New School, New Experiences

I reached seventh class. Papa got transferred again. I felt lucky, he had got a deputation in Panchkula. I thought, it’s a big city, and schools would be better here. But, I was proved wrong yet again. Schools here were equally worse. On the very second day in my new school, I found whole my class including myself standing in punishment in the assembly ground. Punishment was the same, as it is generally there in KVs- murga for boys, and hands up for girls. That was a sunny july afternoon, and a punishment for the whole period was just too much for all of us. Standing in painful positions in scroaching sunlight and awaiting getting beaten up- that’s really rude. What I found different in this new school was that public punishments were very common here. Often, classes were told to stand in punishment in either of assembly ground, play ground or in the basket ball ground. Out of these, standing in assembly ground used to be the most embarrassing, as anybody from any class could see you there, and punishment in basketball ground was most graceful, as hardly anybody could see you standing there. For me, in seventh class, there were enough experiences to remember, but more importantly, there were a few people to remember who shared these punishments with me. One of them is my friend Richa, who shared every crime with me, and enjoyed it afterwards. She made me getting punished several times, but we enjoyed every bit of our time, and we are still in the same tuning. Second was another friend- Atul, the same guy in my previous school, who got me punished with another of my friend Smita, about whom I wrote that he became a very good friend of mine in later years- almost a boy friend. And of course, I had my bhaiyya to share punishments with.

To begin with, let me share experiences in a Hindi class. We had a real strict dangerous madam, who by her face looked very sweet to us initially. And so, we took her very lightly. One fine day, she decided to check our homeworks. She started calling out the students from one side of the class- the one where boys used to sit. She called first boy, he walked upto her empty handed. He was in the class without his homework. She looked at him furiously- slapped him twice, and told him to take a corner and become murga. My heart escaped a beat. I too was without homework. The second boy was called, he too was without homework, he too met the same fate. My heartbeat got louder. One by one, each boy was receiving the same treatment, and I too was getting terrified. I silently looked into Richa’s eyes, she silently said that she too had not done the homework. There was no courage to speak to each other. There was a pin drop silence. Very soon, the entire first row of the boys was converted into murgas. And the same was happening to the boys in the second row. Finally, first of the girl was called. We were somehow assured that girls would be spared the punishment. There was a logical reason to it- there was no space left in the front for murgis. But, as first girl walked upto the madam empty handed, madam said- ab murgiyon ki baari hai. She was slapped on both the cheeks the same way, and ordered to become a murgi. She dropped a couple of tears, and searched for a space for herself. Madam loudly ordered the boys- chipak chaipak ke khade ho, murgiyon ke liye bhi jagah chhodo. We were on the third bench, and by now had realized ke aaj watt lagne wali hai. Phir kyat ha, we silently waited for our turn. When my name was called, I walked upto the madam. She held my ear by one hand, pulled my face down. Automatically, my hands came up to save my cheek, she loudly said, haath neechey kar, and the moment I dropped my arm, I received a tight and loud slap on my face. Even before I could realize what has happened, I received another one on my other side. And then showed me a small piece of space for myself to go and become murga. So, I followed same set of actions- I bent down, took my head as down as possible, and arms backwards. I smoothed my skirt and in a smooth action, took my arms between my legs, and stretched towards my ears. I have been in murga punishment earlier also, but had never been standing in such a congested space. My body was rubbing against other students who were standing in the same position adjacent to me. To make it clear, there was a boy on one side, and a girl on the other side. A seventh class student is in adolescence. So, when my posterior was rubbing against the posterior of a boy, it was giving a strange feeling to me. I was of course feeling shy, but was more embarrassed. One by one, madam was calling the names, and everybody was meeting the same fate. That was really bade, shocking and embarrassing both to madam and to us. In a short while, all of us were no more boy or girl, we were either murga or murgi. Some of us, stood up to say sorry, but madam shouted at them, and told them to go back into the same position. Once in between, she shouted- theek se murga bano, peechey se apne aap ko upar uthao. She did not repeat this instruction. Finally, the period was over, so was our torture. Thank God!!!! But that da onwards, we disciplined ourselves for her class. We never made fun of her, and never under estimated here. We always ensured that we complete our Hindi homework, if nothing else. Once, after autumn break, I reached the class with incomplete homework. That day, boys monitor asked me if I had completed the homework, I replied in negative. On hearing that, he said, “beta practice kar le, aaj tujhe murga ban na hai”. And then, he announced in the class – Anjali murga ban ne ki practice kar rahi hai, aaj ye homework kar ke nahi aayi hai. Everybody laughed, and insisted me to have some practice. We were waiting for her to arrive in the class. I eventually agreed to volunteer the punishment for myself, rather than waiting for her to slap me and send me in the same position. So, in front of all my classmates, I became murga. I hardly stood that way for 2 min., when a younger student knocked at the door, telling us that she had not come that day, and PTI is the arrangement teacher, and he is calling us all for the games in the playground. This announcement turned into a joyful celebration. I was relieved that I got another day to complete my homework, and embarrassed ke free me murgi ban gayi. Anyhow, next day I had my homework complete.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that while we used to wait for the teacher in the class, monitor used to write the name s of the students, who would be talking or doing some mischief in the class in that duration. On arrival, teacher used to punish the boys by giving them four strokes of a stick on the palms and making them murga, and girls by making them stand with hands up. The custom continued here as well. One day, while we were waiting for the same teacher, we had names of five students written up on the board. There were three boys including Atul, and two girls- Richa and myself. As madam entered into the class, she called all five of us. She followed the expected routing, but arranged us in an interesting way. Rich and myself stood with hands up and one murga on each of our sides. So, there was a murga, then me, then another murga, then RIcha and then again a murga. But, she was in an unusually bad mood that day, and ordered us to stand that way for one week in her period. We thought she was not serious, but we took her lightly once again. She actually made us stand that way consecutively for six days!!!! More importantly, I think my love for punishments started from there, as I was seduced continuously for one week there. Atul, in his murga position, when in the most elevated form, unknowingly got his butts touched to the bottommost tip of my skirt. As long as he used to keep himself that way, my heartbeat used to get faster. I somehow liked that position, and used to get both nervous and joyous when his butts used to touch my skirt. In a way, I am thankful to my hindi teacher that she made me realize that I was entering into my sexually active ages!!!!

Science tutor

There was a bhaiyya by the name Charanjeet living three homes away, who used to take tuitions of Science and Maths for all the classes upto eighth class. My parents also thought of sending me there for regular studies. Both my bhaiyya and didi warned me that this may attract an embarrassing time for me, as he was known to use his scale a lot on students and even give them harsh punishments. I tried my level best to convince my parents to not to send me there, but they were almost determined to not to listen to me. When I finally told them that he punishes the students a lot, my parents even told me plainly that I deserved to get my education that way. Therefore, I had to concede and attend the classes at his home.

In the very first week, I realized why my siblings were telling me to not to attend his classes. He was a very very violent teacher. For really small mistakes, he used to cane the palms of students (both boys and girls) for some 15-20 times. In the first week itself I was caned twice, once for 16 times, and then for 18 times. My crime- not completing the homework that he had assigned to me. But, my most rude experience in his class came later that year. It was my birthday, I had gone there very happily in a new frock that my parents had gifted me. Immediately on seeing me, he told me to become a murga. I was shocked. I hesitatedly asked “why sir?”, but he simple said, “do whatever has been told to do”. And I obeyed. For entire of the class, I was standing their in punishment. When finally, tution class was over, he allowed everyone else to go, and told me that he didn’t like fashion. In his class, he would allow girls only in salwar suit or jeans, but no skirts and no frocks. That was really rude. But, I could have changed his diktats, have they been in my control. That wasn’t.

Thankfully, things changed soon.  Will come back, telling you more…

Hindi Teacher

So, I have been talking about the sir who used to teach us Hindi in VI class. In fact, it is still difficult to imagine him without a stick in his hand. He used to walk into classroom in a kurta payjama, and was a real danger. He had taught us in a period spanning October to the end of the session in March.And he had a wonderful frequency to punish whole of the class at least once in a fortnight.  Administrating punishments was probably his hobby.  But, when he punished us for the first time, he was not even our teacher. He was teaching to the adjacent class, and we did not have any teacher in our class. Naturally, there was some noise. All of a sudden, a bold voice appeared from the adjacent class that said “sab haath upar kar ke khade ho jao”. So, we did it as directed, but sooner, noise was apparent again. This time he entered into our class with a stick in his hand and told us to follow him to the adjacent class. There he made murga of all the boys and we were told to stand with hands up in front of the students of the other class. For rest of the period, he kept teaching them without any interruption. For us, it was too embarrassing to stand in punishment in front of the students of a different class, and for them we ever remained laughing subjects. And the students in the outer class were in a fix- whether to smile at us or to concentrate in their books. As far as I was concerned, I only remember that my hands were up but my face was down. My eyes kept grazing the soil beneath, and did not have any courage to face the students sitting in front of me.

In the very first week, that he started teaching us, he  once told all the boys to line up and become murga. While, he kept a vigil at them, he kept shouting at us, telling us that had it not been a navratri time, he would have made us join our boys classmates. Unfortunately, his period used to be the one just before the lunch break and therefore he had the liberty of using half of that time in punishing us. For us, that simply meant longer punishments and embarrassment, as people from other class used to start sneaking inside our class. On that particular day, he wasted whole of the period shouting on us, and started using his sticks on the palms of the boys only after it rang for the lunch break.

Next time, when he punished us, he made the boys murga and told us to stand with hands up. But, at the end of the punishment, instead of canning the palms of the boys, he used his stick four times each on their butts. And he had a long lecture to deliver to us while making us stand in the same hands up position even after boys were allowed to relax after spanking. Third time, he called us outside the class- boys were made murga outside the class and we were standing there with hands up. This time he did not use the stick, but he was too vigil. He did not allow boys to lower down their butts, and did not allow us to bend our hands. However, his punishments turned too violent from fourth time onwards. Boys were put on a 12-stick package. They used to get four each on palms prior to going for murga punishment, four sticks on the butts while still in murga punishment and four on palms again after they were allowed to stand up from murga punishment. For us, it gradually increased. To begin with we got two strokes on legs near our feet while hands were still up. Next time, we too got two strokes on each of the palms. On sixth occasion of ‘mass punishment’, we had four on palms and one each on our butts, with hands still up in the air.

Another day, while boys were made murga, we were told to keep hands up while on our knees. That was a damn difficult punishment for all of us. And this way, the severity of punishments kept increasing. One fine day, it turned too severe and too violent. We had in our class, some space left on all the four sides. One could easily walk into those ‘corridors’. We were stunned to see that boys were told to walk while in murga position in that ‘corridor’. Initially, sir told tham to make one round of the class, but later extended the punishment to three rounds. The moment anybody lost the balance, he was ready with stick in his hands. Even when they were doing alright, he kept spanking them telling them to do it faster! That was a terrific day. We too were not in any good position, as we had our knees on the ground and hands up in the air. Any instance of ‘hands down’ or ‘knees up’ invited slaps to us as well.

In what was probably the last instance of ‘mass punishment’ for us that academic year, we competed with boys to become murgas. The punishment as expectedly went on for the entire period to all of us.  

VI class- my worst year.

Oh my God! This was the worst year of my life. Not only all the teachers have been so shrewd, but also that I too fell into strange things, got influenced by wrong things, and the result was that I was among the most punished students in the class. But, remarkably all the teachers that we got that year were really really bad. Almost all the classes used to begin in the similar way. Class monitor silently used to note down the names of the students who were involved in any kind of slightest indiscipline in the time period prior to arrival of the teacher in the class. On arrival of the teacher, he/she used to read the names of those students and the said students have to go upto the teacher. If it would be a boy, he would receive two strikes of the cane/stick on each of his palms, and would go on to become murga for rest of the period. And if it would be a girl, she would stand with hands up for the entire period. Needless to say, that I had my share of punishments in this way many times. But, I was growing older very fastly, and the sense of being a girl was fastly getting into. Those are the years, when girls prefer to stay in groups with girls only, and boys remain with boys. We generally develop a feeling of competition. So, that year if boys used to get punish, we used to enjoy. During my punishments also, I enjoyed if I would be standing next to a boy, who has been made murga because that way his head would be coming close to my feet.

As I said, all the teachers were bad that year, but most outstanding among them was a hindi teacher, who started teaching us from the month of October onwards. And in that period, he did not fail to punish our entire class in real strict ways, every fifteen days. I still remember the detail of each and every punishment he administered to us. Because, the narration of those stories would require another full post, I would describe here all the punishments administered to us by other teachers, and the ones by that Hindi teacher will be described in a separate post.

Let me begin with our social studies teacher, who was also our class teacher. So, she also used to start her period in the same way, by giving morning gifts of ‘four dandas” to some of the boys and telling them to become murga, and telling some of the girls to stand with hands up. Her strikes on the palm used to be real hard, especially in the months of winter. I have also been ‘lucky’ enough to stand with hands up many times. But, my most embarrassing moment came sometime late in that academic year. By that time, I had earned the reputation of a spoilt girl, after I bunked the school twice that year, and both time principal got to know of it (I will explain that later). So, I was talking of my embarrassing moment in social studies class. Once, late in that year, we were told to clean the class. Everybody was busy doing it, and madam was standing at the entrance of the classroom constantly talking to the teacher in next class. I entered in some conflict with the monitor of the class. Desperate, she walked upto the madam and complained of me. Madam called me, and very softly said, “murga ban ja”, with raising her eyebrow and lowering it down telling me “here itself”. I kept standing for a moment, watching the indifference in her eyes, and then followed the instructions. It was difficult to do so, but I had to obey her. I bent down, took my hands behind, raised my posterior, smoothing my skirt and with great effort stretched my arms so that they can reach upto my ears. My forehead neared madam’s feet and my butts hung in the air towards rest of the class. I stood miserably at the entrance of the class. For sometime I kept struggling, sometimes hanging my butts, and then sometimes lowering them down, relaxing. I could of course sense the enjoyment my classmates were drawing by seeing me standing so miserably. But, all this might not have been so embarrassing, had madam did not call a boy from the class later, and told her to simply stand near me facing the class as a punishment. This was the height of embarrassment for me in all the aspects. Myself being a girl- made murga, and he despite being a boy, simply standing. I had my butts facing the class, and he was standing towards the class. At that point of time, I was deeply crushed from interior, and just wanted all that to get over. I can still recall that moment very clearly, and can tell you for sure that after that punishment got over, I did not talk to anybody for rest of the day.

For three days in a week, second period used to be of SUPW, and for rest of the three days, it used to be of Sanskrit. Both the teachers were especially strict to boys. Most memorable punishment experience from SUPW class was a day when all the boys were made murga and girls were made to sit between them. We used to go to the ‘SUPW room’, which had no benches, and we used to sit on the carpet in such a way that in the middle used to be madam’s table and on one side used to sit boys and on the opposite side girls used to sit facing boys. SUPW teacher was a young beautiful girl, who always kept a wooden rule in her hand. In addition to being young and beautiful, she was also very clever. She often used to ask us for our hand to be spread out. She would take the ruler in the air as if it would be coming to our palm with great force, but instead at the last moment, she would slap us on the face with great force. As it used to come totally unexpectedly, we often used to lose our balance. Of the particular day, I was talking about, she made us arrange ourselves in an alternate way, where one girl would be standing between two boys, and one boy would be standing between two girls. And then she ordered the boys to become murga, and allowed us to sit down. And the scene thus appeared was really funny but enjoyable for us. I still cherish that scene. In a Sanskrit period that year, we were supposed to bring our completed project work for submission. But, at the last moment, madam enhanced the deadline for girls by one day. But, any boy who did not complete the project work was made murga with no excuse and had to carry two bricks on his back for the entire duration of the class. She labeled the punishment as ‘gadha’ and not ‘murga’, as they carried the load on their backs.

And then we had the mathematics teacher from Orissa. She used to look sweet, but she looked terrible with a ruler in her hand. The most terrible moments in her class used to be the ones, when she would be checking our notebooks. If it is your turn to get the notebook checked, then be sure that you would return back with tears in your eyes. For every mistake, she would hit you on your hands with her ruler. And if the number of mistakes would be too high, she might even tell you to stand in punishment. Punishments would vary as per the number of mistakes spotted in the notebook, but her favorites ones were kneeling down, toes touching and murga. She even had a characteristic way of using her ruler. To girls, she would hit in a routine way, asking for their palms and hitting them in the air. But to boys, she would tell to keep the hands open or inverted on the table, and would then hit them hard with her ruler. Her hits used to be so hard, that boys used to cry even on the first mistake. And they were really afraid, when she used to tell them to keep the hands inverted on the table. Thankfully, we girls always got it in the air that too on the open palm. I was once told to kneel down, when she found my homework very dirty. And another punishment that left the impact on us was the one when were all made to stand touching our toes for the entire period that too outside the class, exhibiting ourselves to students of other classes.

Almost every teacher that year had punished us at least once in such a way that we would not forget that. An interesting punishment was administered by drawing sir, who made us all to stand on the bench with hands up and then constantly he kept telling us funny things that was making us laugh, but we were told to keep the pin drop silence. Similarly, once we were told to stand holding our ears in the library.

Suddenly, something strange happened to me, and that changed the attitude of all the teachers towards me. Once, in the games period, just out of excitement, my friend Smita and me jumped the wall of the school and entered into a nearby office. We had heard that they have a real good canteen, where we can get tasty bread pakoras. In the excitement, we lost the track of the time and failed to realize that the games period was over and we should have returned to the class. By the time we returned back, the next period too was half over. Though, nobody noticed us jumping the wall either while going or while coming back, but the teacher in the class had already realized that our bags were there, but not us. She had already dispatched our bags to the principal room. When we reached to our class, and politely asked “May we come in?”, she only asked us for our palms to be straightened up. Nobody would believe me if I would say that we were strictly punished the same way as boys are punished. We got real hard strokes of a wooden ‘phatta’ on our palms (twice each), and mercilessly told to become murga. No explanations asked, no excuses offered. Even though, madam was busy teaching, she kept a vigilant eye on us. She did not allow us to relax our butts for more than two minutes. We were both trembling, and by that time we did not even know that our bags have already reached principal’s office. She kept shouting us every now and then till the end of the period. When the period finally got over, she told us to stand up. Our faces and our ears were completely red, and we were breathless. But, instead of having any mercy on us, she slapped both of us tightly some 2-3 times, making us look even more red. She then told us to walk with us to principal’s office and she even did not know by then that we had gone out of the school in the previous period. On reaching the principal’s office, we were first asked, where have we been? Unfortunately, we told the truth! That turned the entire scene against us. As the previous period was the games period, we were handed over to PET madam for further punishments. She found it to be a right opportunity to try all sorts of punishments on us and that too for rest of the day. We were made to kneel down in the playground with hands up for long duration under scorching sun. We were made to make two rounds of the playground with hands up. We bent down to touch our toes in the school ground itself and we made lots numbers of utthak baithaks. By the end of the day, we had received some 20-25 hits of ‘hockey’ everywhere ranging from arms to palms to butts to thighs to lower legs, everywhere. We had all our hairs untied, shirt coming out of the skirt and badly crushed down. We left the school with an instruction to call our parents next day. This meant, that we would have to share it at home also and receive further punishments at home also!

At home, embarrassment continued. First of all, parents were agitated that why they have been called in the school. On learning the mistake I had committed, I received a series of slaps from my mother. She kept pulling my ear, and kept slapping me. In the evening, when papa learned of the same, he too was very furious and told me to stand in one corner holding ears. Compared to the series of punishments I had received since morning, this looked relaxing. But, mummy was still furious, and she interrupted my calm by repeatedly using her chappal on my butts, while I was still in the punishment. Punishments at home were not very harsher that day, probably parents had realized by my face that how much I had already received in the school. However, next day in the evening, after my parents had a meeting with principal earlier in the day, my home too turned a hell for me. I had been to a unique punishment that day. I was told sit on the feet holding my ears, and then I was told to ‘hop’ (jump) all around the home. It was similar to frog leaps, except that the leaps had to be made with ears in the hands. It was damn difficult, and I was told to go jumping the same way to each and every room in the home twice. That took shit out of me. I was told by mummy that this was a Korean punishment, which is generally administered at homes. After my two rounds were over, I was told to hold the ears criss-cross and do utthak baithaks. Strangely enough, this treatment made me a ‘mutineer’ and instead of getting disciplined, both Smita and me vowed to do even worse thingssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

So, very soon we bunked again. And this time not only the bunk was longer, but we too had gone to a greater distance from the school. And not only that, even the punishments too were harder this time. We had learnt from some boys in the class that there is a ‘farm’ of fruits nearby, where we would get very nice fruits on the trees. Even though, we would have hated to do such a thing at any point of time, but annoyed by the insensitive nature of our teachers and parents on the previous occasion, we decided to do bad things in life. So, alongwith four boys of our class one day, we ran away from the school to enjoy the ‘treat’ on a farm. Initially, we enjoyed the outing. We walked for some half an hour to reach upto the farm. On reaching there, we scaled the wall there itself to enter into the farm. It was like a jungle. Trees were dense and loaded with fruits- mostly peaches. Boys generally climbed up, and threw down the peaches for us. We were so happy that everything was going fine, but suddenly from nowhere the owner of the farm appeared. He was a fat and tall sardarji and looked like a demon. His voice was too heavy and with a single shout he managed to get us all lined up. He was holding a six feet long bamboo in his hand. Now, we were all terrified, and nobody could speak a single word to him. He simply told all those four boys to become murga there itself, and they strangely obeyed him. Nobody tried to run away from there. We had a chance to do so, but we did not do it. He brought a smaller danda and beat them all with it on their butts. He told both Smita and me to 25 utthak baithaks and we too obeyed him. Then he asked his staff to bring four pieces of ropes to tie the hands of the boys together. Boys resisted, but they were helpless. Then he made all of us to sit into his open jeep and drove us back to our school. We reached back in 10 minutes, but it appeared lesser. We were all terrified, and I was on the verge of getting a heart attack. That was the end of all the masti for all of us. He handed us all over to our principal. And we were all in for a strong dose this time. Boys still had their hands tied up. We were all told to line up in the ground and soon we were told to stand with hands up for the entire day. Some 3-4 teachers independently supervised us, and they all asked us for our palms to be caned. Invariably, all these supervising teachers- both PETs, class teacher and principal they all caned us independently. Next day in the morning, we were caned in front of entire school as well, and next day also we kept standing whole day with hands up. At the end of the day, we were handed over suspension notice for one week. We were all suspended from the school  for one week. My ‘five friends’ too must have been ‘warmly welcomed’ for this achievement at their homes, but for me that one week was like a hell. Same day when I returned back from school, thanks to my brother, I was sentenced with ‘rigrous punishment’. It was decided that for one week, I would not come out of my room, unless there are natural reasons. No TV was allowed to me, and no bed was given to me. I had to sleep on the floor only for one week, and all I could get access of was my books. For next seven days, I daily had to do 50 utthak baithaks early in the morning in front of everyone at the home, and was also sentenced with at least one hour of murga and one hour of hands up daily any time during the day, when at least two members of the family can supervise me. But frankly, my punishment hours used to be the fun hours for rest of the family, they made me do it prior to dinner, when everybody would be at home. Nevertheless, this one week of embarrassment had a long lasting effect on me, and I had decided to not to do any such mischief ever again in my life.

Following this, I had earned real bad name in the school. I was among the worst girls of the school, and every teacher thought it to be his/her moral right and responsibility to punish Smita and me in the class. For any small mistake, which could have easily been forgone, Smita and myself were punished harshly. Minimum punishment for us was hands up. We often stood up on the bench, or knelt down, or touched our toes, or have even been made murga, just as I mentioned of my punishment by the class teacher in the beginning of the post.

And if you think, that I had enough of the punishments in the sixth class, then hold on. I haven’t even started mentioning of my hindi teacher and the tution teacher.

Things getting harder at home

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that our trip to Meerut was horrible not only because of that particular one month, but also because our parents took a leaf out of Mamji's book. We started getting hard punishments at home. It used to be hardest for my brother, who used to get his lowers removed and spanked on his bare butts while holding his ears in murga position. Second most frequent event used to be bhaiyya and myself being punished together. Mummy used to make us murga and had strict instructions for us to hold the ears tightly, which I never could do properly. I was only able to touch my ears, but could never hold them properly. At the end of the punishment, mummy used to see the colour of our ears, and if she found them not red, then she would make them by twisting them hard. In mine case, I used to get them twisted 100% of times. There was only one instance when all three of us were punished together. We must have made really terrible fight for which we got that treatment. It was the same year when I was in V class, and didi in XII. We all were fighting with each other, and mummy could not hold any longer. She decided to give a hard lesson to all of us. She made each three of us murga, kept two bricks on each of our backs, and kept a book open in the ground below. The punishment had to last till we  learn the lesson that was kept open in 'front' of us, while balancing the bricks on the backs. If bricks fall, we will be beaten and resume the punishment back again. If we stand up claiming that we have learnt the lesson, and fail to recite properly, we have to go back to the same punishment. Of course, we only had beatings in store, because none of us could hold the bricks for more than 2 or so minutes at a stretch. Further, I feel the punishment was technically wrong. Because in a proper murga position, head faces backwards not below to the ground!!!!!!
In the same year and in the coming years, both bhaiyya and myself had several instances of punishments, but didi mainly because of her age was spared, and she had enough fun of us. Once, when she complained of us, bhaiyya was made murga and I stood holding my ears almost for three hours. Of course, that evening we slept without completing our homework and the result was that next day both of us got due punishments in our respective classrooms as well. 

My experiences during fifth class

There are a few unforgettably bad experiences from fifth class. Here I will narrate two of the incidents, when boys of my class were punished, and in other instances I too am among the punished students.Once in an englishe period, there was too much of noise in the class. English teacher made all the boys murga and badly beaten each of them. I hadn't seen harder canning prior to that. I was feeling pity for those guys, coz, it was the entire class that was making noise, but they only  bore the burnt. Similarly, another day we were going to music class. On the way, we got noiser, on reaching there we found madam waiting with a stick in her hand. We got terrified, we lined up outside the class silently. She had a long lecture to deliver to us. We listenned to that with heads down and sun scroching. After a while, she allowed girls to get into the class, and made the boys murga there itself. It was really a rough and rude hot afternoon. They all were sweating and trembling. Still the worse, madam kept supervising them for long, and did not allow anybody to bring the posterior  when down. The moment anybody relaxed, she reached there with a stick. Madam allowed them to stand up and enter into the class, only when she ensured that each one of them's shirt was completely wet and sticking to the body. That was bad, really bad.

One day, Smita and myself during the games period went to PET sir to complain of a couple of boys, who we felt were not in discipline during the period. We were shocked by the response of the PET. Instead of listenning to us, he rather told us to stand with hands up there in the school ground itself. At once, we could not believe our ears, so we did not react. On finding himself not getting obeyed, he got furious. He held my ear tightly, and started taking fast steps on the opposite side. Smita followed. After making me walk for some 15-20 steps in the same state, he had brought us to the middle of the ground and there he told us to stand with hands up. By now, we had realized what was happenning to us. So, there was no other option than to obey him. As soon as we raised our hands, he strictly ordered to raise our heels as well. We hadn't ever heard of such a punishment, but we had already seen the result of speculating his orders, so we raised our heels as well and we were on our toes now. He smiled shrewdly, and said "good, ab aise hi khade raho baaki period, aur heels ground ko touch hui ya hands neechey aaye to dande se pitai hogi". He walked away, but we were stunned, and hardly had any courage to disobey him anymore. It was really hard, especially on an afternoon. There I realised that it was easier to stand on toes with hands straight up, whenever I tried bending the hands, I found it more difficult to balance myself on toes, but moment I straightened up, I found it was easier to balance. That punishment had a lot of humilation attached to it. All our classmates were playing and laughing on us, and only we two were standing in the middle of the ground in an awkward position. My throat was drying, I was sweating profusely, but I could not do anything. The worst part was that by the time my punishment was over, I had half of my shirt loosenned out of skirt and had also lost a button of my shirt, probably because of the extended awkward position.

Sometime in the same year, all we three siblings were late for the school. That time didi was in 12th class, and bhaiyya was in 7th class. By the time we reached, morning assembly had already started, so we were made to stand with other late comers. Other than three of us, there were some 8-9 other students as well and 60% of them would have been boys. My heart was beating really fast, mainly because of the anticipated punishments that would be coming up shortly. My brother was also equally tense, but surprisingly, didi was in a lighter mood, and she was repeatedly whispering to my brother, "teri to aaj pakka pitai hone wali hai". THough we daily used to stand that long during the mornign assembly, but standing for the same duration among the late comers had made me tired. When assembly came to an end, and I saw PET coming with a stick in his hand towards us, I was frightenned further. My sister was still telling my brother that he was going to be beaten with the stick. When PET walked upto us, I was close to a nervous breakdown, about to weep. His eyes were read, I could not look into them for more than a fraction of second. He carefully looked at all of us, and then suddenly told the boys to become murga with bags on the back and to girls to take the hands up and make three rounds of the entire playground with bags on the back. To me, it was a sort of relief, as I wanted to run away from that place. But, didi now looked somewhat shocked. Probably she was not expecting this hard punishment considering herself to be a girl of 12th class. I saw my brother and other boys making themseleves murga and almost instantly all the girls including myself started running with hands up. Initally, I started running with enthusiasm, and everybody else were behind me, but soon I had realised the enormity of the school ground. By the time, we completed the first round, we were all already tired.On completing the first round, we slowed a bit, looked at PET expecting him to tell us to stop making further rounds, but he instead shouted at us and told us to run faster. In the meantime, he was closely supervising all the murgas, and were shouting at them to keep their position proper and not to get late in future. During the second round, I was thinking of both my brother as well as my sister. PET was too strict. Slowly we completed second round. We were really exhausted, but still PET made us complete the third round. By the time, we completed three rounds, first period was coming to its close. That meant all of us were already marked absent for first half. We reached back to the point from where we started in almost half dead state. But, PET still had a lot to shout on us. He was particularly rude to elder girls including my didi, and even pulled her by her hairs. She shouted 'oouch' in pain. I was filled with anger but could not do anything. Then, he turned towards the murgas, who were all 'sort of relaxing' with butts down while PET's attention was towards us. He simply shouted at them, and they all took themselves back to 'straining positions'. One by one, he spanked on every murga's butt four times with a thick stick that he had in his hand. Afterwards, he allowed all of us to proceed to our classes. We all walked down with our heads and shoulders down. We did not talk to each other and silently proceeded towards our classes. That day, when we returnned to our home, the environment was electric. Though, we had a deal on the way that we would not mention of our punishment at home, but all of us wanted to talk of it to mummy. All of us were controlling our temptation with great force. The silence was finally broken down when papa came in the evening. It was in front of papa that mummy asked us what happenned in the school as we were late for the school. Didi elaborated every detail to them with great enthusiasm, and both papa and mummy were continously smiling. But, both my brother and myself were getting embarassed by the narration. When the narration was finally over, both my parents jokingly said that it was good for us and we should frequently meet such treatment. Apparently their words came true. A few days later, my brother was called on the stage in the PT period alongwith two of his friends, slapped hard by PET madam this time and made murga in front of whole school. Rest of the school continued with PT instructions. Hardly five minutes would have passed, when alongwith three other girls of my class, I too was called on the stage and told to stand with hands up. I was deeply embarassed, and had my head hanging in shame. I kept standing there for whole of the period, so was my brother and so others. Of course, that day, didi had even better time at home explaining our awkward position, but that day parents did not smile, and we got a dose from them as well. 

I think the post is already too long, I will come back and write more from the same year.  

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.