Dasuram's Script by Monalisa Jena

Author:Monalisa Jena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Sin

Paresh Patnaik

That day, I told my mother that I was going to school. She said, ‘No, my dear, you are not going to school today.’

I asked her, ‘Why?’

My mother said, ‘Your father has said so.’

I could not understand. My father never tells me anything. He never took me to school or bought me books and clothes. Not once did he speak to any of the teachers at school. What had suddenly happened today? Why had he asked me not to go the school? I wake up early in the morning and do the household chores. I hold my baby brother Sana and feed the elder one, Bana. They dote on me. Then, I leave for school at ten o’clock every morning.

My mother never refused me anything.

But do I really go to school? Sebi and Senteri and I do not go to school. We head for the fruit orchard where we play with cowries till midday. We make a paste of green tamarind leaves with chillies and savour it. In the season of mangoes, we pluck mangoes. Otherwise, we pluck fruits and berries from the bush. We return in the afternoon.

As soon as I enter the house, I tell my mother loudly, ‘O mother, they taught us so much at school today!’

She tells me, ‘Okay, whatever you studied is enough. Now hurry up and help me with the household chores, tether the goats and bring back the cows. After that, sweep the house and the courtyard and attend to your brothers.’

I obey, and drown myself in all these chores.

At school, my name is still enrolled. But I go to school only once or twice a month. Gada master has the habit of reporting things. Has he informed my father about my bunking school? But my father is least bothered. Why should he stop me?

The moment my father wakes up in the morning, he smokes opium, and then, he leaves for work. In the evening, he returns drunk and abuses my mother. He beats her up, shouts at me and at Sana and Bana. I do not go near him, then; my mother has told me not to. Who knows what he might do?

My mother gets beaten up, weeps a lot but never speaks up. Father gets so tired after the beating and the shouting that he falls to the ground and goes to sleep like a felled tree. Late at night, mother wakes him up and serves him food. He eats and falls asleep again.

He leads his life his way; we, ours. He does not display any affection for me or for Sana and Bana. He is content with his opium.

One day, Gada master had come to our house looking for students for his school. He told my mother, ‘The school doesn’t have enough students. Children must come to school; otherwise, the government will close down the only school in the village.’ He cajoled my mother into sending me to school. My father was not at home. But when does he stay home?

My mother said, ‘Let the school be closed.

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