At mausi's home

I felt a little strange and unbelievable when it was leaked in the class that one of my classmates called Yogesh gets his punishments at home after getting all his clothes removed. It was told to me that his dad beats him up with a stick, after making him remove all his clothes. But then, another classmate endorsed that he too gets beaten up the same way, and gets himself locked up in a room overnight. It was not unusual for me to get punished at home, but it sounded illogical to me for parents to get the clothes of their children removed. But, the same year, I saw my mother also making my brother murga and getting his knickers and underwear removed before spanking him. More surprisingly, one day Richa also disclosed that she also gets spanked by her mother in the same state, and she also told me that it is done by the parents to ensure that the child feels maximum pain and maximum humiliation. That is supposed to deter the children from repeating the same mistakes again. I actually saw it most explicitly when at the end of that academic year, my brother and myself stayed at my mausi’s home in Ambala for about a month. We knew mausaji was a real ‘danger’ man, but we saw his discipline then. My cousin, Ashu bhaiyya was a frequent victim of his. On earlier occasions as well, we had seen him getting punished by his father. But, on that particular visit, for the first time, we had seen him removing his clothes and getting ready for punishment by his dad. In their home, they had a concrete floor with no roof in the very middle of their house. There were some rooms behind that space, and some rooms between the entrance of the house and that space. Whenever, mausaji was annoyed of him, he used to tell him to get naked and arrange all the sticks in the home on the table of the drawing room, and shall wait in that open space for mausaji to arrive. Mausaji deliberately used to make him wait for 5 minutes, and by that time he already used to be in surrendering mood. Mausaji used to pick any one of the sticks and used to badly beat him up.

One day, Veeneta (Mausaji’s youngest daughter) and myself were made murgi in the veranadah. We both were wearing the suits. Mausiji were sitting on a chair in front, supervising us, and Aparna didi kept a steel glass on our heads, which we had to balance during the punishment. Fan of the room was also switched off. This was for the first time that I was wearing a salwar suit and chunni during the punishment. It was really hard to take care of chunni. We were frequently told to take ourselves to the standing position, “buttocks upar karo”, but were never really forced us to do so. Because it was June, it was already very hot. I was completely wet with the perspiration. I was thirsty as well. From the beginning itself, I decided to keep my butts down, and no one forced me otherwise as well. But that too is not a comfortable position; I got severe pain in my neck due to that. Within five minutes, it appeared to me that I would fall down, and would not be able to go through, but somehow I kept going on and on. Further, unfortunately for me, Richa called on their landline for me, and mausiji handed over the phone to my bhaiyya. He made things hard for me, by telling her “wo to abhi murgi bani hui hai, tum baad me call karna”. That little devil called RIcha replied, “ theek hai, use disturb mat karo, main baad me call kar lungi”. Bhaiyya did not even tell me afterwards that there was a call for me. Embarrassingly for me, she called up again after some time, when I was still bearing the punishment. This time bahiyya told her to call me after 8 pm. She was delighted to know that I was still standing in the punishment. By the time punishment was over, I was half dead.

Finally, RIcha called me again next day. As soon as I said, “Hello”, she said, “ye murgiyon ko ‘hello’ bolna kisne sikha diya, kukdoo koo bolo”. It was only then that I came to know that she called for me twice in the day, and both time I was in an awkward position. She was enjoying, making fun of me over the phone, and I was blushing, as if somebody had made me stand without my clothes in front of her. Among the many things she said to me, one of the comment was “chal achha hai, murga ban ne ki practice karti rah, jab school khulenge to tere kaam aayengi”.

Some Public Punishments That Year

As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, in this school, public punishments were very common. There were three grounds- an assembly ground, a play ground and a basketball court. Punishments could be administerd in any of these. Assembly ground was designed such a way that it could be seen from any of the classroom, so punishments there used to be embarrassing. Play ground was surrounded by a number of high-rise flats, therefore punishments there too used to be very embarrassing especially in winter months. But, the teachers hardly had anything to do with such embarrassment of students. In my first year in that school itself, there were six instances of punishments in either of these grounds. As I wrote earlier, in the very first week itself, I found myself standing in punishment in assembly ground alongwith my other classmates. All the boys were made murga, and all the girls were made to stand with hands up. Embarassing! But, believe me that year and in the forthcoming years, we had even more embarrassing moments. Very soon into that class, once all the students of all three sections of VII class were called in the assembly ground by P.E.T. sir, and were ordered to stand in the ‘predictable’ punishments. ‘Predictable’ means murga for boys and hands up for girls. We were all made to stand so for nearly two periods, when in the end, four strokes of a thick fat stick were given to boys. Afterwards, we were all allowed to go back to our classes. We had another encounter with the same sir very soon. It occurred because of the excessive noise created by our class, and that started due to me. There was no teacher in the class. I picked up the duster, and in a friendly but mischievous way patted it on the ‘bottoms’ of my friend Richa, and enjoyed it. That left a white scar on the posterior of her skirt. She snatched the duster from me, and ‘returned the favour’ to me. I did that again to her, she did again to me. Then I did to another girl, and gradually whole class got involved into it, without realizing how much noise we were creating. It went on and on, till suddenly a very masculine voice penetrated our ears shouting “sab murge ban jao”. And instantly, there was a pin drop silence in the class. Nobody moved a muscle. P.E.T sir was standing on the entrance with his stick in his hand. He shouted again, “jaldi line banao yahan”. We obeyed the orders. He escorted us to the playground in a hot afternoon. We were all terrified by then. Once we were in playground, he probably developed some soft corner for girls in his heart. He looked towards the boys, and repeated “sab murge ban jao”. Then he turned towards us, and told to stand with hands up. The punishment continued for about half an hour or so, and for some ten minutes or so straight, he told us to shout “I am sorry sir” in the full volume, leaving us all in the want of water badly. An even more painful and more embarrassing event occurred to boys of our class very soon again. Once in the games period, they received the punishment. Standing in punishment is one thing, but P.E.T. sir kept his torture going throughout the period. He made them murga, and for some 4-5 minutes, they were all told to jump in that position itself. That itself took breathe out of them. He then ordered them to shout ‘kukdoo koo’ in full volume. This continued for some ten minutes, and finally, for rest of the duration, were told to shout “I am sorry, sir”.

Punishment during the games period occurred once again, but this time in winter months, and administered by P.E.T. madam. From her room to the playground, we walked with our hands up. Once in the playground, we were made to do utthak baithaks under her supervision. It kept going and going for some 15 minutes. Afterwards, she had her stick on each of the boys, and they were made murga for rest of the period, while we kept standing there with our ears in our hands.

P.E.Ts were not alone in escorting us to any of the grounds, we have been taken there by our SUPW madam also. In that winter itself, she once made the boys spread all over the ground and become murga, and we girls were told to line up at one place and keep our hands up. Another day, she told us to line up in playground. Boys were made murga, and we were told to touch our toes. And in that state, she made us all walk for some ten meters. Walking ten meters may not sound like a punishment, but ask someone who has been told to do so in murga position or toes touching position!!!!!

The Damaged Report Card

I had a great ‘mishap’ after the half yearly examinations that year. We had been issued our report cards to carry them home and get the signatures of the parents. While at home, I entered into some alteration with my sister, which soon turned into an ugly fight. That time she was pursuing ETE course from DIET and in the heat of the moment, I laid my hands on her project and tore it down in pieces. In return, she grabbed my report card and tore it down into two pieces. We kept fighting till I received a tight slap from my dad, and we were both made to stand in different corners of the room facing the wall. It was only during that punishment we both realized that what damage we have caused to ourselves and to the other. Anyhow, I walked down to school next day with a pondering heart, almost sure of the harsh treatment I am due to receive, but still feeling the suspense that what exactly would be meted out. So, in the first period, madam started calling names of the students. The student had to walk upto the teacher to show the signatures in the report book. If somebody brought back the report card without signatures, that person was slapped tight twice, ordered to come with dad next day and was sent out of the classroom as a punishment. Those who had forgotten to bring the report card were made to stand in the classroom only with hands up, and were told to bring the report card and come along the parents next day. When my name was called, I walked slowly towards the teacher, with pieces of report card in my hand. As soon as she saw the torn report card, she brought fearsome expressions in her eyes. Even before, I could reach her, she shouted “ye kya hai”? In a low pitched voice, I tried explaining my circumstances, but even before that she grabbed my right ear and pulled it downwards with a great force. I cried in the intense pain. I still can’t forget that pain. She was continuously shouting at me, but I could not pay attention to that. I was just crying in the pain. Suddenly, she showered slaps on both of my cheeks. In fact, I could not understand what was going on. The next thing I remember is that she said in a loud voice, “chal, murga ban”. Very obediently, I found some space between the students who were standing with hands up, and assumed the murga position. Almost instantly, she told a girl in the class to bring a stick from the staff room, and she threw the pieces of the report card on my head and my back. So, this too was clear that she will use that stick on me only. Therefore, while in the murga position, I was terrified, I was sweating profusely, and almost nervously awaiting the next round of ‘rapping’. In the meantime, she continued receiving report cards from other students. I distinctly remember how I struggled to keep my posterior upwards, just in order to avoid harsher corporal punishment that could have come with lowering of my posterior. Obviously, butts were falling down, but within a minute or so, I applied all my strength to bring them up. But, again I could not hold them there for more than a minute. In short, I had my butts swinging up and down in the air. Initially, I was conscious of my clothes, but a few minutes into the punishment, I was no more aware of wherever my skirt was going. It was only after madam commented that girls these days get their skirts stitched up too short, and to the top of it, they purchase their socks too very short, “besharam ladkiyan”. Actually, we had salwar suits in our uniform from IX class onwards, therefore in VII and VIII classes only, when adolescence was catching up, we used to prefer shorter skirts that preferably did not touch the knees to fulfill our desires.

When the stick was brought into the class, she once again loudly called my name. I stood up erect, walked upto her and on orders displayed my right palm to her. Within a moment, I received a hard hit on it. Then she called for the another palm, and that too received the same treatment. Both the palms were caned twice each, and I was warned that the next day, I either come with my father, or I should better consider my name struck off from the school. For rest of the period, I was again sent to the same position to resume my punishment. This one remained one of my worst punishments in the entire school life.

Mathematics Teacher

We had yet another horrifying teacher to deal with in VII class. This gentleman used to teach us mathematics, and could not stand low marks. In the unit tests, anybody getting less than 30 out of 35 used to become his victim. He had defined the set of punishments in the very beginning of the session. Boys scoring less than 30 were made murga and spanked upto ten times. For those, who used to score more than 25, used to get five spanks, and those who scored less than 25 used to get 10. For girls, more than 25, but less than 31 marks meant 10 sit ups, and for those who got less than 25, they had to do it 25 times. Rules were of course different for half yearly exams, which used to be of 100 marks. After half yearly exams, there were no punishments for students scoring above 90. Unfortunately, there was only one boy falling into that bracket. For boys,  murga punishment with five spanks for less than 90 but more than 75 marks, ten spanks for more than 60 but less than 75 and fifteen for scoring less than 60. For girls, it was utthak baithak again- 10 for scoring more than 75 and less than 90, 20 for scoring above 60, but less than 75 and 40 for less than 60 marks.

Now don’t expect me to write that I used to get maximum punishments. I was good in studies. In half yearly, I fell into 10 utthak baithak category and for rest of the year, I either fell into ‘safe zone’ or into ’10 utthak baithak’ zone only.

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.