Day 4 | The Highschool Clerk
Ordinary memoirs of an extraordinaire dreamer.
You read that correctly Medium. As mundane as it sounds, the clerk of a high school did not, in those days, lead a particularly privileged life or one that was loaded with high privileges & perks. The sole favor the school management had bestowed upon the clerk was this two-room staff quarter. You must let go of any high expectations before understanding its built quality or economic worth. Since brick & mortar, marble, or steel, were beyond the reach of the rural ecosystem, the ability to afford them was beyond anyone’s imagination.
The Clerk’s Quarter
A paddy straw roof covered the quarter, which itself was constructed of wooden boards and bamboo meshes. Clay & limestone powder plaster was applied to cover the entire surface offering it a smooth texture. You’d have the impression of entering a medieval limestone cave once inside. In any case, putting aside its dreary existence, I can tell you that the Clerk’s bachelor life was going to transform here. This little quarter would accumulate so many priceless memories in the years to come that subsequent chapters wouldn’t be able to fully recount them. But I promise to give you an accurate depiction.
The Headmaster’s Eden Garden
Just 50 meters to the east were the Headmaster’s quarters, pouring salt to the underprivileged’s unhealed wounds. A Headmaster and a clerk at the same school could, to some extent, be seen as having different living standards. His quarters or should we say the luxurious villa was made of laterite stones, plastered with expensive clay and limestone mixtures, tiled in the red roof, and supported by square-shaped wooden logs. Almost twenty varieties of colorful flowers would adorn their front garden. A clerk might live in a mud hut, but the headmaster had to live like a king owing to the social strata that were set by a monopolistic hierarchy of profession. Since he’s the school’s head, everything must adhere to the school’s prestige. So by design and by visual appeal, you were distinguished as “who you are” in a surrounding of underwhelming suppression embedded all across.
Three Mango Trees and Two Peons
Regardless of the underwhelming introduction to the clerk’s quarter, which was located in the northwest corner of the school campus, you couldn’t deny the beauty of the lovely garden that was surrounding it.
Ten meters apart from one another, two little mango plants could be seen as newly sowed. On the day he started working at the school as the clerk, Mahesh Babu had purchased these two varieties of mango plants from the village haat.
Two peons also entered the school on the same rainy morning that year. For the following twenty years and beyond, two of them were obliged to report to Mahesh Babu. These two peons, Bramha and Tirnatha, were destined for new prosperity in their impending lives, just like the young mango trees’ growth. Nobody was aware of what lay ahead for them. But as time went on, the plants grew. Bramha took care of one while Tirnatha groomed the other. Along with maintaining the flower gardens inside the school, they were expected to water them daily.
Two other mango trees were also purchased on the same day and planted in front of the Headmaster’s quarter. Unfortunately, one was eaten alive by termites and died within a month. The other one, fifty or so meters apart from the clerk’s quarter, grew just as quickly as its cousins.
To Win Million Hearts
Medium, if other events hadn’t happened, the story of these three mango trees tended by two peons and overseen by Mahesh Babu would have ended differently.
During the same week, a dark-brown infant entered the Headmaster’s life. Following two boys and a girl, their fourth child was given the name Hriday in the hopes that he would one day grow up to win the hearts of millions and millions of people. Hriday accomplished many other things in his life, but I doubt he ever managed to win anyone over, let alone hearts. Anyway, we’ll have a lot to say about him in the coming chapters. How could we overlook his evil valour? Our protagonist’s journey would be impossible without him.
During that specific week, a lot of things happened at once. It was the luckiest week ever, according to the Headmaster’s wife. Yes, she was fortunate to have survived the dreadful experience of giving birth to her fourth child.
During that specific week, a lot of things happened at once. It was the luckiest week ever, according to the Headmaster’s wife. Yes, she was fortunate to have survived the dreadful experience of giving birth to her fourth child. How? Only fifteen kilometers separated the village from the closest dispensary. To reach the lone asphalt road that led to the closest town, you had to cross a river and traverse a 12-mile stretch of wilderness.
How do you commute from school to the town’s sole dispensary? Using a bullock cart. You heard it right. As a matter of fact, the headmaster’s wife was transported using a bullock cart. They must have driven for at least three hours to get to the dispensary. She screamed in labor pain the entire trip. Hriday would never emerge. After a four-hour wait on the dispensary veranda, he finally arrived around nine o’clock at night.
Mahesh Babu was always there with a helping hand for the headmaster and wondered why people got married and had children! He had no idea that his life would be graced with new beginnings in the coming weeks and months. Yes Medium, Mahesh Babu will soon tie the knot.
Who would be that lady luck?
Ha ha ha, let’s hold onto the information until the next time, sweetheart! For today, goodbye.
©Ajit Mishra, 2022, All Rights Reserved.
