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Cane and Cake

by Aarti Sriram
(India)

That summer Jyoti and family had travelled to the city where her father lived. He used to work and live away from the family there in the quarters provided by his office.

Occasionally he would take turns to come home when he would get off days from work. Jyoti was curious to explore this new house and neighbourhood. She was enjoying her vacation and made new friends around.. In her newfound enthusiasm, the young girl was happily, and she had quickly forgotten about her studies and school. Well wasn’t that the purpose of school break for young kids.


It was afternoon and she was busy playing in the garden trying to pluck a fruit she had seen on a tree. It was like pear but after plucking she realised it was not ripe enough. So, she wanted to try slightly softer and darker coloured ones. There were vibrant coloured butterflies, and she could hear the neighbouring house kids jump into and remain afloat inside a small reservoir tank of water in the garden. She was able to see them when she had climbed up her fence wall and parted a tree branch for easy access. As she backtracked downwards, she had some stains on her hands and the frock from the fruit juices. She jumped and landed on slightly damp soft mud. It felt soft on her feet. She waited for the evening when she would again meet the neighbouring kids and today they had decided to play badminton, read and enact a play and finally eat icecream after finishing their art project.


She washed up and as she neared passage to step in, she heard her mother talking on the telephone. Come inside her mother beckoned. Jyotis’s father wanted to speak to her. She wanted to tell her father about the fruit and garden and if she could join the neighbouring kids playing in water. Before she could narrate any of that her fathers voice on the phone was agitated ”Had you not prepared well for your exams and why have you got just average marks reminding her that there was a postal mail from her school
about her results of third grade. Jyoti’s eyes filled up. Her heart sank and she struggled to reply. Meekly she could only utter a ‘sorry daddy’. He hadn’t quite finished. “Your younger brother got a flying A in all his subjects. I will bring her a cake but a cane for you “!


The words cane sounded as hard as if it had already hit her. Poor lad felt so miserable she hung up the phone, went inside the bathroom, and cried. She had felt very hurt. Her father was displeased with her results. She came out and looked sadly through the windowpane. The garden seemed wilted like a flower, the fruits felt juiceless nothing excited her. All she could see were the trees and fence wire which looked like cane sticks and rods. She would never feel nice coming for holidays here. Her father disliked her she thought. May be all the classmates of her new grade will make fun of her too .


After few weeks Jyoti came back to her home and it was the first day of her new grade after the holidays. She hadn’t forgotten this painful incident. Neither had she spoken about it to anyone else. She was after all just a young child not knowing how to address her sadness. She went to school and met her new classmates and class teacher. The teacher remarked about the essay she had written in her final exam last grade. She told the whole class that Jyoti had written so beautifully about a trip and the essay was rich with very good facts related to a new city and well laced with her imagination about how a new neighbourhood could be. She was waiting to meet her father and visit his city and the new bungalow quarters. The class clapped for Jyoti but she remained quiet, her expressions deprived of any enthusiasm that she had essayed before. Perhaps she can report to her father about this positive image in her class and share her essay with him, may be he wants to express his affection for her, she was lost in her thoughts.

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