The village of Aksa - Chapter 2
As usual the morning bell rang just after sunrise to wake up all the students. The bell was loud enough to wake up even the soundest of sleepers. As soon as he woke up, Janaka’s head was throbbing with the pain beginning from the furrow of his forehead slowing creeping towards the side near his ears. He got up to look outside his window to catch the first rays of the sun that was split by the golden shrine of the school’s temple hall at about hundred yards away from his room. Catching the sight of his classmates rushing to class made him realize that he too had to be in the appetite for yoga class in ten minutes. He hated the appetite for yoga class because the master, Mr.Roop, would frequently ask Janaka to come up to the front of the class and demonstrate the different postures that were being discussed for that day. Janaka’s small structure allowed him to be extraordinarily flexible but in this particular case played to his disadvantage. Fortunately for him, the instructor decided to demonstrate the postures himself during that day’s class.
Janaka was very restless in class because he wanted to share the previous night’s accounts with his friends Samba and Taal, who were now sitting in the opposite corner to him. It would be quite a while before he can actually meet with them and talk. After this there was just the creative writing class before lunch. He was already preparing a huge list of items to discuss. The half hour creative writing class seemed to extend forever in Janaka’s mind and he felt that words that came out of the master’s mouth were being drawled down to each vowel. When the recess bell rang for lunch, Janaka rushed towards Sampa and Taal to inform them of his meeting with Bala. The three of them walked to the playground cautiously to find a lonely spot.
“The whole thing is still a puzzle to me. It turns out that I am their step brother after all, we have the same dad. But Bala wasn’t clear about a lot of things. He did mention that we were also from Aksa and that he had been there just once. I have wanted to talk to you guys about this but since I came back late last night and got up just in time for class this morning I really didn’t get a chance. I don’t if we can make anything out of all this.”
Taal immediately asked “How did Bala travel to Aksa? I haven’t heard of anyone besides big yogis do that.” This was the first time Janaka saw some excitement in the two of them but apparently they were more excited about the village of Aksa than his own story.
“I have no idea. It must have been a long time ago, maybe when he was a kid. It’s just frustrating that he left me with no details about anything besides the fact that I am his step brother.” said Janaka.
Sampa, in a consoling manner, said “I’m sorry. It must have been hard for you to take all of this in one day. I know of a friend named Klacken from Camili who might give us some insight on all this. He is extremely close to his history teacher, Mr. Saman, who is well versed with the history of this area. But let me first talk to him. He is not a big fan of our school and so I would rather not gang up on him with questions.”
It was obvious to Janaka why Klacken did not like the company of Ashra students, infact no one from Camili liked Ashra. Camili came second to Ashra in the previous two Shorren championships even after having the home advantage for one of the years. The Shorren championships were held once a year and gave a fair opportunity for the ABCD schools to demonstrate their rivalry against one another in a variety of literary and sport activities under the supervision of all the headmasters and judges. The Shorren championship for this year was quickly approaching within the next couple of months and the excitement among students at Ashra was conspicuous as they were going to be the hosts. In the middle of all the rivalry and heat of the championship preparations, Janaka was less hopeful of Klacken in providing them with any information at all.
While the three were enmeshed in their own thoughts Taal suddenly broke the silence and said “It struck me now. Long time back, maybe more than two years ago, I heard Mr.Khaus, the retired master in the art of flying class, explaining to a student that he wouldn’t be able to go to Aksa without the master’s help. Noticing me eavesdrop on their conversation he quickly changed the topic of conversation. I couldn’t recognize the student but he must have been in his senior year at that time.”
“So that means Bala must have acquired the help of Mr.Khaus or some other person of the same caliber to go to Aksa. I must find out from him today how he got there. It seems like there is a lot that we are not aware of. By the way, where do the students go after their senior year anyway? Could they go to Aksa? I can’t imagine them being here as there is nothing in this village other than schools. They have got to work somewhere.” said Janaka
Sampa interrupted by ignoring the latter part of Janaka’s comment by saying“I think that’s pretty clear that we don’t know much in this matter. Infact I don’t know anyone in our year that even knows as much as we do now. Now that we might be stepping out of boundaries in this matter I would prefer to keep details from here on within ourselves and be very secretive about the whole thing. Be especially careful of Kanth and his group of friends, they are well known to spread secrets and rumors around and sometimes even complain to the teachers. Janaka, it might even be better to avoid this conversation with Kanak as he and Kanth are in the same study group.”
Backing support to Sampa’s final statement Taal said “Yes, beware of kanth. He even hinted to me yesterday after class that the three of us have been seen together a lot lately and asked me what the hottest topic of discussion in school was about. I just ignored his comments and asked him to mind his own business.”
Sampa giggled and Janaka agreed to comply with Sampa’s requests. The three of them spent the rest of the lunch time joking about Mr. Roop’s accent during his sessions on the appetite for yoga. They just had one more class on dance before the end of the day. Janaka found the dance class to be better than yoga as he wasn’t made the guinea pig in class. The dance madam, Ms.Gauri, was very expressive in both the way in which she taught her class and danced. She even gave them insights on the history of the dance pertaining to Atipu. One of the best aspects of going to any of the schools in Atipu was that all the subjects taught in those schools had some innate relation to Atipu or the surrounding villages. The teachers in several classes often pointed out that the syllabi was designed to create interests among students and they believed that that interest was most likely to spark from the topics they bore the closest relation to i.e., the village.
At the end of the day, Janaka walked back to his room in deep thoughts of his schedule to find time to meet Bala and ask him about all the things that were such a mystery to him. His determination to talk to Bala at that very moment was so severe that he galloped back to his room in concentrated speediness like a sprinter trying to reach his destination. When he approached bolch hall and before he could even stop himself from crashing onto the front doors, he felt an external force in him pushing his body forward to travel beyond the closed doors. Even as he consciously decelerated himself to halt, this unknown external force enabled him to travel through the doors and within a flash he was inside the building, without even opening the doors.
He was amazed at what just happened. He tried to relive the moment and thought it perhaps was a dream but then it wasn’t. He was so excited at what just happened to him that he now wanted to get out of the building in the same way. While trying to walk back through the door he banged against the door thereby injuring his nose. A group of boys who were walking across the hallway watched the comical scene and shook vigorously in bawling laughter. He was now confused and was wondering whether it was really an imagination. He was almost certain that he had just walked through the doors a couple of minutes ago and yet it seemed like a mere fantasy.
Looking at the confused expression on Janaka’s face one of his friends Schlapp who was also in the sixth year asked him if everything was okay. But Janaka had too many things going on in his head at that moment and hastily replied back that he was doing fine and that he was just in a hurry. But Schlapp was surprised to watch Janaka walk towards the lounge area rather than outside the building.
(Chapter - 2 to be continued)
Janaka was very restless in class because he wanted to share the previous night’s accounts with his friends Samba and Taal, who were now sitting in the opposite corner to him. It would be quite a while before he can actually meet with them and talk. After this there was just the creative writing class before lunch. He was already preparing a huge list of items to discuss. The half hour creative writing class seemed to extend forever in Janaka’s mind and he felt that words that came out of the master’s mouth were being drawled down to each vowel. When the recess bell rang for lunch, Janaka rushed towards Sampa and Taal to inform them of his meeting with Bala. The three of them walked to the playground cautiously to find a lonely spot.
“The whole thing is still a puzzle to me. It turns out that I am their step brother after all, we have the same dad. But Bala wasn’t clear about a lot of things. He did mention that we were also from Aksa and that he had been there just once. I have wanted to talk to you guys about this but since I came back late last night and got up just in time for class this morning I really didn’t get a chance. I don’t if we can make anything out of all this.”
Taal immediately asked “How did Bala travel to Aksa? I haven’t heard of anyone besides big yogis do that.” This was the first time Janaka saw some excitement in the two of them but apparently they were more excited about the village of Aksa than his own story.
“I have no idea. It must have been a long time ago, maybe when he was a kid. It’s just frustrating that he left me with no details about anything besides the fact that I am his step brother.” said Janaka.
Sampa, in a consoling manner, said “I’m sorry. It must have been hard for you to take all of this in one day. I know of a friend named Klacken from Camili who might give us some insight on all this. He is extremely close to his history teacher, Mr. Saman, who is well versed with the history of this area. But let me first talk to him. He is not a big fan of our school and so I would rather not gang up on him with questions.”
It was obvious to Janaka why Klacken did not like the company of Ashra students, infact no one from Camili liked Ashra. Camili came second to Ashra in the previous two Shorren championships even after having the home advantage for one of the years. The Shorren championships were held once a year and gave a fair opportunity for the ABCD schools to demonstrate their rivalry against one another in a variety of literary and sport activities under the supervision of all the headmasters and judges. The Shorren championship for this year was quickly approaching within the next couple of months and the excitement among students at Ashra was conspicuous as they were going to be the hosts. In the middle of all the rivalry and heat of the championship preparations, Janaka was less hopeful of Klacken in providing them with any information at all.
While the three were enmeshed in their own thoughts Taal suddenly broke the silence and said “It struck me now. Long time back, maybe more than two years ago, I heard Mr.Khaus, the retired master in the art of flying class, explaining to a student that he wouldn’t be able to go to Aksa without the master’s help. Noticing me eavesdrop on their conversation he quickly changed the topic of conversation. I couldn’t recognize the student but he must have been in his senior year at that time.”
“So that means Bala must have acquired the help of Mr.Khaus or some other person of the same caliber to go to Aksa. I must find out from him today how he got there. It seems like there is a lot that we are not aware of. By the way, where do the students go after their senior year anyway? Could they go to Aksa? I can’t imagine them being here as there is nothing in this village other than schools. They have got to work somewhere.” said Janaka
Sampa interrupted by ignoring the latter part of Janaka’s comment by saying“I think that’s pretty clear that we don’t know much in this matter. Infact I don’t know anyone in our year that even knows as much as we do now. Now that we might be stepping out of boundaries in this matter I would prefer to keep details from here on within ourselves and be very secretive about the whole thing. Be especially careful of Kanth and his group of friends, they are well known to spread secrets and rumors around and sometimes even complain to the teachers. Janaka, it might even be better to avoid this conversation with Kanak as he and Kanth are in the same study group.”
Backing support to Sampa’s final statement Taal said “Yes, beware of kanth. He even hinted to me yesterday after class that the three of us have been seen together a lot lately and asked me what the hottest topic of discussion in school was about. I just ignored his comments and asked him to mind his own business.”
Sampa giggled and Janaka agreed to comply with Sampa’s requests. The three of them spent the rest of the lunch time joking about Mr. Roop’s accent during his sessions on the appetite for yoga. They just had one more class on dance before the end of the day. Janaka found the dance class to be better than yoga as he wasn’t made the guinea pig in class. The dance madam, Ms.Gauri, was very expressive in both the way in which she taught her class and danced. She even gave them insights on the history of the dance pertaining to Atipu. One of the best aspects of going to any of the schools in Atipu was that all the subjects taught in those schools had some innate relation to Atipu or the surrounding villages. The teachers in several classes often pointed out that the syllabi was designed to create interests among students and they believed that that interest was most likely to spark from the topics they bore the closest relation to i.e., the village.
At the end of the day, Janaka walked back to his room in deep thoughts of his schedule to find time to meet Bala and ask him about all the things that were such a mystery to him. His determination to talk to Bala at that very moment was so severe that he galloped back to his room in concentrated speediness like a sprinter trying to reach his destination. When he approached bolch hall and before he could even stop himself from crashing onto the front doors, he felt an external force in him pushing his body forward to travel beyond the closed doors. Even as he consciously decelerated himself to halt, this unknown external force enabled him to travel through the doors and within a flash he was inside the building, without even opening the doors.
He was amazed at what just happened. He tried to relive the moment and thought it perhaps was a dream but then it wasn’t. He was so excited at what just happened to him that he now wanted to get out of the building in the same way. While trying to walk back through the door he banged against the door thereby injuring his nose. A group of boys who were walking across the hallway watched the comical scene and shook vigorously in bawling laughter. He was now confused and was wondering whether it was really an imagination. He was almost certain that he had just walked through the doors a couple of minutes ago and yet it seemed like a mere fantasy.
Looking at the confused expression on Janaka’s face one of his friends Schlapp who was also in the sixth year asked him if everything was okay. But Janaka had too many things going on in his head at that moment and hastily replied back that he was doing fine and that he was just in a hurry. But Schlapp was surprised to watch Janaka walk towards the lounge area rather than outside the building.
(Chapter - 2 to be continued)
posted by Mt. Heaven at 12:34 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home