Unexpected Vengence
...curved around a turning and found you doing strange things in a squatting position to your wheel…" "I was changing it!" I pleaded. "Oh, sorry. Before I knew it, I had banged into you and you had lost consciousness. By the time I brought you here, you had awakened somewhat and were squawking like a plucked parrot in pain" "You really aren't hurt, are you?" "NO!" I shot back. "Make yourself comfortable here, Sir, this is my home?" I felt so comfortable that I fainted again. Some time later I revived and we started chatting. By now I had lost all my shock and initial hesitation. He was trying to engage me in a conversation. He talked about himself and his home. And any conversation would naturally lead me to my life at our school. I just fizzed forth like an uncorked bubbly, beer! There was a slight bemusement in him when I told him that I am a Saikorian. But I rumbled on. "We had a teacher whom we really hated," I continued. "Why wouldn't we? His treatment of his subject was abominable, and he was probably the only man on this side of the planet whose attitude towards me was similar to President Bush’s to Laden, he was also our house master." "Oh really? What did you do?" Ramana did seem interested. I plunged on. "He trashed me black and blue for bunking NCC one Friday evening. That night when all was calm, peace and quiet, I crept out of my bed and pulled out a razor blade…" "Oh God!" Ramana said in shock. “No, No, wait, listen, I walked out of our dormitory into the small garden that our house master tended with great pride. His brinjal plants were about 6 inches tall. I neatly cut each one of them at their base and re-planted them.” “After two days, when he noticed the plants wither and droop, we heard a scream that shook the very foundations of Gupta house.” “All the boys rushed out to find our house master (HM shall we say) perform a peculiar African tribal dance in his fury.” “There was a general suspicion among all the boys that I was responsible for it, but I kept my silence and didn’t say a word to anybody lest they sneak.” I guffawed, reliving that hilarious incident. “Looks like you enjoyed every bit of it.” Ramana said, goading to me continue. “I didn’t leave him at that.” I continued. “ One day we killed a huge snake just outside our house, and when no one was seeing I preserved the dead snake in a box, until late at night, I slowly slid it into the iron grill of the verandah and quietly went back to sleep.” “Wow that is scary to even think of it.” Ramana said. “The next morning, instead of the usual getup call from our house master, we heard screams, which resembled those from freshly caged monkeys.” “All of us boys rushed to see the whole ...