The secret mission

The rainy season had started and we knew it was only days away before the long school holidays,which would mark the end of the year school term and report cards...frowns..sighs..anger...outbursts and finally the signing. Getting the parent to sign the progress card was the only task each and every pupil of the estate Tamil school faced at the end of every term and the 'smart ones' never cared 'a sen ' for it.They were even eagerly looking forward for that occasion,where after the signing, the smart ones usually got some reward in the form of cash which made them feel somehow above the others who did not fare well.
The day after the 'signing' was usually a time for treats at the tawkey's sundry shop,when the 'smart ones' flaunted their prized coins with the Quees's insignia before treting themselves and also their unlucky friends with sour plum sweets,nuts ice-creams and 'pillow sweets' and the popular 'tikam',where the kids paid five sen and tried their luck by spinning the wheel and await their lucky number of ice-creams!
The old tawkey always made sure that non of us spinned the wheel more than once each turn and i wished some other customer would come and distract him just for a second so that i could have a second go for free,but it never happened.
So it was after such a treat that i was sitting with my friends and sucking on the sourplums, enjoying their looks of gratitude towards my kindness and i felt my place as my gang's leader will never be replaced and the feeling gave me a blissful sense of fpeace. The night before,my father gave me a fifty sen coin and patted me on my back for being the top student in the school(a position which i was able to hold to all through my primary schooling years) No one outshined me and i was too proud at times and even challenged my seniors to 'cut' me in any of the exams!

I was enjoying my sourplum noisily and grimaced when the sourness tickled my taste buds and drank the saliva with satisfaction. I noticed that my friends were too engrossed in the sucking process to notice a distant form thundering towards our group.I didnt care much for this vision and we were peacefully engrossed in our task when our calm surrounding was rudely shattered by a sudden shriek!I almost choked on my sourplum when the object of the thunderous shriek presented itself very unceremoniously in our midst,gasping for breath,and dropped to its knees and coughed out clogged flagme and spit.

'Cheeeeeeeeeeeee!' I shreiked angrily when a droplet from the spit landed on one of my toes and planted a hard noisy slap on its owner who in turn cried out and fell on his back!None of my friends liked this 'species' who was the target of snide remarks,insults,jokes and often kicks and pushes from everyone at school because he was the 'Loose'.It was an unwritten law that if you are a Loose,you had to endure mistreatment and never dare to complain about it !

The Loose happened to be one of my gang friends since nobody else wanted to include him in their gang. i was kind enough to accept him despite the fact that none of my other friends wanted him as one of us.I managed to cool them down with a promise that the Loose would be kicked out from our gang by the end of the year and i also reminded them to think about who braved the river to look for clay for our Art lessons and who equally braved the big ,muddy canal to look out for worms so that we could all go fishing in the estate river?
This fact shut them up for good and they began to tolarate his presence with dismay.

The loose cried out loudly in mock pain,as i guessed,because i always knew when one was faking pain,and this time the Loose was acting so that his cry would earn him the remaining sourplum which Ihad in my tightly closed palm.As I sucked on the plum,he could no longer contain the flow of saliva from his own mouth and looked at me pitifully looking for a trace of kindness in my eyes.

'What do you want now!' I thundered at him,still reeling from the shock of his jolting presence.My friends clamoured around me,their leader,and were giving him looks of dismay and hate.The Loose stood up clumsily and pretended to nurse the pain on his back.This only earned him a merciless look from me and he knew he had to play his cards well before i suckled on the remaining sour plum.

He blurted out in a shrill tone,"The new thorai has come!He brought his wife and also kids!
It was the gossip of the estate folks that their European thorai had returned to his homeland to bring back his family before Christmas ans they continued gossiping for weeks regarding the fate of his local mistress who was a Chinese damsel from another estate who came in as an helping hand for the cook and ended up as his mistress!

I had heard my mother talking about it with her friends and since i was shooed away whenever I was spotted near them,i never quite knew what a mistress was.I asked my teacher the meaning and got a stern look and a verbal warning not to repeat it,So i presumed this word was one of those words which belonged to the list of 'no meaning for children'and almost lost interest until a while ago.

I beckoned the Loose to come closer and gave him one of my 'no nonsense or else' look and said, "Tell the truth and not a lie,u beggar,unless you dare to lie and lose your eyes to Goddess Kali,who knows every lie when it was uttered,so help you god!" My warning even scared me as it also scared the wits out of all those around me and the Loose quickly sucked in his own flagm and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.My timely reminder of the Goddess Kali must have made him realize the value of having both eyes intact and i knew he was not about to spin a lie. The virtues of Goddess Kali had been instilled in every kid since the day i can remember.Kali was known to have 'plucked' the eyes off liars and cheats,though not in the estate yet,but back in India,where my mom and dad came from,according to my mom,one can just go to their village and see for themselves the one eyed liars who are still scattered around the village as beggars.

Even I had always offered a hundred prayer verses,or sometimes when i had a few coins left,had put them in the temple's donation coin box and asked Goddess Kali's forgiveness and not to pluck my eyes out,as i had lied for a good reason only,and please help me as she was also a female like me....Such was my faith and i strongly beleived that Goddess Kali really listened to my prayers as she had let me go without plucking my eyes yet!

But now my attention was solely on the news at hand and i reluctantly eyed my remaining sourplum with such passion that the Loose almost lost hope of getting it..I took a generous bite out of it and with a look of regret offered the remaining portion to the Loose,who snatched it hastily and quickly devoured it before i changed my mind.

My friends and I decided to go and see the new arrivals the next day after school and it was agreed that our elders would be informed about our trip to the river bank to look for clay for our art assignment.And I made it clear to them that it would not be a lie either because the thorai's bunglow was situated atop the hill which had the river at its foothills so it wont be like telling a lie and worry about Goddess Kali ,as they would infact look for clay after their sneaking episode of the thorai's bunglow. With that note,we all parted our ways for our homes,the sourplum taste still rich on our tongues and tomorrow's scandolous trip on our mind...