The Backfire!!

This is the sequel to my previous post The Great Robbery. I’ve written it in three parts depending upon the location of the scenes.Certain conversations in this piece of writing actually happened in Telugu but have been translated to English for the readers convenience…Sudhams

For those of you with doubts, all the incidents in this post are absolutely true and are not acts of fiction.

Part-1 : The Ice-cream shop

It was a Sunday afternoon a couple of days after the successful first attempt and once again I was preparing myself for yet another robbery. The target was the same ice cream shop. All I needed to do was to take a bottle and run. Nothing could possibly go wrong. So there I stood waiting for the right time. One of my friends was hesitant to come near the shop so I couldn’t make a move as things are not perfect. So I waited there for yet another 5 mins for things to be in order just like last time. Just when I was about go back to my friend, I felt a hand on my shoulder

“What are you doing here?” the man asked. He was a huge man might be above 30 with the face of a drunkard.

“Nothing, waiting for my friends. We’ve planned to watch a movie here.” I told him trying to be as casual as possible.

“Oh! Ok then…,” he said and went inside.

Now that was a close call. I figured he was the owner of the shop as he went and sat at the counter. I’m pretty sure that anyone would now think of calling off the whole plan and go home for lunch. But I was nowhere close to giving up. I started to argue with my friend who was not properly cooperating and then came back to the target location. Once again I started to act natural and once again the owner came out. But this time he took me inside and made me sit on a bench.

“what are you doing outside?” he asked again trying to be as calm as possible.

“I told you uncle I’m waiting for my friends to come. We’re going to the movie..” I replied in protest and then before I could complete my sentence he slapped me hard and I completely lost my senses. He somehow came to know that I was the one who stole his bottles last time. I began to cry saying I have no idea what he was talking about.

So now my friend walked in with a couple of the workers in the shop.

“I think the rest of them just ran away.” Said one of those who caught my friend. Clearly they saw us both standing there for almost 15mins doing nothing. He was shivering and was in complete fear. He was crying even before the man started to talk with him. They brought him and made him sit on a table beside mine. I understood that there’s no point in bluffing to that man and moreover my 11-year-old mind was finding it hard to take all the pressure so within mins we both confessed but I somehow managed to give the wrong information about my parents and where I live. I knew what would happen if my dad comes to know of this.

There was this other guy trying to be nice to us to get all the answers. We were completely fooled by him and with the slip of the tongue we gave out our school name and two more names of my friends who were supposed to execute the escape plan. As soon as he got the names, he sent a kid from his shop to my school with a paper on which our names are written. It became clear to me that I’m screwd big time!!!

After an hour of scolding and cursing the owner finally got bored with our continuous crying and pleading for excuse. He then warned us not to do these things again and left us.

Running notes:

>>Less crowd doesn’t mean you can escape easily.It means you’ll be spotted easily.

>>Never spend too much time at the scene of crime.

>>Don’t try to steal at the same shop within a span of two days.

>>Don’t ever give out the name of your school if you get caught.

Part-2 : School

It’s common for kids that age to hate Monday mornings. But this was a different case. Time seemed to be killing me. As the prayer was over and we sat in the class room, I knew it wouldn’t be long before the principal would call us. A tiny bit of hope told me that the principal had always liked me and so he would believe what I say. We then decided to say that the shop owner got the wrong kids and they let us go after some time. But things were definitely not that easy.

Within few minutes one of the attenders came and asked for us. No one except us knew what the matter was. We pretended as if we had no idea and walked to the principals room. I was trying to be as cool as possible. Then we were called inside.

“Sir, there was a mistake. They thought we were somebody else.” I said trying to hide my terror with a faint smile. But who am I fooling anyway. The principal stood up from his chair and slapped me in the face.

“Who do you think you are talking to?Who are you cheating?”

So there was no way to cover things up.I’m totally screwed. He then implemented a clever way to get information from all of us. He asked all of us to wait outside and called each of us separately to ask about the incident. I later read somewhere that this is called cross-examination. We had no other option but to tell him the truth. So within an hour we were standing before him with our heads down. Ofcourse this is after all the spanking with the cane that he had.

We were severely warned. “If at all there is a next time,I’m gonna send you to the police station.” With this the principal asked us to leave the room. We did not talk with each other the whole day. The only thing that was in my mind was the question the principal asked me while I was alone with him..

“Why didn’t you just go and buy the cool drinks?”

Why didn’t I do that. I always had enough money even when I was in school. If not, my parents would always give me if I asked. With all these thoughts in mind I came home after the school to get ready for the study hours.

“Your principal called just now. He was a little serious and said that he wants to talk with dad.” My brother told me. He too was getting ready for his study hours. He studied in a different school.

“Oh did he? I don’t know why. May be something about the common examination.” I said trying to hide the scared out of shit face.

“Oh but he sounded a little serious. He wanted dad to call him as soon as he’s back from the office.” My brother said having no idea that each of his words was planting a spear in my throat.

“Hmm guess we’ll have to wait and see what it is about.” I said finally to stop further torture and rushed back to school to talk to the principal.

I directly went and knocked his door.

“Come on in Sudhams,” he said with a much more calm voice. He always liked me and it was clear that he was disappointed at what I did. “what is it?” he enquired as if nothing happened in the morning.

“Sir I don’t know what came over me that time. But I’m very sorry for what I’ve done and I promise I will never ever do such a thing again. Please excuse me for this time and don’t tell my dad about this.” I made my point clear but this time I was true from the depths of my heart. He understood that too.

“What you’ve done is really a bad thing Sudhams and that is the reason I’ve punished you in the morning.” He said quietly

“I know that I deserved everything that I got sir. I’m promising that it will never happen again and I will study hard and get above 500 marks in the common exams.” I said in a much more confident tone.

After that he trusted me and said he wont say a word to my dad. He said about how much he liked me since I was a child and how much this incident disappointed him. I too apologized several times before he asked me to go ahead and study well for the common exams that are to be held within a months time.

Running notes:

>>Never under-estimate the intelligence of your Principal.

>>Having a good impression doesn’t mean the principal is gonna believe the crap that you say.

>>Why didn’t I just buy the cool drinks????

Part-3 : Home

I was at peace while going home after the study hours. Glad that I’ve talked to the principal about not telling my dad. But sure thought I’ve learned my lesson. After going home I was casual when dad asked me about why the principal wanted to talk to him. I was pretty sure he’s gonna talk about something else.

So then my father called him and I was sitting in the next room quietly listening to the conversation on the phone. I knew that if anything goes wrong my dad is gonna be furious. As soon as they began their conversation my dad became silent. There were an occational aahh, oohh, who?? Where?? and a few hmmms as well!!

I did not understand at the beginning but later it was clear that I got booked yet again. My Principal didnot keep his word. That little time I had between my father coming to know what happened and the second he kept the receiver down is probably the most tensed I’ve ever been. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel my entire body shaking. After talking to him my dad finally said that he would talk to me and then disconnected the call.

He called for me and I silently went and stood before him. He started with a simple and direct question.

“Did you steal the cool drink bottles?” my mother was shocked. I had nothing to say and just looked at him.

Whatever happened in the next 15 mins was too violent to post here. My father made use of both his hands and also took the help of a stick. It was the first and the last time my father ever hit me. After the storm settled I was left crying on the floor with a swollen heel. My father did not say a word after that. My brother usually came very late after his study hours so he never knew what happened.

Running notes:

>>Don’t ask your principal sir for favours

The After math: things that happened later

>>My principal called me personally and told me that he did not want me to be afraid of anything and that telling my dad the truth will eventually do good for me.He also spoke about a line from our daily prayer that says “lead us not into temptation”

>> I went on to score 544 marks in the exams being one among the top 5 from the school.

>>My father did not talk to me for a couple of weeks but later realized how much I changed and things went back to normal. I still remember how happy he felt on my results day.

As for me personally, that particular incident that too in a very early stage of my life helped me learn a lot of things. I was never ashamed of what happened because the best lessons in life are taught by experience. Moreover I also have a wonderful story to tell my kids and their kids too!!!