It was a Sunday morning, it was not just a holiday for Sudhir, it was a morning of a day in the week where he got to stay away from the school books.
He did compensate by studying more than usual on Saturday evenings and the occasional exams would return to hamper the peace for a while, but otherwise the day was meant for running beyond the boundaries of everyday life into the grounds where others of similar age awaited with a few suggestions of what could be done.
There were a few things that they did, but almost always they would end up at cricket and it had become all more interesting with the occasional play against the team of kids from another neighbourhood. That’s where Sudhir was on Sunday morning, standing in the ground of the other neighbourhood, with a bat in hand ready to face the bowler.
Sudhir had a positive feeling that day, he could feel the energy flowing in the right direction and the mind syncing with it and he struck a few good shots amongst the ten balls he faced, one shot even landed directly outside the boundary. It was going well until Sudhir’s last shot that sent the ball flying far and beyond the wall of the ground and its landing was heard with the sound of glass breaking followed by the sound of the car alarm erupting in air.
In situations such as these, it was responsibility of the one who had hit the ball to retrieve it and thus Sudhir let go of the bat in his hand immediately and ran as fast as he could to get the ball, while the other boys rushed out of ground to the other side because someone would almost definitely come to do the usual screaming and scolding, so this heat period had to be waited out.
The goal for Sudhir was to go as fast as he could, find the ball quickly and make a successful retreat before the owner of whatever was broken came out. The ball could be sacrificed but then Sudhir would have to buy one out of his own pocket money.
Sudhir’s luck had run out like the ball that had headed out. The ball had broken the already cracked window of a dark blue hatchback and the owner happened to be in the driver seat just about to drive off and was taking a second to look at the rearview mirror for any coming traffic, and then the ball came.
Sudhir ran out of the park to find the owner standing with the ball in his hand. Sudhir knew him, it was Mr Kumar, his science tuition teacher. Sudhir had stopped attending his tuitions a year ago, he had told at home of Mr Kumar shifting to another city which was clearly not true; further Sudhir had also told this at home after having left the tuition for two months. Yes, the tuition money had added to Sudhir’s savings.
Mr Kumar looked at Sudhir trying to recall why the face felt familiar, meanwhile Sudhir waited what would come first, the scolding for abruptly leaving tuition without informing or the ball damaging the car window. As Mr Kumar’s lips parted to let out what was in his mind, someone came rushing reacting to the sound, someone who knew Mr Kumar.
Mr Kumar turned to look at the latest arrival at the scene, showing the ball to give a brief and short answer of what happened and then he turned to speak to Sudhir, he found the boy gone.
“Was that Sudhir?” he muttered
Sudhir rushed to his home, he still had the tuition money, it wouldn’t hurt to spend some of it to buy a new ball.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 