Chapter 1

Twelve-year-old Dhruv sat crying in one corner of the playground, plucking at the grass, watching the other kids play at the far end. It had been a couple of months since he first started avoiding them. His friends often talked about how his dad and mom were separating and they would ask questions to which he had no answers.

'Do they fight?' 'Don't you try to stop them?' 'Will you leave us?' 'Will you stay with your mom or your dad?' 'Is your mom marrying again?' 'Is your dad?'

Their curiosity was legitimate. No one knew of such a case in their middle-class neighbourhood. Divorces, even in television soaps, were cause for much distress. Families were meant to stay together till the end of time.

School was a nightmare. He would have stopped attending if not for his mom. She taught in the same school—chemistry and maths for eighth and ninth standards—so skipping school wasn't an option at all.

Things had gone downhill so slowly that he didn't notice anything in the beginning. It was like Tetris on slow rewind. He thought other kids were going through the same crisis. For the past few months, there were rumours of his mother having a torrid, Mills-and-Boon-esque affair with the principal, who also owned the school and three other branches. The seniors would often cook up stories about his mother and the principal locking themselves in his room for hours. Dhruv would innocently ask, 'Why would they lock themselves in?' The seniors would affect a boisterous, evil laugh. He would ask again, 'Tell me, why would they lock themselves in? Tell me?' He would try hitting them and they would push him away. He would then lock himself in a bathroom stall for three straight periods.

Today morning, between the third and the fourth periods, when he was hiding in the bathroom, he overheard two seniors talk outside.

'I can't believe Namrata ma'am is banging that oldie. She's quite something, isn't she? Very perky breasts for thirty-five,' said a senior, probably in the ninth grade.

'Dude. We should totally check out the CCTV footage. Imagine her naked on top of that man! Did I tell you? That guy in the other class? Ramit? That bastard dropped a pencil and Namrata ma'am picked it up. She totally bent over and showed everything. He tried clicking a picture but it came out totally blurred.'

'Should we repeat it in her class tomorrow?' They laughed. Dhruv heard the taps run. The boys left the washroom.

*

Dhruv returned home in a sullen mood.

'Why are you not eating, Dhruv?' his mother asked, ladling another spoonful of rice, then cradling his face in her palms and kissing it. She was a good cook. Despite the toxic environment, Dad always ate quietly, concentrating on every morsel.

'I don't feel like eating.'

'You didn't eat your lunch too. Is there something wrong? Someone troubling you? Should I talk to your class teacher?' Mom asked, making little rice balls.

'I don't feel like eating, Mumma,' snapped Dhruv, pushing her hand away.

'What's the problem, Dhruv?'

'IT'S NOTHING! THERE'S NO PROBLEM, MUMMA. LEAVE ME ALONE!' His mother retreated in shock. Dhruv had never shouted at her. They were always on the same team. And then he spoke. 'Don't pick up pencils from the ground tomorrow.'

'Why?'

'Because I am asking you not to, Mumma!'

'But why?'

'JUST LIKE THAT!'

'What's the matter with you, Dhruv?'

'THE SCHOOL WANTS TO SEE YOU NAKED. THEY WANT TO SEE THE CCTV FOOTAGE OF YOU IN THE PRINCIPAL'S ROOM WITH THE PRINCIPAL.' Dhruv pushed the plate away and ran to his room. His father looked up from his plate, his eyes burning embers. For the next three hours, he heard Dad and Mom shout at each other in the next room, things breaking. He blamed himself for opening his mouth and cried into his pillow. Later that evening, he sneaked out of the house through the window.

*

It had been three hours he had been missing from home and no one had come looking for him. The other kids had gone home. He wandered the streets alone hoping that his parents, exhausted from all the shouting, would find him gone and come looking for him.

He had wandered to the E block of their apartment complex. This part had the cramped flats—little stinking one-bedroom apartments with flaky wall paint and wet clothes hanging from clotheslines in balconies. As he aimlessly looked on, he saw a family stroll out from the lobby, giggling and laughing. A middle-aged couple, much like Mom and Dad, and two kids. The younger of the two seemed to be around his age and she was staring at her sandals which flopped and made a clapping sound as she walked. Her skin was brown and white in patches, like a dalmatian, but she was smiling. Dhruv felt envy rip him apart.

I Love u Rachu

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