The room was dark and forbidding. Her breath grew laboured. Her
heart beat faster. She cried out loudly. The woman who was dragging her to the
room didn’t let go of her hand despite her piteous cries. Pulling her along
while muttering in a language that was incomprehensible to the six year old, the
woman deposited her in the room and locked the door with not even a backward
glance at the terrified face of the child.
She was not trying to be naughty in class. She simply did
not know how to sit still. Her body was not her friend. The only time she felt
comfortable in her own skin was when she moved. So she would move either her
arm or leg or head so that she could cope with the difficulty she faced in
sitting unmoving in class. There were so many children in class making some
noise or the other. The teacher too made a lot of noise. She simply could not
understand what the shouting was about – for her every noise seemed loud and
jarring. Sometimes she covered her ears. Sometimes she grew distressed and
cried. The other children seemed to think she was funny but not in a nice way.
The teachers would grow impatient with her especially after telling her to sit
still or be quiet or stop dreaming; not once but a million times a day.
This particular teacher never liked her and she knew it. She
tried hard to be nice and obedient but she got so nervous in class that it was
too hard for her not to be hyperactive. The more she tried to sit still, the
more she moved. The teacher got very annoyed and finally told her to stand up.
She shouted at her and made it clear that she found her quite a useless child
and a very naughty one too. She then sent her out of the class with a maid as a
punishment. The maid was to take her to another block and lock her in a dark
room. After an hour of that, perhaps she would understand how important it was
to be obedient.
The girl rubbed her arm where the maid had bruised it with
her heavy-handed dragging. She couldn’t see much and she was so scared of the
dark. At home she slept with a little light on otherwise the monsters would come
creeping out of all the shadows. Everyday her father would look under the bed
and behind the bathroom door for monsters before tucking her in. Everyone knew
that monsters were afraid of light. What could she do now? She cowered in the
corner waiting in helpless fear for the monsters to arrive.
Huddled and rocking with tears streaming down her face, she
waited. In a while footsteps could be heard along with rough voices. She shrunk
herself into a smaller ball hoping that they would not see her and that the
teacher would come and get her. But the door opened and two men walked in. One
man was the 'uncle' at the gate and the other was the teacher who made the kids
do exercises. Why were they here? She tried to get up but they came closer and the
teacher started yelling.
“Naughty girls deserve to be punished. Why can’t you listen
to your class teacher? Only in first grade and look at your attitude! I will
teach you how to obey!”
The men took turns in disciplining her. She cried till her
eyes hurt. Her dress got dirty. Her skin was blotched and bruised from their
hands on her. Her legs hurt and the part where the pee came from, that hurt
worst of all. She cried some more, she screamed incoherently, she promised to
be a good girl if only they would stop, please stop….
