Being in Class VIII

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.