The Curious Case of a Book – Part 2

The curiosity awakens further

contd from part 1
Usually a SLAP and a BAM Stick would have been the end of any kind of situation at Crescent High School,, however this was DEFCON 5, a magazine, glossy one, with photos was available, hence the matter was escalated..

the rest of us were asked to disperse back into classrooms, which anyways we had began, once the hit is delivered, the wonder is gone,, we entered back in to class, but surprisingly, PT sir said to the 3 Stooges, “Come with me, let’s go to the Vice Principal.”
Well Crescent had an absentee Principal, who at a comfortable hour would take a nice stroll from her house and walk into the the Principal’s cabin, which was… 50 meters south west from her home..where she would sit… and then after a few hours return back through the same path.. The monotony of this was broken only on two occasions, 15th Jan and 26th August,,,Ohh, the other way around, 15th Aug and 26th Jan..and yes the walk was same only it was other way around towards 50 meters south -east…
hence in such a scenario, the school was actually run by the Vice Principal, Ejaz Madam.. She spoke faster than anyone in the school,,, most teachers mostly smiled while talking to her, maybe because they had no idea about what she was saying.. But in all this when it came to such a scenario, she has two very predictable responses to when a matter was brought to her
Stand here in front of office for 1 lecture
or
Call your parents, I will meet them..
so understandably, while making the walk from class to her office,, S1, S2 and S3

were praying for the first option,, S3 was having a tough time, Faking his leg pain at the same time walking with the rest was proving a bit too much for his acting skills..S1 and S2 had already folded their hands in prayer mode, S1 was also looking at the sky.. either it was for looking up to God, or the slap was having a disorientation after effect on him..
The 3 stooges arrived at the Judge’s doorstep, the evidence by now folded into a nice roll, resembling some medieval scroll was presented to Madam Judge..
her fury was some what of a repeat telecast, “Is this why you come to school”, then she went in to deliberate with her Jury members
Her Grand Jury had two permanent members, One was Joshi sir, who hardly said anything, another was Shine Miss who said many things ( “We should make them stand as a punishment” .. “We should call their parents”) , and usually the

complainant in this case PT sir, became the temporary member.. he had no major role, but to go along with the Majority..
so the unanimous decision was :  “Call your Parents”
S1 and S2 went immediately into cry  mode, “Sorry”,,”Never again”,,”Please”,, “Not mine”,,”his”,,”sorry”
S3 was silent, his heart and eyes were fixed on the glossy magazine, which by now had transformed from a rectangle to a cylinder,, the cover had some wrinkles on it.. the actress on the cover, if had got those wrinkles in real life, would have been very sad..S3’s sadness was about the same level..after all it was his first glossy book..
“Until you call your parents to meet, you can not sit in class ”
now everyone had gone silent.. S1 and S2 knew that cry mode is not helping, they were smart Crescentians, abandoning the failed strategy, they realized the situation was too hot to be handled by apologies..
S3 well, was still Sad faced but speechless..
that day the stood outside till end of school day, with repeated reminders of the sentence they had received..
on the way back, the Smart Crescentians figured that the issue will fizzle out on it’s own, if they did nothing and apologized the next day, and kept on apologizing, they were confident on getting through.. so they eliminated the option of calling parents… they could not risk a nuclear explosion at their homes..
however for S3, the sadness had taken him to a meditative state, and with this calmness, he had now become an even smarter Crescentian, he figured out that he will ask his parents to come to meet tomorrow… S1 and S2 were shell shocked with this announcement, they both got nervous and also had a moment of glee within them, nervous as it would look like only they were disobeying a direct order,, glee as they relished the prospect of drama: S3, Parents, and Madam Judge together..
S3 did bring his father the next day, they had a conversation with Madam Judge…. after which S3 was left to go back to class and got into the perpetual good books of Madam,, For the rest, S1 and S2 had to endure the punishment for another two days,, but they stuck to their resolve and the issue finally fizzled, but they entered the perpetual bad books of Madam, for which they paid very dearly, every time anyone in their class did anything, they were the ones to be punished first
all through the years it remained a mystery, exactly how S3 pulled off this stunt.. he himself kept mum on the matter, he knew not to trust anyone with his trick,, he was smart,, but it remained the most fascinating suspense of school.. how did he do it???

after all he had entered the jaws of a shark and was in the grip of a python
yet he lived

years later, like OJ he came out with “If I had to do it, I would have done it this way” version of the events
here is how it went
S3 went home and told his father the following story
S1 was copying in a surprise exam from a book, in which he had written all the answers in short, sitting on the bench the book was on his laps,, he saw PT sir coming so he pushed the book to S2… S2 kept it in his lap, but when he was asked to stand up, the book fell from his laps, S3 sitting next to S2  saw the book and picked it up INNOCENTLY, and this is when PT sir caught him sitting with this book on the bench..
next day his father came to met Madam, and the conversation went like this
Father: “Madam, I am father of S3, he said he has got into trouble because of A BOOK, and I am asked to meet you”

Madam: “Yes, you only tell, is this why they come to school, to carry such A BOOK and read it in class,, can’t they study instead”

Father: “I agree, instead of doing this, they should study, this is not right what they did with the BOOK”

Madam: “Yes, that is why I am strict, and they should learn a lesson, your son was caught sitting with the BOOK in his hands”

Father: “I agree, but you see S3 has told me everything,, The BOOK belonged to his friend S1, who was actually using it, and then Sir came, so S1 passed it to S2 and in all this it fell, and S3 picked it up, and was caught at the same time by Sir”

Madam: “Hmm, I guess the other two have not called their parents, so they must be liars, and maybe S3 is right,, anyways our point was that parents should also know what their children are doing in school, using such BOOK’s”

Father:”I agree, students should not use such BOOK’s they must instead focus on studying, after all studying will only help in exams”

Madam: “Yes, and next year they will be in tenth standard, she should learn to study hard, instead of focusing on such BOOK’s “

Father: “I agree”
the mix of “I agree” and “BOOK” meant that no one discussed
what the book actually was,, anyways it was an awkward conversation for both the parent and the teacher… more so for the teacher.

.
finally S3 was let go scot-free, along with a medal of honor badge (this guy is truthful : tells everything at home)
S1 and S2 were in shock… but they never tried to duplicate the strategy,, they did not have the guts..
and well S3 became the toast of the town…

anyways in conclusion
we got a Grade A confirmation that the Madhuri was in fact a deserving recipient of the award..
and you know Grade A tops all opinions even that of J P Dutta