Climb

The eyes opened to the branches of the oak tree spreading above. Some
branches were still moving, some were broken and some leaves were
still falling down from one of the broken branches. The sunlight
Krisha tried to calm herself as she laid on the ground.

The retired headmaster of the Krisha’s school, Mr Varty came rushing
with his wooden, crook handled walking stick. The sound of the stick
touching the ground could be heard by Krisha, but she dared not look
at the source of the sound yet, for she had guessed who it was and
what could possibly come next. The slender old man came to a stop near
Krisha and so did the sound of his stick.

The view of the spreading branches of the oak tree was disrupted by
the face of Mr Varty. At first, the eyes behind the gold rimmed
Windsor glasses showed concern, then the head moved to see upwards and
then it came down once more and this time with eyes displaying anger
this time.

The ex-headmaster helped Krisha get up.

“Are you hurt?” Mr Varty asked in a tone which showed concern but was
overwhelmed by the anger, which was also present.

Krisha slowly moved her head to indicate ‘no’. She was still held by
the fear that the headmaster instilled in students of the school back
in the day.

“Your school days are almost over, you will go to college next, I
hope. It is about time you let go of these habits. At Least try to
grow up. Climbing trees at an age where girls should start to
understand their household responsibilities is terrible” Mr Varty said
in a stern voice. Krisha didn’t say anything, she subdued the angry
words of revolt in her mind

“Have you come here alone?” asked Mr Varty. Krisha nodded to say ‘yes’.

“How careless of your parents to let you out on your own. I must have
a word with them,” Mr Varty said, and the conversation fell silent for
a while.

“Come then, I will walk with you to your home. I need to speak to your
parents,” Mr Varty said as he started walking and the sound of the
stick resumed. Krisha quietly followed, looking back to have a glance
of the oak tree.

‘What’s wrong with going out on my own? What’s wrong with climbing
trees? Do we not fall whether we are on a tree or not?’ were some
things Krisha wondered.

A friend of Krisha’s mother walked by; she greeted Mr Varty and kept
walking ahead. She gave a concerned look to Krisha who was following
Mr Varty.

Krisha’s classmate, Shalee, who was returning from the dairy shop with
paneer or cottage cheese in a packet, saw Krisha and at once started
running towards her with a smile. But she stopped when she saw Mr
Varty walking ahead, and slowly followed them to Krisha’s house.

Mr Varty asked Krisha’s father to speak in private, while Krisha sat
in the front compound of the house. Shalee slowly crept in, and sat
alongside Krisha. Krisha did not like Shalee, because Shalee didn’t
have a dream or something which she wanted to achieve in life; she
would rather prefer to stay away from any form of challenge or hard
work if possible. Krisha knew what Shalee would ask so she spoke
first.

“I fell down the old oak tree behind the post office, and it happened
when Mr Varty was passing by” Krisha said as she looked towards Shalee
who was imagining the scene in her mind.

“Oh, bad luck! But I don’t understand, why do you climb trees? you
should focus more on household chores. One of these days you can get
hurt,” said Shalee, looking for the door to check if Mr Varty was
coming.

“I do household chores, but I see no reason to just do them. I want to
go out and experience things. When I finish college, I will find a job
which will allow me to travel to different places,” Krisha said as she
smiled imagining her future.

Shalee clearly could not understand this dream, “Well, I don’t want to
go outside the village, I am fine here. There are lots of problems in
the world outside, why risk ourselves out there.”

There it was, the attitude that Krisha disliked, although she also
knew it was not all the girl’s fault, the environment she was growing
in, where grown men feel girls shouldn’t leave house alone had its
influence too.

Krisha spoke, “All right, you are coming with me next time and I will
help you climb a tree. Try to do something beyond your comfort for
once, let the experience grow on you and your life.”

“Next time? You might just get grounded today. Besides, I am afraid of heights.”

“We will do it today evening. I am not listening to any excuse. Now,
go before Mr Varty sees you here,” said Krisha.

Shalee gave a confused look to Krisha and went away home.

Krisha later sat with father after Mr Varty went away.

“Which tree was it?” asked Krisha’s father

“It is the oak tree behind the post office”, Krisha replied, unable to
decide what would happen next.

“I never knew you climbed trees. I also did it when I was your age and
have fallen in the worst ways possible.”

Krisha looked at her father, not sure of how to react.

“Don’t mistake this conversation as an allowance to go around and be
careless again. Mr Varty is right, you need to be more responsible
towards household and studies. You will have your own family one day.”
said Krisha’s father with an expression and tone which was more
serious than the one before.

Krisha did not like what she heard at all. ‘No one is stopping me from
climbing trees and I am certainly not going to have a family and stay
in the village,’ she thought

That evening, Krisha dragged Shalee to the oak tree.

“Here we are, today you will climb a tree for the first time. You will
use this bamboo ladder to climb today, then I will show you how to
climb without it the next time,” said Krisha

Shalee looked at the tree and then at the ladder “Honestly, I am
surprised you could convince the postmaster to let you have the bamboo
ladder.”

Shalee had honestly thought that Krisha would drop the idea after Mr
Varty’s talk with Krisha’s father. “I don’t feel like it is the right
thing to do. If anyone saw me climb a tree then it would mean trouble
for me as well. I mean everyone already knows about you.”

“You mean to say because I climb trees and have a different
perspective than most girls here, that makes me a less likable person
than you or other girls like you?” Krisha asked in an annoyed tone to
Shalee who had fell silent of any other words to speak.

“I will go first, use the ladder to follow me. If you don’t do it
today, then we aren’t speaking anymore,” Krisha spoke before walking
towards the tree.

Krisha had done it many times before, she knew the grips, the places;
her hands and legs had become stronger over the time as she climbed
more and more. Krisha was on the first strong branch of the oak and
called out to Shalee to follow her.

Shalee was angry to have been dragged by Krisha who seemed to have an
opposing attitude to grownups and thought she knew better. However,
Shalee was too timid to displease Krisha here at this point.

‘Well, after I go home, I will surely tell my father to let Mr Varty
know the whole picture about Krisha’s rebellious attitude.’

Shalee reluctantly placed the bamboo ladder against the tree and
slowly climbed up. As she reached the end of the ladder, she realised
there was still some height left to reach the branch.

“Here hold my hand and climb up,” Krisha said, adjusting her posture
on the branch into a more comfortable position and extending her hand.

Shalee looked down at the distance from the ground below and then
extended her hand towards Krisha. ‘You have no idea what is going to
happen to you for making me do this, I will make sure you regret,’
thought Shalee.

While lost in her own thoughts, rather than focusing on the climb,
Shalee disbalanced the ladder and her extended hand went far away from
Krisha’s hand as Shalee went down along with the ladder.

As fear set in, Shalee closed her eyes waiting for the feel of impact
and it did come eventually, but surprisingly it did not hurt much.

Shalee opened her eyes to look at Krisha and let her know the words of
anger that were erupting in her mind. But, when she met Krisha’s gaze,
her words were stuck upon seeing Krisha’s horrified expression.

Shalee realised something was out of place apart from the fact that
she had fallen. She looked to her right and saw the hand of an adult,
an older person, and that is when she heard the muffled sound of
someone talking.

Shalee quickly put the ladder aside and got up to see she had fallen
over perhaps the worst person to fall over in the village. It was Mr
Varty, who was slowly getting up, dust on ground had covered the front
side of his clothes and also his face, his stick and his glasses had
made their way ahead.

Mr Varty coughed then walked to pick up his glasses. He cleaned the
glass with his handkerchief and wore them along with an angry
expression. He turned towards whoever had fallen over him and he saw a
scared Shalee standing frozen in her place with his stick in her hand.

Mr Varty walked to Shalee and snatched the stick from her hands.

 “What is the matter with you? Why did you jump upon me like this?”
screamed Mr Varty.

“I.. fell .. dd.. do.. wh while clim..bing the tre..e” Shalee said in
a stammered voice.

“You too? What is wrong with you girls? First it was your friend and
now you are too?” Mr Varty said while dusting his clothes.

Shalee felt it was her chance to get Krisha “Sir, Krisha climbed the
tree, and forced me into doing it as well. She is right there sitting
on the branch.

Both Shalee and Mr Varty looked at the tree but no one was there.

“Shalee, let’s walk to your home. I would like to have a word with
your father,” spoke Mr Varty to a shocked Shalee who was trying to
imagine how Krisha climbed from one branch to another and went to the
other side of the tree before getting down and running away.

‘How did she do that? I must ask her next time’, she thought.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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