Miss Slippery (Part - 1)

1.4 Miss Slippery - Part 1

(Given below are extracts from the story of a lonely girl who is teased by classmates in school. Because she is upset and unnerved due to certain problems at home, she is unable to do any task well. The story tells us what happens next.)

PART - 1

I got ready and went to school. In the first period, our class teacher, who taught us English, told us to take out our composition notebooks. I took out the mathematics notebook by mistake. I replaced it quickly but the teacher, perhaps, had kept her gaze fixed on me. She shouted, “Come here with your book, Sayali!” I obeyed her but her angry looks made my legs tremble and when I reached her chair, the notebook fell on her feet. Some girls laughed loudly. The teacher thought that I had dropped the notebook on purpose. She stared at me with an all-devouring look. “Go and stand near your seat,” she yelled. I kept standing, punished for the whole period. The next was History class and my favourite subject. The teacher had asked us to memorize the causes and effects of the Battle of Panipat. I was wellprepared. She began testing all of us, one by one. When my turn came I went blank. The teacher gave me a stern stare, while I stood there stiff, still, with my head hanging down in shame. Mama and Papa continued their never-ending tiffs. Papa used every opportunity to express his annoyance. Mama on her part, did not allow any such occasion to slip without turning it into a vociferous quarrel. The quarrel was between the two, but the punishment inevitably descended on a third one, that is me at school. Wherever and whenever I heard raised voices, I felt as if Mama and Papa were quarrelling. Sometimes, even in the midst of silence, Mama’s screams came piercing through my ears. And, whenever I heard Mama’s high-pitched yells, my legs quivered. One day, I was coming down the school stairs. Somebody from the top gave a frantic scream. I fell and came tumbling down about seven steps. My elbows and knees were badly bruised. My new frock was torn at the seams. When I reached home, Mama shouted, ‘‘I am sick of you. When will you stop making me pay through my nose for such extravagant losses?” Mother seized me by the arm, gave me a good jerk and seated me on the bed. She fetched an antiseptic lotion and applied it to my elbow and knees; but did not hug me. Within me lingered the yearning that she would hold me and console me! Even if she had given me just a sympathetic pat, my smarting limbs would have been soothed. My younger brother was close by. As Mama walked away to the kitchen, he came and sat beside me. He placed his little hand on my arm and whispered, “Are you in great pain?” I hugged him tight and started crying again. I used to walk quite cautiously, yet I would often stumble. One day, the class monitress announced, “We’ll call her ‘Slippery’. Others slip on wet ground. Sayali manages to slip even on dry land.” That provided the other girls of the class new scope for fun. They teased me with the new title every day. Soon, a verse was composed in my honour : “Slippery! Slippery! Slipping without muck! Ask her the simplest question No answer is your luck!’’ I lived in perpetual fear of everyone the girls, the teachers, the young and the old. When I was in class, I dared not move out and when I was outside, I was afraid of re-entering the class. Nor could I muster the courage to speak to anyone.