The school bus reached the Indiranagar's bus stop. The 12 year old boy Arulmozhi got down from the bus and started walking towards his home. The usual happiness which he used to have while going home is missing today. His Mom was doing tailoring work in the front side of the home. He said 'Hi Mom!' and went inside. 15 minutes after he went inside, his mom wondered why there was no sound of television till now. Then she went inside and saw her son doing homeworks calmly inside the room. She asked him "Hey!! what happened?? started doing homeworks now itself? you did any mistake? got low marks on exam or what??". Arul replied "No Mom, lots of homework today.. thats why...". Then he was doing homework but checking the clock simultaneously, thinking how much time left for Dad to come home. He is so afraid and his hands started shivering due to fear.
3 days back..
The school bus reached the Indiranagar's bus stop. The 12 year old boy Arulmozhi got down from the bus happily as its a friday. He is excited about the weekend. India vs Australia Cricket match on Saturday, Top 10 movies on sunday morning, Rajini movie on sunday evening in Sun TV. Which child wouldn't get excited. He reached home and just thrown the bags, shoes randomly. His mother shouted "I donno why they are giving 2 days leave for you guys. Go and facewash and change your clothes first". He didn't listen anything and switched on tv first. Match highlights,serials,news and some how friday night came.
After having dinner, his dad was speaking to him casually asking how the studies going?, when is half yearly exam?, will you get 1st rank? etc etc. Then the chat went on to topic which Arul is comfortable with, like cricket, movies etc. Arul always afraid to talk to his dad, but now this chat is going friendly. Now and then his dad used to talk like this. So he also showed some interest in the conversation. Somehow the chat finally came on to topic of 'Copying in the exam'. His dad asked 'whether you copied in any of your exams?'. Normally for this kind of questions, the answer 'No!!!' will come in jet speed from his mouth. But now he thought 'oh!! Dad is talking very friendly, he won't scold now. But to be in safer side, we'll just say 'only once'. Then he said "Ya. Just once". His dad shouted "You scoundrel!!! how dare you????". He is shocked. He didn't expect this jet speed reaction from his father. His dad continued scolding "you are copying in exams. uh!!! is that good behaviour for a good student?". He said 'No'(in jet speed).Dad continued "Copying is similar to stealing, it is stealing answers from others paper. Would you copy here after? would you steal hereafter?". He shaked his head signalling 'No' with fear.
Saturday morning Arul woke up at 8 and started counting how many minutes are more for cricket match to start. While having breakfast his dad was watching news and the sports news came and they said something about today's cricket match. His dad turned to Arul and said "Hey!! don't just watch cricket whole day, finish all the homework then only i'll allow to watch cricket". Arul said "Ok Dad, i have less homework, i'll finish before the match starts". Dad said "Hmmm for match you'll do anything, better start doing homework now itself". Arul started doing homework immediately after breakfast. He studied for sometime and played book cricket by turning the pages randomly and checkin the last digit of page numbers as runs scored every ball. Whenever his voice lowers, his Dad's voice will raise as "Hey!! are you reading?? i didn't listen.. read loudly". Arul replied "Dad i finished whatever has to be read, now i'm doing Mathematics homework". At around 12:30 he came out of the room and lied to his Dad that he did all the homeworks, though he didn't even start doing maths homework. Remaining day went in match and sunday morning also went by watching 'Top 10 movies','Shaktimaan',Debate show etc etc.. After Sunday afternoon, Arul thought of doing the maths homework if Dad goes out somewhere. Because he can't do it when Dad is in home, as Dad'll come to know he lied yesterday. Arul virtually saw the scene "Dad taking the stick and coming to beat him shouting 'You lyingggg .........'" in his mind. So he waited till night, but his Dad didn't go anywhere and he didn't get a chance to do his homework. He got afraid as his Maths teacher would beat him if he didn't finish the homework.
Monday morning Arul is getting ready to school, and his Mom is preparing breakfast and lunch also for him. His Dad is polishing his shoes, filling water in water bottle etc. Arul got ready early than he actually does. He went to bus stop atleast 15 mins earlier than he used to go. He took maths note and started doing the homwork. He prayed that school bus should come atleast 15 mins late so that he can finish the work in bus stop itself. He was working out all the sums very fast as he is little good in Maths and a topper in school too. He didn't even held his head high till he heard the school bus horn sound. Then he suddenly looked up and there it is.No no.. There He is.. His Dad is standing right infront of him watching him. The school bus also came. His Dad said "what are you doing? bus came, pack your bag and go, its getting late". Though his Dad didn't scold him in bus stop, Arul would know that He didn't get time to scold as bus came, so definitely he is gonna get heavy scold or beat when he returns from school for lying to his father.
Monday Evening:
Time is 7:30 now. He heard the bike sound of his Dad's. And in few seconds his Dad came inside the house. He opened Arul's room and saw him reading and closed the door and left.Arul wondered why his Dad didn't ask him anything.But he is still expecting a call from his Dad any minute. Sometimes his Dad used to discuss with his Mom first before asking or scolding him. So he reduced the fan speed to minimum so that he can eavesdrop whatever they talk outside his room. He was listening for few minutes but nothing seems happened outside.Then he heard some voices. It is one of his Dad's friend's voice. They were speaking something. He kept listening to their conversation and at one stage of their conversation he is stunned,shocked and surprised. Below is the part of the conversation he was listening to:
Friend:Then how is your son?
Dad: Yeah he is doing good.
Friend:Is he studying good?
Dad: Yeah yeah..He is studying very good. He is always among the toppers in his class. And he always thinks about studies only. You won't even believe me if i say one thing.
Friend: what is that?
Dad: In morning,sometimes his school bus will come little late. He won't even waste that few minutes. He'll be reading something or working out some Math problems etc..in that time also. Nowadays its very rare to see a student like my son you know.
Arul (hearing everything from inside his room): :O!:O!:O!!:O!!!!:D:D:D!!!!!!!!
