tales of Suchita

Much to the warped amusement of both parties involved, Radha found himself back in Ameen miss’s cabin. It felt like only yesterday when she had joked that she was starting to miss him. He had now seen the inside of this office more times than was healthy for a student.

Before Operation Assembly could go anywhere, before they could put Priyanka’s brilliant plan into action, before they could even gather for the morning assembly, a series of little explosions had hit the school. As if the explosions hadn’t been alarming enough, a deadly grey smoke started to rise from the first floor and the school had to be evacuated immediately.

Thankfully, all the previous fire drills had come in handy and the evacuation had been smooth despite the chaos of giggling, screaming and crying children and teachers and class monitors screaming themselves hoarse in trying to organize their charges.

Once the school had reached the compound, the arduous task of rollcall had begun. A few students from the tenth grade were found missing and a search party had to be sent inside to locate them. As it turned out, they had thought they were too cool to follow puny school rules and had not deigned to follow protocol when the smoke alarms had gone off. They were promptly suspended by Ameen miss because she was in such a temper.

As the students settled on the compound, the authorities had gone in for a quick recce. They had re-emerged fifteen minutes later, looking grim. They had taken Ameen miss aside and given her the news. Radha had watched miss’s face go from concern to blank to fury in a matter of seconds. He had thought he had seen Ameen miss angry. He had been so wrong!

She had unceremoniously ordered everyone to go back to their respective classrooms. When students and teachers had expressed their concern regarding safety, she had spat, “The police say it is safe. I say it is safe. Ergo it is safe. Now get off this compound and into your classrooms now. Do I look like I’m in any mood to be trifled with?” The message had been received loud and clear. The students scattered with such alacrity, had there been any bandwidth left for hilarity, Ameen miss would have had a hearty laugh.

She had then marched Radha and Anjum miss to her cabin. Radha had initially thought maybe miss wanted his expertise to figure out what had happened. None of them had obviously been told the source of the smoke and Radha and his friends had tried hard to figure out everything that could have led to that much smoke. All they could come up with was a large fire – which didn’t help them at all.

Seeing miss’s face, Radha knew he was in trouble again. He sighed unhappily. Grade seven was turning out to be a little too eventful even for him.

“Who is calling the parents?”

“Gayatri and Jyothi are on it.”

“Good. And there is at least one teacher in every classroom?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Okay. And what about Parshu? Has he come back with the note?”

“He’s on his way,” said Anjum miss, looking at Radha sitting at the edge of his seat. She was sympathetic and she wanted to give him a reassuring smile but just then Parshu uncle entered the cabin carrying a navy blue bag that looked as if it was a smoke breathing little dragon.

He kept the bag next to Radha’s chair, gave him a contemptuous look and left.

“That isn’t mine,” said Radha immediately. He had no idea what was happening and he had a feeling he was going to be accused of another crime that he had not committed. If the jam situation had got him suspended for a week, would this get him expelled?

“I know,” said Ameen miss quietly.

“I know it looks exactly like mine but it isn’t mine.”

“I know Radha.”

Even the name didn’t register, so afraid was he of what would happen. “Whatever you think I did, I did not miss.” He looked at Anjum miss beseechingly. “Miss I didn’t do anything.”

“Radha…”

“Miss you don’t understand there is a prankster on the loose, he or she has been playing all these tricks and…”

Anjum miss kept a hand on his shoulder to stop his tirade. “We know Radha,” she repeated.

It took Radha a minute to understand. “Oh. Oh. Oh! You know?”

Ameen miss smiled sadly. “Now we know. Turn out your pockets.”

Radha looked at her suspiciously but obeyed. Out popped a toffee, a ten rupee note, a key, an eraser and a box of matchsticks. He paused at the matchsticks. “These aren’t mine! Miss what is happening?”

“Your prankster is not only targeting you but the entire school it seems. It’s unprecedented.”

“What?”

“He has been wreaking havoc in the entire school and not just with you and Priyanka.”

“It could be a she as well.”

“Yes, we don’t know anything about anything,” said Anjum miss, moving to take the chair next to Radha. “We were hoping you’d know more than us.”

“What about the CCTV?”

Ameen miss laughed britally. “There are no CCTVs.”

Radha reeled back in confusion. “What are you saying? You said…you said you saw a teacher stealing…”

“Priyanka has a difficult home life,” explained Ameen miss. She knew he deserved to know the truth. “Her parents aren’t the most attentive to her needs. The teacher hadn’t been stealing the pencils. She had only been giving them to her because her parents couldn’t be bothered to buy her some.”

“Then why the elaborate lie?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does to me. You basically called me a liar. Because of what you said I started to question my skills. You suspended me!”

“For the jam,” said Ameen miss defensively, “not for the pencils.”

Anjum miss cleared her throat discreetly. “Radha we need your help.”

“Why did you lie to me?”

Ameen miss rolled her eyes. “Because I am the principal and I can do what I want.”

Before Radha could make an angry retort, Anjum miss chimed in, “Radha will you help us?”

Unable to deny a direct request from his favourite teacher, Radha could only nod.

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This is the sixteenth post in the series. To know more about Radha, click here.