No..Rahul didn’t come..”came the reply..

He received similar replies from three more houses..

Though not very sure Shekhar called his home to find out if Rahul had come..

“..No..”replied Rahul’s grand parents in an anxious voice..

Shekhar was not listening what they were saying later..

He disconnected the phone..

“Where..Where..W…h…e…r….e…???????????????????????

His head was full of questions and questions..

Slowly and very slowly sweat started accumulating on Shekhar’s fore head…

The first sign of anxiety and panic disorder.

He hesitated for a while and then called his wife Supriya on her mobile.She was still in her office at that time.

Trying to control himself Shekhar very slowly told her..”..Supriya,..be normal and listen to me.Rahul is missing..”

Which mother in this world shall remain normal when she hears some thing like,”..our son is missing…”

“Whaaaattttttt……….????????????”

Supriya screamed loudly to the utter shock of her colleagues..

One after the other Shekhar explained everything to her..

All the colleagues gathered around Supriya to know what was wrong with her..

They were shocked to hear that her son went missing….

Supriya has the telephone numbers of all Rahul’s close friends..

She called everyone one by one and everyone one by one and one after the other doubled her anxiety with their negative replies first and anxious questions next..

She is neither in a mood to reply to their questions nor she has the patience to stay composed..

She immediately rushed out of the office along with some of her colleagues and friends and reached home as quickly as possible..

Shekhar was already waiting there with his friends and relatives.The word spread around and almost all the friends gathered at Shekhar’s home.

It was 6.45 P M..

Surprisingly so..

Rahul was still..

S..l..e..e..p..i..n..g....

Still unmoved..

Still in the same posture..

There is a thick darkness gradually growing all around him in the room..

A sort of a blinding pitch darkness with a typical and terrifying sound of absolute silence that is dangerously getting ready to create terror in the tiny and tender mind of Rahul..

And there was still a mild breeze blowing through the window combined with a haunting sound.. 

7.15 P M..

Shekhar,Supriya and friends are in the area police station giving as many details as possible to the police.The officer in charge was also very sympathetic towards them and was noting down every small detail..

Immediately a note was sent to all the police stations and local television channels along with the photograph of Rahul..

And immediately all the TV channels started flashing the photo of Rahul with relevant details..…

8.00 P M

Along with a few friends and police Shekahar and Supriya reached the school to search every bit of the surroundings…

With huge Torch lights they went around the whole place and covered every bit…

Without much use..
As they were so searching..

Rahul was  s.t.i.l.l. .s.l.e.e.e.e.e.e.p.i.n.g…..

Still in more loneliness..

And still in more and more dangerously growing 
D..a..r..k..n..e..s..s…s..s..s...s..

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

The Untold Misery Of A School Boy-Part Two

                               
                               They say

                             "Whom the Gods love die young.."

                               If that is true..

                            "Thank you GOD,we don't need your love...."

As soon as the final bell rang..All the innocent and naughty children just jumped out of their seats and ran out of the class like a swarm of bees..

Their juvenile nature did not remind them that their beloved friend Rahul was still sleeping in the last bench and that they have a duty to wake him up..

They were too young to be mindful of these things and they just ran out in a joyful holiday mood..

Rahul was in deep sleep and in fact slept on the bench behind his writing table in the extreme corner of the room..

One by one all the students, teachers and the administration staff…

L..e..f..t……the… school..

Rahul was still sleeping..

The entire school was vacant in fifteen minutes..

At 4.50 P M..

The school watchman started his final duty of the day..

Starting with the first room in the school building he walked into each and every class room, checked everything, switched off all the lights and fans, closed all the windows and finally locked every room..

The secretary of the school was waiting in the office room to receive the keys of all the rooms from the watchman..Later the keys will be kept in a safety locker by the secretary till further opening of the school..that is the daily practice there..

One by one, the watchman finished checking and locking all the rooms in the ground floor..

Then he reached the first floor, did the same there..

As he was moving to the second floor, he got a call on his mobile phone from his wife asking him to come home early as the last bus for their village was at 6.30 PM..

He looked at his watch..

It was 4.58 P M..

He moved briskly towards the second floor..

While moving so he told himself that he should cover the whole second floor in less than five minutes..

Rahul’s class room lies in the second floor and even in that floor it was the last room in the corridor..

The East facing corridor was gradually gathering darkness with shadows of the huge pillars spreading across the carpet as if signaling a great calamity..

The crows on the nearby tree were making a constant noise as if they were foreseeing something..

Unfortunately Rahul was still sleeping..

Moving hurriedly the watchman went on closing all the rooms in the second floor without properly checking them..

He just switched off all the power switches in each room and locked them one after the other...

And finally at 5.03 P M..

He walked into Rahul’s room..

He switched off the fans first..

Then the lights..

That being the month of December and mid winter time in India, the room almost became completely dark once the watchman had switched off the lights..

Rahul was still s..l..e..e..p..i..n..g on the wooden bench near the rear window in the last left side corner of the room..

The distance between the main entrance which was in the front right side corner of the room and the place where Rahul was sleeping was around thirty five feet..

The stupid watchman thought that it was a waste of time to cover all that distance and close the window..

So he very carelessly moved out to close and lock the main entrance door..

The watchman was being paid for that job of checking each and every door and window of the school building and see that they are properly closed and locked.

But he did not do so on that day..

A gross injustice to his job and duty…

The second and the biggest factor that later contributed to the great tragedy..

The window beside which Rahul was sleeping was left open, unchecked.

If that window was checked by the watchman he would have noticed Rahul sleeping there..

But that bloody SOB didn’t do that..

He calmly walked out off the second floor first and the first floor next and finally handed over the keys to the eagerly waiting secretary..

Later the secretary very promptly kept those keys in the safe custody, locked it, locked the room and pushed off..

Rahul was still sleeping..

It was 5.08 PM…

And at that time came Rahul’s father,Shekhar

Very hurriedly….

And now..

There is a gradual change in the weather and marching from west to east an army of thick black clouds started taking positions in the sky..

Sending some signals about the great tragedy...

Continued In The Untold Misery Of A School Boy-Part Three