Daily Prompt : Abstract

March 10, 2017

In response to daily post’s one-word prompt : Abstract

I was a seven year old  pupil when my sister registered me in, Presentation Convent School. The school was run by nuns who believed in the maxim, ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child.’

They were staunch believers of this saying, I realized early enough to stay out of their way.

One day I was called by one of the nuns,  I was startled, didn’t know what I’d done. Slowly I went, but the smile on her face convinced me I wasn’t in any danger of getting the rod.

Chaman she said,  ‘ I need your help, there are two girls from Bangladesh, they only speak Bengali, you have to help us understand what they’re saying.’

When my classmates heard this they stood up around me to hear this language Chaman  knows and they didn’t. I was very conscious I spoke as softly as possible, I didn’t want them to hear a word I said.

In reply the girls spoke louder than usual. I was able to help the teacher and felt good about it.

A few days later these two sisters decided to explore the school compound, buildings, I guess out of curiosity. Perhaps they never saw teachers wearing the type of clothing the nuns wore which covered them from head to foot, one could only see their face and hands. Their mission once again I’m guessing was to find out what this school was all about and it was their duty to find out about every nook and corner in the school.

There was a  path in our school that led to the teachers dwelling. We were not allowed to walk on it. Those girls didn’t know that, one of my classmates said, ‘look Chaman they’re walking on that path, tell them to turn around and come back.’

I of course thought I must warn them, I said out loud, ‘shono okhanay jawa baron, cholay esho, in Bengali'( listen you aren’t permitted to go there come back).

Immediately one of them said, ‘udharko jana kaheko mana hai ,in  Urdu ( why aren’t we allowed to go there)?

I couldn’t tell why, all I knew was we had no permission to walk on that path. It was a restricted area. I know they were not convinced because I couldn’t give them a concrete answer.

What happened later, I don’t know. I left the place as I did not want to get into trouble!

………………………………… 🙂