A Witty Way Out

Right after entering the class Mrs Phillips instructed the girls to take out the maps she had asked them to bring. All the girls were taken by surprise for they all remembered clearly that in her last class Mrs Phillips had told them that she would do maps with them after the oncoming Moharram break. The Moharram break was to begin after two more school days but no one dared raise objection for an upset Mrs Phillips never entertained counter arguments. Vandana who was till now enjoying watching the little sparrow feeding her young ones in the nest on the tree right outside the classroom window got alarmed on hearing this announcement. Like every one else she too got busy inventing the best excuse to appease Mrs Phillips who was already seething with anger. “Now all those of you who have not brought their map sheets move out of the class with their copies and pens so that when we start doing questions after colouring the maps you all may at least note down questions in your copies”, Mrs Phillips announced impatiently without giving the girls any chance to begin presenting her with their excuses. Having no choice girls quickly took out their Geography note books and started lining up outside the class. Irated at watching all forty-five girls leave one after another, Mrs Phillips moved towards the door and started smacking at the back of each girl on their way out. Smartened with pain girls looking at each other with alarm tried to soothe out the pain by rubbing their backs. Horrified at this behavior of Mrs Phillips Vandana whispered to her friend Shuchita, ”I say, is hitting kids not banned in schools?” Equally terrified of this unexpected behavior of Mrs Phillips, Shuchita answered in subdued voice, “ Of course it is banned in schools. A teacher had even got suspended for hitting a kid in my younger sister’s school. Now move towards the door quickly before Mrs Phillips takes notice of us lagging behind” But Vandana who was in no mood to become a scape goat to the teacher’s unreasonable temper was thinking of the way to outsmart her. Ignoring Shuchita’s urge to hasten to the door she insisted to move out of the class from the back door and join the girls already standing outside. Manisha who sat on the seat next to hers also agreed but Shuchita insisted that they should face the brunt of Mrs Phillips’ temper and move out through the door where she was serving girls with a smack on their backs. On noticing the quickly reducing strength of girls inside the class Manisha raised alarm that Mrs Phillips was soon going to have no girl’s back to smack and would then call for them. With one last effort to reason sense with blind obedience, Vandana left Shuchita to join the rest and moved out of the class with Manisha from the back door “Oooh!!! Isn’t it painful?”, Sukriti commented as Vandana and Manisha joined her in a hurry. Observing all the girls with a look of pain in their eyes and each one of them rubbing their back Vandana checked her own quizzical look in response to Sukriti’s comment and immediately started rubbing her own back as she said, “Yes it is very painful Sukriti” Throwing a glance in Sukriti’s direction Vandana and Manisha mutually decided to remain silent. Sukriti, a habitual eavesdropper would have been all ears to how they had escaped Mrs Phillips’ punishment and then she would have not let go the chance of ensuring that the two girls face the ill tempered teacher’s wrath. Curiously looking at the other door Vandana noticed Shuchita coming out while rubbing her back with one hand and bearing a sullen expression on her face. Inspite of noticing that the whole class was standing outside Mrs Phillips did not realize even for a moment that she could be making some mistake. She made every one take down exercise of the whole lesson in form of dictation for next forty-five minutes. At the end of the period instructing every one to leave their notebooks at her desk for correction, she asked the class to go back to their seats after she left. “You should not have left me alone”, Shuchita complained as she joined Vandana at the seat. “We had asked you to join us but you chose to get the taste of Mrs Phillips’ foul temper instead of countering it with your own smart wit. Although we too got tired but at least we managed to spare our selves of the spanking”, reasoned Vandana. “Next time she comes again with a foul temper I shall also handle it with a witty way out”, resolved a convinced Shuchita