‘Voting~ a short story’

Hey everyone this is Kunjal here!! Now you must be wondering looking at the illustration above, what is the post upto?

State elections in India are around the corner.( Even if they aren’t, preparations are on full bloom. It feels they are.)

Uhem so let us begin. I have often been attracted by the manifestation of riots and some sorrowful events around elections. Though I do wish to convey my regards to the families ( especially in villages) which are rendered apart due to the fatalities that get emerged, I have started to visualise ( although it may be a misconception )such riots as “planned” or “schemed” which may have some connection to elections. Some connection to votes. Vote b.. Oh I must stop here.

But bounce to my previous sentence ‘riots around elections’.

Does that make any sense?

I have tried to give it some sense:

VOTING~ A SHORT STORY

SOURCE: https://blog.ipleaders.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/SOC-voting-image-TEXTLESS.jpg

‘ How are you coping up?’

‘Sahab, the produce is not going well. We have a huge debt on our heads. If only Divu gets some job in the city. But he is also struggling’, said the farmer Raju, his head glistening with sweat.

‘ You know what is happening these days?’, the man raised his eyes from his hands and asked.

A red gemstone on the little finger, and a fat golden ring, adorning a little ‘Om’ was stuck in the middle finger.

‘ Sir election sir.’ Raju, replied smiling sheepishly and continued’ Sir that is why-‘

‘Enough’

 Raju possessively wrapped his gamcha around his shoulder. Thin brown shoulders. They were too glistening with mild sweat.

The man sensed. He recoiled back into a smile ‘Come, Sit’. Raju walked hesitantly. In a hesitant manner, he turned the plush chair. He patted hesitantly on the air filled blue material and took a seat. It was a chair with wheels. But there was something wrong. One of the wheels was protruding inwards and not moving. 

Raju had to wrest his hand to the table for balance, as he listened.

‘You want money, I see. Poor farmers… Who will do for them but us? 

Two black men with squared shoulders entered the office from behind. Passing the potted plant, whose leaves were almost fluttering dry under the slow fan, they walked forward to stand at either side of their boss.

One of them carried a black suitcase. Raju looked at it with interest, remembering something. ‘Which movie was it?… he thought..

‘ Our party is losing badly’, the man started and Raju looked forward.

‘Raju, the other party. You know its ills. Here Let me tell you. Wherever this party is in power your brother farmers are in bad shape… ‘

‘Sir here farmers are in bad shape-

‘But we will do something, the man piqued a loud tone ‘At least we won’t be licking off the foot of big businesses like this party does.‘

.

‘All the time. For a long time farmers had been central to policy making. Is agriculture central now?’

To Raju ‘s amazement, the man kicked his chappal while saying. He also strode his hand upward and reached for his handkerchief from his shirt. He looked away twisting his handkerchief around his first finger.

Raju ‘s attention became full-fledged at the sight.

But what had he come here for? 

‘We will make it central! We will help you all!  The man stopped.

‘For that?’, he resumed in a low voice.

‘For that?’ Raju repeated smearing sweat from his forehead, looking around.

‘For that we need to win this election. Which we are, it seems to me badly losing.’

‘But sir, why did you call me in here? ‘

‘Because everybody listens to you in the village!’, 

‘Aand because’ the man reached for the suitcase which had piqued Raju’s interest and passed it across the table. It opened with a click.

Raju looked delighted and astonished at the same time.

‘For this you will have to do something right? The man retorted and laughed as if Raju had kidded ‘ A fit bargain. Just like your fit banyan!’ Now Raju understood. His confusion was replaced with full understanding.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Raju, looked at the melee.  All his men were carrying lathis. Raju remembered what the sir had said ‘they will fight with lathis. Procure more men’. 

Some workers of the other party, though, were carrying guns. It was becoming bloody. More and more farmers were dying.

Raju dropped down to remove the blood that had gathered around his nostrils. There were more shouts from behind. He turned and marched forward with his lathi, remembering what the man had said

         ‘All must be dead. Otherwise no money’

Raju approached a man wearing a blue  shirt. He charged his lathi on him. the man did not have a gun like his comrades and fell down with a loud crunch. Raju approached ahead.

But in vain, had Raju swung  his lathi to injure that man, in vain he had decided he could kill some more.

     In vain, he had tried this much.

Three shots fired in the air. Before he could reach another villager, Raju fell down with a crunch. His fit banyan was now covered with dry red blood. More oozes of blood ruptured out of the wound in his back.

He groaned.

Many farmers were dead and many workers of the rival party were severely injured

‘ Your family would be given money’, The man had said and Raju who had fallen down, ‘s eyes seemed to flutter with the little greed that they could afford.

He closed his eyes. 20 villagers were dead.

20 VILLAGERS KILLED- *ABCD* ALLEGES ‘IT WAS PLANNED’

Two days later..

Suresh walked through the mourning crowd. He entered the hut of a woman who had lost his husband in the violent clash.

‘ Now it has been clearly proved through CCTV cameras who was responsible, you don’t need to worry.’, Suresh said aloud and sat down and said to the lady who was crying.

He asked again ‘what was your husband’s name?’

The lady sobbed uncontrollably in the dupatta of her saree. She was unable to turn her head up.

‘ Mahesh. Her husband’ s name was Mahesh’, another woman replied, consoling the wife in her arms. Her face too was in tears.

‘And your man’s?’

‘Sir his name was Raju’

Suresh ‘s eyes glistened with recognition.

       ‘ We will fight for the justice of Raju and other farmers once we come to power.’, Suresh replied after coming out to the reporters.

‘  Ayhe Ayhe! our party if in power, will fight for the upliftment of farmers!’, other members of the party echoed ,a tone in front of the reporters.

             

  ‘ Did we see something off here?’

~Kunjal.G

~ DuoDisseminators

Reforming our way.

“Ah mami let me sleep for the last 5 secs!!”, Alia moaned and shook her head as she lifted it upwards. Towards the screen which showed the stained black teams page and the names she had to see everyday.

“ Good morning everyone.” Alia jerked her head upwards. Riya followed suit rubbing her aching head. The bio teacher had arrived. Or opened her laptop, entered the password, logged in on Teams, shook her laptop again (because it will hang), clicked her bio class, and clicked the mic button. To speak “Good Morning”

Biology was the least favourite subject of the class. Teacher could repeat twice or thrice and one could still not get a single thing. A numb feeling of floating in the abyss would cease to do nothing. However, her booming high-pitched syllables (Can~ a~Lic~u~lar you got me students?). wasn’t the reason really there was a pin drop silence. In fact, her tone was almost weary. Almost feverish with old age, and fast with experience and was all the more easily evadable.  It was actually…

Riya looked up at her screen delighted. She quickly typed a reply back. And almost an instant back she received a message. Leo, her best friend, had sent her an important message. A form of satire.  She giggled and typed an emoji back. There she reverted back to the ever old screen, hurriedly finding the page where the teacher was on. She had learnt the tactic.

But no, she was not on some page. She had reverted back to Paint 3D and was drawing a bio diagram. And explaining. What a tactic.

“So, these are called pits as you can see here, which facilitate water transportation. Remember this. This may not be there in your book.”

what won’t be there?

“.. and I can ask you this. You might receive some questions at the end of the class”

A ding. Alia checked her phone. She felt the urge to pick it up again but eventually put it down. Listening ahead, a question formed in her mind. She asked.

“ Um Mam?”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask something please?”

“Okay you go ahead”

“Umm you said pits facilitate water transportation in xylem. So, vessels as you have drawn seem to have more no. of pits. Doesn’t it mean there will be more water transportation. Since the holes are more”

“Yes, good observation.” Riya cringed and started typing. 

“- you are correct, Alia. Vessels will do more water transportation. While tracheid will do lesser water transportation”

“Ok mam thank you!” Alia said. A huge smile formed on her face.

She is a bookworm. Riya typed to Leo. She instantly received a reply back. An affirmation, which triggered her to type another message. 

Where does she mug up from? Rote learner. Probably from a bunch of some of the thickest books of all time!

Leo replied back “This is not real learning. She will most probably go to become a doctor. Always mugging up extra things and trying to impress, the bio teacher.” She wanted to reply back. But then it almost felt like she got caught by the teacher. 

“ Ok Riya will tell us, what she observes in the diagram”, The teacher said fearing a pin drop silence again.

“Just a second mam. I am thinking.”

“ What do you observe in the diagram” she asked Leo. No reply. Riya started shuffling her book rapidly. Her mic was on.

“Ok tell me riya what do you understand by the function of Connective tissue.” The teacher asked again.

Ok so there is a paragraph describing the features of connective tissues.

Riya blurted it out. Just like most of the students do.

“Stop stop. I asked you the function of connective tissue. Pretty simple. Such tissues in our body connect. Like blood becomes a medium connecting all organs. Bone for another example”

And you picked up the definition from the book. You didn’t understand or noted a thing that I said”, Her teacher rebuked. In an almost dejected voice.

Riya couldn’t say anything. She fumbled for a reason. Was she rote learning?

Alia stared at the screen. she felt better… after… after all the shaming. 

Alia checked her phone now. She smiled.

.

.

.

I was a lot skeptic to publish this. But when I remembered the times we had activities and history discussion there were complete silences, i was a bit unhappy. There is a notion about Indian schools totally working on rote learning. But well that is changing.( Quite!) Apart from some things, I speak object, and ask during classes as much as possible, to initiate a live discussion. but these days it seems most of the children are just clicking beside their teams window( You know what I mean).

Secondly, those who speak different in classes are regarded as bookworms or something. It is just the way of understanding and expressing things! And I have been bullied and joked that i am a nerd, which however some people say to ignore them is hard to ignore. I hope you guys liked this story. the concept maybe a bit alien. So I had to write this.

“A vast bushy tree of mango overhead to pluck from. Shouldn’t we try to pluck out chances to make difference in the prevailing education system? It is not just the teachers….”

Question at the end ” Do you believe reform in both sides? What do you really find faulty?

DuoDisseminator

~Kunjal.G

“The New Normal”

Sunshine. The red-yellow rays falling down. Coming from a distant source, and yet getting scattered all around. By tiny immiscible dust particles, roaming in the air. It was all science. The colours of some life became tyrant in its light. Myriad heads closed together of women, men, children alike as they lifted hefty materials up onto their shoulders, as if God had given them unusual strength to fill their bellies in this strange world. Foreheads dripping with sweat as runners and joggers, completed their last round, and took a harsh long breath. Sweat etched near the brows, as engineer mom and dads, worked their way to draft important emails, prepare for meetings assisted by uncomfortable hard chairs. Sunshine filled our lives with its usual warmth, and the glinting piercing rays kept us up for the rest of the day.

I gently rub my eyes. It is the piercing voice of the alarm next to my ears. My mum shouting. It is Monday 6:15 a.m. Mum is in the kitchen now brewing tea. I look at her from my door slightly left ajar. I then sweep my eyes towards the long slidable glass for the Sun. It was my natural alarm. The hot scorching rays would come in contact with skin to spread its warmth gradually throughout the dry body, working to make it moist, until one could do no more but blink their eyes open to yet another day. Yet the weather was unusually cold. A harsh cool breeze and winds and a dry grey sky adorned the apartments in the background. 

I would have fancied waiting, sitting on my bed, making a grave analysis of the greyness of the sky. But classes started at 7:20.

 I hastily got myself up, brushed my teeth back and forth and went on to take a bath ‘Time is up’, I thought and got up.

***

My classes finished at 1p.m. I leave the room and lie down in the bed with a huge sigh ” Ah! The classes are over ” and to my surprise I see my mom do that as well “Ah! A break for 30 minutes’‘. My brother follows the same suit with an ” Ah! No more classes” and my dad who could pass for a deeply dedicated employee too came in with an ” Ah! Lunch break” It was so surprising for me, a year back it was just me who used to lie down and relax when my brother was in day care and mom and dad in the office. But today each one of us had a tiring day it seemed. We all started talking; and to my surprise my brother was the first one to speak “These online classes. I am really concerned about not getting spectacles. And will not you all be shocked to hear this from me!!” he said “we just stare at the screen for 5 hours and the teacher just rambles on and on. I do not enjoy it even a bit “. 

My mum who would have reprimanded my brother for speaking about his teacher like that today really spoke out her misery too “And I son, am more than ever tired doing zoom calls, typing emails, attending to my dear boss!’

I shared the same feeling. I can still feel the gloomy cold voice of her, one teacher, speaking out what she knows and getting what she wants. Subservient yeses. And then All of us started laughing together. Because each one of us had a sad remark to share and a huge discontent to blabber about. We enjoyed those stories together and towards the end my dad said ” It’s true yes, no one likes Virtual meetings… He looked at me and my brother and said amused ‘and schools on your laptops, but don’t you feel that this is the only way we can move forward, the only practical way? And virtual meetings are not entirely boring. At times, even without realising our distaste towards online classes, during funny incidents we share innocent laughs with others”.

I remember today, all of us lauding our Maths teacher with emojis of hearts and smileys present on Teams. He had proved a textbook method wrong. The screen was covered in little red hearts and laughing emojis.

‘I for one am happy because this shift to a new normal also made me realise that I wasn’t giving enough time to my family”. Dad continued ‘I missed all those silly complaints of Adi and beautiful opinions of Maya. But this year we did things that earlier seemed impossible. And you know what was that? Simple. We laughed together, cooked together. These are the simple pleasures whose absence from the earlier “normal” we couldn’t realise’.

The whole country is under such a big pandemic, it is necessary that we use whatever we have to try and adapt with new things. Adi, you have an interest in reading about wildlife, don’t you? So, you might know that the most long-lived species of animals is not the one that is the strongest, it is the one that is the most adaptable. 

So, try finding Happiness in every situation. These online classes and meetings? Will may as well be here for some time’. We need to be adaptable and not live each day mourning over this existence’ He laughed and concluded.

It is Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. and I am attending my online classes and for once I am feeling light because I decided to crack jokes with my friends and even my teacher said that he is not happy with these online classes and making PPTs. The sun today did crack up a little in the sky, and disappeared, but still giving a sign that light is not completely far away.

~DuoDisseminators

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