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| Sunday, 26 February 2006 |
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The brat She peeped through the window bars. Yes! only the 'kind- hearted teacher' was present in the staff room . In two steps, she was out of the classroom. Her class teacher's drawling sound to take out their books disappeared in the distance. Shankana hated her. However, much she tried to behave, the old lady found a way to torture her. 'Shankana someone has stolen Chavidu's money, is it you?' 'Yes, I would have done something like that before, but I didn't do it after the' kind-hearted teacher' told me not to do so. How can I tell her?' Shankana went to the staff room with a heavy heart. Great 'Aha! Shankana today you look great, oiled your hair, your belt is in place, but where are the shoes and why are you limping?", the teacher asked. Tears welled up in her innocent eyes. 'It's Loku Amma she hit me with a broom stick for not washing my clothes.' Achchi amma applied oil on my legs, but they are still hurting'.
She sat heavily on a chair in the staff room. The' kind- hearted teacher,' Mrs. Perera, widened her big eyes and was in shock for a few seconds. She wanted to tell the girl that it was not nice to sit with a teacher in the staff room. Sitting with a teacher in the staff room was not correct, other teachers would disapprove of it and some will not even be decent enough to hide the distress in their faces. Of course it didn't matter if the seat was offered by a teacher and or if the child who sat with a teacher was from a well-to do family! Mother "Why won't you go to your mother? At least she won't beat you like this?", Mrs. Perera suggested for the second time, seeing the pain in the child's eyes when she came to visit her.The child had come to visit her the next month, after an absence of three or four days. It was her Loku Amma again. "She hit me till a pot was broken as she suspected me of telling the neighbours about her various male friends". Shankana's right arm still had ruddy bruises. Mrs. Perera's heart sank. "How could I help this child I can't take her to a childrens' home. At least, Loku Amma provides for her and the girl was not sexually harassed. Will this Loku amma only stick to physically punishing the girl ?", these were she thought the teacher. "Yes, why can't you tell me why you hate your mother so much?". After the second or third nagging by the teacher. Shankana opened her mouth. "I don't even want to see her. She killed my father" and the next moment the girl was out of Mrs. Perera's sight. Shankana was like a restless animal always demanding love, yet so reluctant and was always with a tiny flick of resistance. In the next week, Shankana came again to the staff room with her head down, yet looking very determined. Loved "Madam, my father loved me very much". She then showed a photograph of a young man with his hands around a little girl's shoulders. But he looked very notorious with two unclear eyes, unshaven face and a ruffled head. "Did he drink?" These words leapt from the teacher's mouth, although she regretted it the moment it escaped from her mouth. "Everyday, when father comes home, I run away and hide. Just in time to escape hearing his words disapproving my mother's cooking. 'Adath mewwada' is this all you have to cook today also?" "Where is your mother now?" "She ran away with an uncle. They have a child now." "I said, my father drank pesticides and was dead after a few weeks after my mother eloped." Shankana's voice fell into a murmur while revealing the information. Tolerate Was her mother wrong, could she tolerate the continuous hitting, disgraceful blames and poor financial help from her rude husband. So how come this little one says she doesn't love her mother. "Achchi amma is my father's mother, Loku amma is his sister, they won't allow me to go to my mother. They blame my mother for murdering my father. Police handed me over to Loku amma after accusing my mother of prostituting". It was the first day of the school "Madam, will you dress me, I don't know while wear this dress". Shankana in a yellow blouse and wrapped in a chintz came to Mrs. Perera. The teacher looked at the innocent beauty "Oh! child what could I do for you" she wept secretly while dressing and enjoying her innocent smile. "Why are you sad madam!" asked the child seeing the troubled face of the teacher. "Nothing! Duwa go and enjoy the day" Mrs. Perera turned away from the child hiding a tear. In the far corner of the school ground a flamboyant tree full of yellow blooms danced in the breeze even though it had sprang through a forest of brambles. Shalika Herath, Doranagoda |
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