TAMING

It’s been about ten days since I had started wearing a mask—even I move a foot away from the house. On a side, I feel happy that I am cautious enough. But on the other, I feel guilty that police too began imposing fines and charging lathis from ten days. There raised a question, am I Tamed or Taught.

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“Have you lost your mind,” Vamshi yelled, adjusting his tucked-in colored T-shirt, “today is Friday, and you are in bottle green.”

“Oh god, I completely forgot,” Jay was already in the pit, “what could we do now? Where can I get the Friday's colored uniform from?”

“Nothing could be done, just hide from the PET,” Vamshi suggested, “or you will be thrashed and chopped into pieces.”

Jay, an eight-year-old, is not worried about the pattern he missed or about something he forgot which is needed to be remembered once a week. But he was all panicked about the beatings from PET.

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“Quick man,” Vamshi whispered standing at the entrance, peeping into the corridor.

“About to complete the second sum, two minutes more,” Jay replied from the third bench in the first row.

Ignoring his quick solving capacity and excellent teaching experience, Prasad, the mathematics teacher is known for his anger and ultimate slapping.

Keeping all that in mind, Jay is struggling to complete his yesterday’s homework, not caring about the name of the chapter.

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“No no..,” Vamshi suggested tapping Jay’s shoulder, “take left from here.”

“Forward is the way we need to go,” Jay remarked, “why are we slipping into this lane, while the mall is on the main road.”

“Traffic police stood right there, at the signal,” he was straightforward.

Helmets and seat belts are just to escape fine.

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This is not something new that I am telling you.

When Jay was hiding from PET; when hiding his notes under the bench—completing homework; when took left into the lane, he knows that the purpose was completely different from what he was doing.

But he is in a state where fear of fine was more than death. And because back in school ‘a cane worked more than a chalk’.

Our education system tamed us rather than teaching us. ‘This is right and this is wrong,’ is teaching. ‘Do the right or you taste the stick,’ is taming.

We all know the fatal nature of the Coronavirus, but somewhere deep inside we wait for someone to instruct us, draw a boundary around us to do this and this.

Only animals need cages with locks and bell for snacks. And here cases are in lakhs, get shielded with double masks.