The adventures of Pappu is a new series of amusing events from my life – a la Tintin (ok am not some bigshot here! Nevertheless am giving myself the opportunity to be on the same plane as Tintin although Tintin’s adventures are much more interesting and mind boggling ;)
EAST POINT SCHOOL, RANCHI: STANDARD 1
I was a boy who had just been transferred from De Nobli, Dhanbad and had come to this school to attend I standard at half term entry. My teacher, obviously curious to know about me (i was that sweet, an instant attraction ;) ) called me to her side and began asking my name and stuff. Now here comes the best part of the interview ;). She asked me, "tumhare kitne bhai behna hain?". And here comes the talent of Pappu! I instantly, and very proudly answered, "gyarah! "(11). Teacher was stunned, bamboozled, shocked, petrified, perplexed, panic stricken and what not! She immediately asked me, "sach me beta? tumhare 11 bhai behan hain??" obviously worried at the horrible family planning by my folks! Bihar is notoriously known for its poor family planning with people having 5-6 children at an average. Now Pappu had done the impossible by shocking the Mass reproductive Bihari!
Taught from my childhood that all my cousins are my brothers and sisters, i had this firmly etched in my brains that my brothers and sisters are the ones being born to all my relatives across this country. Poor pappu is a lone kid and so was happy to have so many added instantly :). I guess my folks taught me this thing so as to avoid any adolescent adventure with my female cousins when i grow up ;) LOL!
Continuing the story, i strongly replied "Haan Miss!" to my teacher's confirmation question. but this teacher wasn't going to give up. She tried a smarter question now, "Unka naam batao (give me their names)" and Pappu the great replies "Prashanth, Kishore, Bharat, Arti, Swati, Vibhushita...blah blah blah.."! All hell broke lose now! Teacher asked me what their ages were, and fortunately or unfortunately all of them were younger to me except kishore. And the younger ones were young enough to imagine proper births with proper age gap! :)This was like thunderbolt to the lady!
Dear Parents
Please meet me tomorrow before ten in the morning
This was written in the notes section of my school diary! She strictly asked me to call my parents the next day. Pappu the great finding it strange that his parents were being called for no fault of his!
NEXT DAY
In come my parents with worried looks on their faces expecting some rather unexpected complain about me. Pleasantries exchanges, the lady got to the matter. The first question asked was "Kya aapne family planning nahi kiya?" (Haven't you done family planning?) This was like a nuclear bomb dropped on my parents. Poor they, they had stopped with one kid and here is a lady asking weird questions! Maybe more than one kid is family planning...maybe the rules have changed! Only after narrating the conversation that she had had with me, did my folks understand what was happening. Giving amused looks at me, my folks finally cleared the air of doubt! Phew! the teacher took a breath of relief and so did my folks!
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