Being in VIII class meant a lot
of punishments- a lot of pain and a lot of humiliation. As I had mentioned in
an earlier post that in this school, public punishments were very common. So,
VII class onwards, I had lots many instances of standing in assembly ground or
playground in punishment. VIII class was the one, when we had more punishments
in assembly ground or play ground and lesser in the classroom. And many of
these punishments were so harsh, that it brought tears to our eyes. But, I will
begin writing with experiences of the classroom punishments, and in a later
post I will describe some public punishments.
That year, our mathematics
teacher used to terrify us most. At least once in a week, she used to make us
all stand on our seats with hands up. The punishment usually used to go on for
entire period, and she would keep herself busy with some paper work. Once in a
while, she would pick up her face, and during that time whomsoever she would
see with hands not properly raised up or folded, she would call him or her in
front, would slap that fellow hard, and would order that person to take murgha
punishment for rest of the period. Same treatment would be met to anybody, she
would find in some sort of indiscipline during that moment like whispering, or
relaxing against the back of the bench, etc. And I would lie, if I would say
that I did not receive such special treatment ever. Even if you go by simple
logic that we were 27 students in a class, and we used to receive this
punishment every week. There are 52 weeks in an year, our vacations used to go
on for eight weeks, some 4-5 weeks would go in examinations and unit tests,
still there would be 40 weeks for us to be exposed. Now considering, she
administered this punishment to us only once in a week, that she picked up her
face only once during that period, still there is good chance for everybody to
be called at least once. So, as regards with me, honestly, I was called at
least six times that year to receive tight slaps and assume murgha position in
front of rest of the students. The one experience that still pinches a lot is
the one, when she had already made some 7-8 boys murgha after hitting their
palms with a stick four times that day. And then, my name was called. I
proceeded towards her reluctantly. She rudely shouted, ‘dulhan nahi bani hai tu
aaj, jo itne nakhre kar kea a rahi hai, jaldi aa yahan pe’. But, I kept going
by the same speed. As I reached to her left side, she told me to shift to her
right side, where she asked me for my palm. Again, I reluctantly spread my
palm, but she instantly treated it with her stick in a great piece of velocity
and force, making me cry like anything almost instantly. But, that was only the
beginning. She rudely asked for my left palm, I offered her, and she reduced
that one too to the same state as the right one. Next was the turn of right
palm again, and then left palm again, and finally the orders to become murgha.
While all the boys were on her right side, to me, she told to go back to her
left side to become murgha. I still wanted to soothe my palms, but that was not
allowed, I rather had to hold me ears in them, after making them come out from
between my legs. I did it, but my tears kept falling on the floor, but madam
remained unmoved by that, and she made me complete the punishment till the end
of the period, just like those boys were doing. This was not the only
experience for which I hate her. She had been even ruder with me on another
day. That day too we were standing with our hands up, and she was checking our
test copies. Some students had got good marks, and some had got bad. I got 4
out of 35, and that irked her. She called me towards her, and as soon as I
reached there, she slapped me hard 2-3 times, and told me to become murgha. As
I bent down to obey her, she kept that notebook on my back, and kept scolding
me. She went back to her chair, but her annoyance had not subsided, and after a
few minutes, she again came back towards me. By that time, my butts had lowered
down, and notebook had fallen on the ground. She pulled her high heeled sandal in
her hand and started applying it hard on my shoulder and neck. It was very
embarrassing for me, of course painful as well. She did not told me to pull my
butts up, rather after she got satisfied by beating me, she kept the notebook
on my shoulders only and went back still cursing me like anything.
Another day, our Hindi teacher
had called four girls including me in the front and had told us to stand on one
foot, while pulling our ears by our own hands. For some 5-6 minutes we have
been struggling really hard to balance ourselves on one foot. But, madam kept
going with her teaching totally ignoring us, as if we did not existed. For some
reason, she had to go out then. And as she left the class, everybody including
we four erupted with noise. We got a chance to relax ourselves on both the
feet, and we too had engaged ourselves in talking to each other. But, suddenly
after 2-3 months, she re-entered the class, which we failed to notice. She
straightway came to me, while myself being unaware of her presence, and with a
free hand, she hit a stick on my bums. The hit was so hard, that I lost my
balance, displaced from my place and had almost tripped. There was an absolute
silence thereafter in the class, and rest three girls had quickly assumed their
position that they were holding earlier. I, however, waited for the madam to
move a bit or speak something to me. The first thing that she spoke was “mazaak
samajh rakha hai class ko”. My head hung in shame, unable to speak anything.
“Haath upar kar ke khade ho jao sab”, and everybody obeyed. To us four also,
she turned stricter and told to raise the hands straight in air, while still
ordering us to balance ourselves on one leg. Somehow, the period got over, and
I must say that all of us laughed like anything after that period. This report
reached my home as well, thanks to a very close friend of mine, who too was the
party to the same punishment as I was. At my home, my parents made both of us
to enact the same scene again for them. We did, and as a result, I got spanking
at home as well.
The same Hindi teacher had also
made me once murgha for not completing my assignment alongwith two other girls
in the class, for whole period.
The third most ‘memorable’ class
room punishment that year was in the yoga class. As soon as we entered there,
yoga madam spoke in her beautiful voice, “roz tum log koi na koi aasan karte
ho, aaj tum sab yahan pe murga ban jao”. But what was our fault? We were late
by five minutes for reaching there. But why were we late? The teacher who was
in our class in the previous period, had taken a few minutes extra, considering
it was only a ‘yoga’ class next. But, in yoga class, we were not allowed to
explain ourselves, and were supposed to keep standing in ‘murgha-aasan’ for
whole of the period. As we tried to explain ourselves, madam only told us that
as many minutes we will take to obey her, she will keep that many bricks on our
backs. So, we were not left with any option, other than to ‘make murgha of
ourselves’, for whole of the period. As the young, beautiful and smart yoga
teacher did not had anything else to do for the entire period, she keep moving
among ourselves with a stick in her hand, mildly hitting everybody fairly
regularly on the bums telling that person to lift those bums up. THAT WAS REALLY
TERRIFIC.
Once, we were punished by our
drawing teacher as well, for the same crime, that is reaching late in his room.
We used to sit on the carpets in the drawing room, girls on one side and boys
on the other facing each other. And sir used to sit on a chair with table in
his front in the middle of the class. That day, he told us to arrange ourselves
alternately- a boy, then a girl, and then a boy standing next to her and so on.
And then, he told all the boys to become murgha, and girls to stand with hands
up. To me, it was really seducing! I was standing with hands up with a murgha
on either side of mine. The punishment of course was painful, but I enjoyed
that.
I think, that’s enough for this
post. I’ll come back soon, describing some public punishments that I faced that
year. They were far more painful and many times more humiliating. But, it was
all there.
Till then, bye bye.
