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Beyond the Fence

by Aarti Sriram
(Bangalore, India)

The little hands played in the puddle of water. They stamped their gumboots and played in the rainwater collected on the roadside. The swings and slides were wet and so had their shorts and pinafore now. The highlight of the day was always the walk home from their bus stop. The distance was short, but they took every opportunity to zigzag their way home, finding joy in the simplest detours. They never wanted to part with their class mates who happen to be their neighbours too. They never wanted to say goodbye to the fresh air and their carefree play.

They knew there were classes and projects waiting may be chess, science, or soccer practice, but none of that mattered until their mothers or nannies called out, urging them to hurry.

While the school bus had already made its way back to school, these little feets and heads were still lingering. They were around their homes but wanted to enjoy being free of books and timetables some more time until their heavy school bags or empty tummies cried out loud..

On their way home they watched the children of their maids and governesses playing on the pavements, free from the weight of schedules. “How lucky! they get to hang out always free” murmured these school kids to each other.

On the contrary those kids perhaps watched these ones with their fancy school bags and branded shoes. How they wished to study too and feel richly by talking good language and mastering subjects but instead lay all day in the open working or sometimes whiling away their idle time sometimes even without proper food care and mainly any guidance.

They drooled over the candy packet the kids were exchanging and their fancy water bottles but did not know that these school kids were throughout busy with schedules and assessments.

When suddenly this boy’s school shorts got stuck into the wiring in the fence and had caused a scratch near his knees and in his attempt to free himself had also gotten his fingers scratched along the rustic barbed fence. The young boy felt like being caught between a rock and a hard place. Immediately another slightly grown up boy from the pavement took notice of it and came to help.

He slowly twisted the iron wiring and held out the boys arms but in the process the school shorts had got dented and slightly ripped off. He lifted this boy and took him to the nearest water fountain cleaned his blood stains and made him seat nearby. He then pulled out a kerchief from the boys school bag and asked him to hold to stop the blood flow.

Meanwhile the other boys called up the security person at their community gates and he came and asked the boy’s name and then messaged his mother. In no time the mother came and took the boy home. Later she came down and searched for this boy who had helped her son. The security informed her that he was helping the landscape workers on the other side of the garden.

She asked the security to send the boy to their home once his work was finished. Later as his hurt was better and he sipped juice lying in the hall watching TV their door bell rang. It was that boy and they greeted him inside. He had got a herb from the garden for the boy to apply on his hurt but he hesitated to share his knowledge because of the potential judgment from the schoolboy or his family, The mother saw the herb bunch and on enquiring got to know more about this boy and found him v knowledgeable about the medicinal herbs and thanked him for the immediate help he had offered. He was getting late for his night community school so he left their home happy with a sweet box and a hand me down almost new looking sweater from the boy’s mother.

After he was gone this young boy then asked his mother why all the parents had warned them to not engage with these boys, that they might not talk decent language and might behave rough with these school going boys. His mother thought to herself about it herself and had felt so wronged as an adult to generalise characters and behaviours of others and moreover pave way to a wrong precedence of thinking among their children.