Crime and Punishment

What is the point in doing a crime if there is no fear involved. Crimes are certainly not worth doing without the element of fear. Anyway I am not talking about any significant crime here. I used to study in St Thomas Convent School in Lucknow. A perfect place to for a shy boy like me ( yes I was shy as a kid if you find it tough to beleive) to come out of my shell and try something different. After all at 14-15 years of age you are trying lot of things which are new in your life.

The temptation to commit the crime was really big. We were senior most class in our small school and we thought of ourselves as kings and the idea was simple, to assert our authority and probably impress few girls also in the process. The plan was perfect – a small semi broken chair in the classroom pleading to our violent instincts to take it all the way. The idea was to simply break it into small enough pieces and throw it out of the window in our classroom. So the escape plan was also perfect as there was no signs of humanity beyond the lonely window in our 2nd floor classroom.

So what could go wrong here. But then you know, Mr Murphy did not become my friend recently. I have had a childhood relationship with Mr Murphy. We broke the chair into tiny pieces and threw each small piece out one by one. What a pleasure it was to break it and throw it. This was our way to declare freedom against the teachers we were so scared off. But to our misfortune somebody who had a small home probably half a kilometre away from our school saw some UFOs coming out of a small window. He did something which I have no idea why any sane human being who has a job will do. He collected all the wooden pieces and brought it to the principal of our school. He also figured out the class from where these UFOs originated. We were caught red handed.

The punishment was swift and embarrassing. We were made to stand in the sun and since the principal could not figure out who did the crime, he punished the entire class. We representing the senior most class standing in the sun and all the small kids around asking us why we were standing like that. Only if earth could break up, I would have gone underground and hid my face.

But then after some time fairer sex was getting too concerned about loosing fairness in the bright and hard hitting sun. So they stuck a deal. The girls in our class told the principal all the people who were involved in the act and they escaped the punishment. Four of us were named by them and I was also part of the list. Others who were also listed were Samrendra, Dalbir and Vikas( I am not sure of all the names although). Our punishment continued and we spent the entire day enjoying the sun.

So girls of my school, if you happen to read this now, I just wanted to let you know that I have forgiven you for this. I can understand the fascination for fair skin. Fair and Lovely was not so popular during 1980s. Anyways if we end up meeting, I am sure you can at least buy lunch for a non-alcoholic and vegetarian me to make up for the calories lost.