Ratan was extremely happy. It was a great day in her life. She had given a performance on the stage along with her classmates. She was sure that her father & mother would be extremely happy to see the photographs of this dance performance.
Ratan is a student of Nursery class. She stays away from her parents. She lives with her maternal aunt and coping up with the difficulties of separation. She remains happy and involved and always looks forward to a smile or a pat from the teacher.
When the audience clapped she took the applaud all for herself and along with her friends walked back into her class room. She was helped by her teacher to change from her dance costume into her uniform. She envied her friends who were being helped by their mothers.
She went out to sit among the audience to witness the Intra Class Hindi Story Telling Competition. She found that all the ‘kid chairs’ were occupied. She looked hopefully into the eyes of her classmates. Probably expecting one of them to offer his or her chair to her. But such things do not come into the minds of children of Nursery class. Rather few of them held on to the arm of their chairs by making their grips stronger. She turned her eyes towards one of the Pre Primary teachers who stood among the students for maintaining discipline but probably was lacking the concern to look around and see if all were having the chairs.
Meanwhile one of the boys got up in order to bring back his bottle's cap which had rolled under the front seat. On seeing the vacant chair Amarpreet went and sat on it. She was not able to even rest her back on the chair when the boy returned towards his chair and demanded to get it back. He was supported by both children sitting adjacent to him. Without much fuss she got up and offered the chair back to the boy. Now she was once again looking here and there for a chair for herself.
She saw from her place that few participants were being made to sit on the carpet. So she thought at least by going towards it she will be able to sit on the carpet with them.
Without wasting any further time she started moving towards the area. Still happy in the mind and heart because of the beautiful and melodious dance performance which she had performed a little while ago.
Before she could reach the students sitting on the carpet she got caught by the eyes of another teacher who had got a long stare, a little while ago, from the Principal of the kind “you-are-not-minding-the-children”
She took this as an opportunity to prove her skill-of-vigilance. She called her towards her. Ratan went towards the teacher presuming that she would be patted by her for her great performance and also told where to get a chair for herself. But instead she got her ear twisted by the teacher and scolded for not being with her classmates.
She was made to stand near the wall holding her ears. She did that without understanding the reason of her punishment.
She desired to have the tears stay in her eyes for a longer time so that the vision of her classmates happy and mocking faces remained blurred.
