A month in Meerut

In the summers after class IV, I went to Meerut at mamaji's home alongwith didi, bhaiyya and mummy. He too is in army, and I found him to be commanding his children in the same style. He has four children, all elder to me. At that time, eldest daughter Anita didi was aged 21 and she was more of a tomboy. She had sort of authority on her younger siblings. Babita didi aged 19 then, on the other hand was really beautiful and looked after all the responsibilities at home from cooking food to washing clothes, etc. Younger to her is Chetak bhaiyya, aged 14 and in IX class then, and most mischievous of all Deepak bhaiyya was in 7th and aged 12 then. Collectively we used to call them ABCD. In initial few days itself, we observed that both Chetak and Deepak bhaiyya used to talk of their school punishments at home with a lot ease, and Anita didi especially used to enjoy their narration a lot. Sometimes, she even used to call them 'Bade Murge, Chhote Murge'. Out of the four weeks that we spent there, we hardly saw anything unusual there other than this in the first week. But, in the remaining three weeks, I saw punishments being given to children at least four times, and in one of those instances, I too was involved. Now I think, it would have been better, if we had not gone there then. Because afterwards, my mother also started punishing us at home in similar fashion, as she saw there. Nevertheless, the experiences that I remember are as follows-

One day, after Mamaji returnned from home, he found mamiji was not well and Babita didi alone was cooking the food. He came to the room, where all we children were playing, and told us to keep quiet, as our noise was causing headache to mamiji. We calmed down. After a few minutes, we started playing again. He came back again to our room, and said that he was also having some headache, so we should not cause any noise. But, we hardly listenned. So, he returnned back after 10 minutes, call us all (Anita didi, Chetak and Deepak bhaiyya, my real didi Manju, real brother Harsh bhaiyya and myself) in his room and said, "Chetak aur Deepak tum dono ek ghante ke liye murga ban jao". Nothing else. They were dejected but obeyed him. And there was a pin drop silence afterwards. To rest of us, he simply ordered to open up books and study. Whether we studied or not, but we maintained absolutely pin drop silence for rest of the evening. Both Chetak and Deepak bhaiyya were allowed to get up after one hour, and they went back to their study afterwards. 

The very next day, it happened with Babita didi, that too over a very trivial thing. Mamiji made her a murga because she did not cook dinner properly that day. This sounds odd, and other adults in the home protested as well, but Mamiji gave a very strange logic that she had to prepare her for her life with her would be in-laws. After a few days, there was a friendly incident in which all the children in the home except Anita didi were made murga. After we had taken the dinner, we all but mamiji and Anita didi had spread the beddings on the roof and had lied down. We all were busy talking to each other in leisure. Don’t know what happened to me, expecting some pampering, I crawled upto mummy and requested, “Mummy kahani suna do”. She without even skipping a breathe, instantaneously replied, “pehle murga ban ke dikha”. I was embarrassed and everybody else started laughing. When people calmed down a bit, my mummy repeated, “muh (face) to kar le chaand (moon) ki taraf aur ek taang pe murga ban ke 5 min. ke liye khadi ho ja, tab kahani sunaongi”. That went people burst into laughter even more. I was no more willing for any story from mummy, but by then everybody else had started insisting me to do it. Finding myself left alone, I unwillingly tried doing it with a lot of hesitation. I faced the moon, and bent down to hold the ears by bringing my arms from under my legs. The moment I completed the posture, mummy slapped me on my butt, telling me that I was not facing the moon!!!! Actually, when you become a murga, your face and your butts are facing the same direction. That meant, I was facing away from moon. I stood up to turn backwards, but I again received another friendly pat on the butt, telling me to move in a circle in murga position itself. After, I did whatever was instructed, Mamaji said that because all the children will be listening to the story, so everybody must assume the same position for 5 minutes. All my siblings who were laughing at my till now, had found themselves in the same curry now. But, they all followed me. Mummy was repeatedly insisting me to take one leg up in the air, I tried several times, but I could not do it, and I do not know if anybody else could do it either.  Mummy kept patting me on my butts repeatedly. Soon, Anita didi also came, and she made a loud fun of all of us. But, we were soon allowed to be comfortable, and then mummy kept her commitment and narrated us a long and nice story.

A few days after that, while we were still in Meerut, all the adults had gone out of the home and Deepak bhaiyya were taking some photographs. After clicking some 7-8 photos, he called my name and told me to become murga, as he wanted to have my photograph that way and that would really be a nice pose. Initially, everybody supported him, but when Babita didi saw me in tears, she immediately ordered everybody to stop teasing me, and I was thus saved that day.

The last instance of murga punishment I saw on that visit was a day before we left Meerut. On something serious, Mamaji punished Chetak bhaiyya in a real derogatory way. He was made murga, and babita didi was asked to sit on a chair in front of him with her feet resting on his head and shoulders. Of course that was a serious embarrassment for Chetak bhaiyya, keeping her legs stationary in a given position for half an hour was quite taxing for Babita didi as well.

With this much, that horrible stay in Meerut was over. Unfortunately, murga punishment during this stay was not the last one for me in Meerut. Some three years later, Anita didi had got married by then, all the guests had left while I stayed back there with mummy for some extra days. One day hijras had come to ask for baksheesh. Terrified and somewhat crazy I climbed a tree in the verandah of the home. Hizras had long left but I did not come down. Mummy and mamiji tried calling me a lot, so did Babita didi, but I did not come down. Mamaji came in for lunch. When he learnt the entire matter, he was furious. He shouted at me, and I came down almost instantaneously. But, he knows no mercy. He made me murga in the open verandah itself, and kept four bricks on my back. Of course, those bricks fell down within a minute, and he did not say me a word for that, but I was very very terrified. It was not only the sun that was making me sweat, it was also the fear and the difficult posture, that was taking shit out of me. Some 10 minutes later, he told me to get up. But, anticlimactically, he loved and pampered me after that, and adviced me to obey my mother always.

So, whenever I remember Meerut, my heart almost undergoes an attack.

One of the worst years

So, I was in IV class now. The feeling of being a girl was fastly getting in. We, girls had started getting an attitude of being exempted from difficult punishments vary fast. But, one day that myth too broke down. I used to share my bench with another girl called Smita. We were good and happy friends. One day in a social studies period by the same teacher who punished us in class III, we were busy talking to two boys- Atul and Manoj, who used to sit on a bench behind us. Madam saw us, called Smita's and mine name very calmly, as if it was a general call. We turned our faces ahead. She very politely called us. Pulling her chair away from the table, she used to place her chair in the opening of the corridor made between two rows of desks. There, she used to sit cross-legged and used to keep the book and a thin stick on her lap. So she called us, both of us walked upto her. Both Smita and myself were amazed that if she would have to punish us, why did not she call Atul and Manoj, and why there was no strictness in her voice. And we remained amazed ever since. When we reached near her, she in a very dim voice told us, "murga ban jao". She also raised her eyebrows and brought them down, signalling right in front of my feet. On receiving the orders, Smita smiled a bit, I don't know why, smoothed her skirt from behind in a way, as girls do it while sitting and bent down to hold her ears from under her legs. I mean she immediately followed the orders and became murga. I saw her doing it all, and had no other option than to repeat the act. When I did so, I found madam's cross-legged foot was almost touching my forehead, and that was elevating the embarassment of the punishment. In a short-while, I started feeling the pain in thighs, and my legs were terribly vibrating to keep supporting my body weight in a different position. I brought my posterior down, but Smita was still standing strong. For a few minutes, nobody disturbed us, but after that, madam touched her stick on my back, and told me to lift my posterior. As I started the act against the gravity, I realised Smita who was standing besides me had her butts going downwards. My legs started trembling within a minute again, I was exhausted and this made my butts fall down again. Irritated, this time madam shouted on both of us, and very strictly ordered us to keep the posture right. For rest of the period, a struggle kept going for hanging the butts in air, or to allow them to fall down. In addition, I was also feeling the smell of the sandal of the madam, which was very close to my forehead, and slightest of movements of my head had caused the collisions with that sandal a few times. Finally, we were allowed to take the seat when the period was over. As I walked back to my seat, I was visibly a poor child. I expected everybody to smile at me, so I did not raise my head. But, that day, I think all my classmates were generous enough as nobody said a thing either to Smita or to me. I looked at Atul and Manoj, they seemed terrified, as if I would get even with them. But, I did not speak anything to them, neither did Smita. I looked at Smita, I felt she was about to say something. When I asked her, what's that? She replied, "later". We calmly reached our seat, and sat patiently for the next period to proceed.

When we were walking back home today, she told me to smooth the skirt from behind if ever asked to assume murga position again. I asked “why”? She told me that this would keep our legs covered by skirt during the course of punishment, otherwise skirt would risen up from the region between the two arms. I enquired how she knew this ‘trick’. She told me that her mother told her while once she was punished at home, and she was wearing a frock. Her mother told her to do so, as her brother was also at home. Whatever, I don’t forget to follow this practice since then.

I consider my VI class as the worstever year for me in the school, as I faced frequent punishments then, but IV class was the second worst year. We used to be standing in punishments almost every second day. Many a days, the timetables in school used to assume ‘whole day’, that meant class teacher will remain in the class for whole of the day. The same teacher can not keep teaching for whole of the day to the same students. Noway, they can keep us engaged. So, our class teacher once in a while used to tell us to sit with heads down or finger on the lips. Students too could not keep doing it for long, and that resulted into punishments for whole of the class. Mostly, the punishment used to be standing with hands up, but sometimes, it could vary as well. Girls were frequently allowed to sit much ahead of boys. These punishments used to come mostly in the afternoons, and we had got habitual of that. There used to be days, when entire of the post lunch periods (four periods of 35 minutes each) were spent standing by boys. On one fateful day, punishment periods for boys were last three periods of the day. The reason was the same- noisy class. Initially, all the students were told to stand holding ears. We did. After a while, madam hit her stick on the table and shouted to keep us silent, or else she will increase the severity of the punishment. After a while, she allowed the girls to sit, but told the boys to raise their hands up in the air, and hold them there. They did, time kept passing by. We too were expecting mercy anytime soon for boys, but as if madam had almost forgotten after giving them the punishment. After a while, she shouted again and this time orders were really terrific. She told all the boys to stand on the bench and become murga. Like us, boys also thought they did not get it right, whatever she said. So, there was no movement for a moment. This was not tolerable to ma’am. She got up from her chair with stick in her hand and started applying blindly on boys. Terrified, they hurriedly did, what she desired them to do. The entire scene was very terrific even for us. My heart was beating very fast, and I could hear my heartbeat. Boys were shocked, cause they were doing it for the first time, and we were shocked too, because we were seeing it for the first time!!! The punishment was going on and on and on. The girls also had started whispering again. Whomsoever passed by outside the class, he/she peaked in, amazed stood there for a moment and took a glimpse of the class. While, ma’am deliberately kept calling some or other of her colleague who happened to pass by, and allowed that teacher to take a look at whatever was scene inside. Teachers in adjoining classroom also take a look, and warned their students of the same consequences if they would not behave properly. We felt that students in the adjoining class were smiling at boys of our class. Finally, last period started. While, all this was going on, the whisper of the girls had started turning into noise. Ma’am woke up to it again. She shouted at us. She kept scolding us for sometime, and finally decided that we (girls) deserved punishment again. This time, she told us to stand on the bench with hands up. We had no option other than to follow her, so we did. Following that, she brought her stick in action. She went to each and every seat, where ‘murge’ were there, told them to keep hang their bottoms (up) and gave four nice and powerful strokes there. Surprisingly, while I was terrified all through, this activity made me smile. I was bubbling into smile at the noise of every individual stroke. I am ashamed of my behavior, but this was all happening there.