The Ordeal

It was half-past six in the morning and the Garden City was sluggishly wakening from a sunrise slumber. In a place like hers, the month of May marked the peak of summer and the morning light was playing hide and seek through the window curtains. Rithanya was still sleepy as she woke up to some unusual bustle, rubbed her eyes and looked around her. Scratching her head, she slowly walked down the hallway to the living room. Her family was assembled there and a tense atmosphere prevailed. She looked at her father. The 5’6” figure with his tummy outgrowing his body and salt and pepper hair on a balding head, kept on punching numbers on his Nokia 1600 on the veranda. His face showed annoyance.

Probably the other person is not picking up the phone, she thought. Wonder what worries him. Varadarajan – Her father, whom they called Dadda, was a headmaster in a reputed city school who taught science to the super senior level students or the Grade 12 ‘kids’.

Rithanya's eyes looked for her mother. Well, she was sitting in one corner of the room, where the computer was placed. Geetha – her mother, their Amma- was also a headmistress who taught higher-level English to school children. Resting her cheek on her left hand, she was puffing and panting. She was equally tensed as Dadda, anxiously looking at the LED screen of the computer. Her right palm was dragging the mouse over the mouse pad. “Poor mouse, if it had a mouth it would have wailed non-stop”; this time Rithanya thought aloud.

“You brat! You can never be serious, can you?” Her brother Satvik chimed in.

Satvik was her younger brother by age, but far more responsible than she was, far more sensible than she ought to have been and far sweeter and caring than she expected of him. His normally innocent-looking face was now furious. He was staring at her. However, she was able to spot a flash of happiness creeping out of him on seeing her. She smiled at him and his strict, fearful, fatherly, and responsible look went for a toss. He laughed back. Hearing their laughter, their father came inside the room. He might have gone out to the veranda hoping to get a better signal on his mobile phone. Looking angrily at both he yelled, "What is happening? You are not bothered, are you? Can't you be a bit concerned? It is your life-deciding moment". He continued turning to Amma, "This is why I always tell you not to pamper your daughter. She is turning naughtier every minute."

“Well, am I the one who pets her? Seriously! What about your son? Look at him cuddling her.” Amma pointed at the siblings. The protagonist of the story was happily resting on Satvik’s shoulders. He was whispering something in her ears as he pushed her aside hearing Dadda. She presumed that he wanted her to wake up and be smart. She blinked. “She is a spoilt child and you are solely responsible for it, Satvik,” Dadda began again.

Suddenly, with a jolt, Rithanya remembered. Oh, today is the deciding day. Her tenth-grade result was to be out. She would go to the next level of the school, the Higher Secondary, based on today’s results. She realized what the chaos was all about and did some guess works in her mind. Her Dadda, being in the field of education, was trying to contact his colleagues to know her marks in advance and plan her admission to the best possible institution. Satvik was busy activating the ‘SMS Score’ services offered by the network provider in which one must register his candidate roll number and the scores will be sent to the mobile number as a message.

“Oh, it is the results today, isn’t it?” She exclaimed waking up from her drowsiness. Her brother sighed. It meant to her: 'you and your stupid mouth, just zip your lip'. He frowned, indicating her to keep quiet. He even shushed her to be silent. "I don't understand what you are saying, Satvik. For heavens' sake, can't you please speak up?" she yelled back to him. Satvik leaned on to the wall with his hands on his head. He was sure by then, that Rithanya would get him to be reprimanded by Dadda.

“Don’t you even remember that today is your result day?” Dadda asked her angrily. She sheepishly smiled at him to mean she had forgotten. She really had forgotten. It had been a long holiday – the summer vacation. Instead of her usual routine of sleeping until mid-day, going for a bike ride, basking in the sun, sipping cold sugarcane juice and eating some spicy chaat and then a throw ball match, here she was, awake before seven in the morning. The lack of proper sleep was irritating her even more. “Rithanya, why are you behaving like this?” It was Amma’s turn to scold her.

“Dadda! Amma! Come on, please. In four hours, I will have my results displayed on my school notice board. I can pick up my bike, go for a ride and check the results. Why are you making a fuss?” Rithanya voiced out. She was slowly losing her temper.

“Seriously? Are you not concerned about your results? We are worried about your admission to a top-grade school that can educate you very well and get you into a medical college. You are not even bothered to check your results?” Amma’s anger was at its peak. Rithanya looked at Satvik helplessly. He was staring at her with no sign of help and not to forget, angrily too. But he eased the tension. “Ma, let it go. Check out these two schools. Maybe we can put her in a boarding school. That way, she will become more disciplined.” He showed the admission advertisements of some schools in the dailies.

“Yeah, you will send me to a hostel and here you will happily enjoy everything without me; chaat, chocolates and ice-cream and Amma’s yummy food. Why do I have to go to a hostel to get ‘disciplined’? I don’t agree. If I am to be put in a boarding school, then you are also coming with me,” Rithanya said, gibberish-overloaded.

“Gosh! Please do not tell anyone that you are sixteen. Idiot, you are to be sent to a girls’ hostel. I am a boy and obviously, I can’t come and stay with you.” Satvik responded to her gabbles.