Short Story with Moral Lesson – National Scribble
Photo credit: anitapeppers from morguefile.com
As usual it was very traffic in the Marina beach road at chennai even at 7.30am morning. I can see the school students getting into the crowded bus and some ladies accompanying their children in the same bus carrying their children’s heavy school bags. Sorry that I forgot to mention my name. I’m sundar. I’m a software engineer working in a well-known IT company. I used to catch 21H from kannagi bus statue to reach my office at OMR(Old Mahabalipuram Road) road outside the Chennai city. The bus 21H actually starts from Broadway to OMR Shipcot. Obviously a village panchayat district. My office located at Navalur which comes before shipcot.
I was waiting for my bus at 7.30 am in the morning near Kannagi statue bus stop to catch my bus. There are more bus frequency for my bus route but still all are crowded as it covers long route. Mostly it carries IT people as the OMR(old mahabalipuram road ) contains many Software companies. Some College as well as School people travel on the same route. Mostly I liked to take AC bus 21H. But still it will be crowded. I have this habit of scribbling on the seats of the bus or atleast the walls or windows. If I don’t have a pen, I will just scratch on the wall with my room key. My hands will get busy doing scratches all over the place where I get a place to sit. Even if the bus is crowded, I will do my job of scribbling on the place where I stand. I actually started it for time passing but later it caught as a habit to me.
On that day, I catch my usual route bus to my office which is not over crowded at that time. Many school students are there. I saw a little kid speaking with her mom. Her signs made me to laugh. I took the back seat which is adjacent to the footboard. I can now clearly hear the little kid’s voice. Her voice is so cute.
“Mummy I forgot the poem u taught me. What shall I do in the exam?” she pinched her mother.
“It’s ok baby. I will teach you now” her mom replied. For around 10 min they by hearted the poem. Then her mom took a maths book from the kid’s bag.
“okay now we shall revise some sums. I will give you a number and you should do addition.” She started to write something on the front seat back. She wrote with a pencil as 2+5 = ?.
I watched them forgetting my scribbling habit. I can see that the mathematics book labelled as class III standard. I saw the kid stretching each of her fingers and started counting. She finished it and grabbed the pencil from her mother’s hand saying “Its 7”. But what she did surprised me and even her mom. She took a note from her bag and wrote as ‘7’. She now asked innocently “Is it right mom?”.
“Yes dear” she hugged her child proudly and asked why she wrote the answer in the notebook instead on the front seat back. “Oh mom you used to scold me for drawing on our home walls. That’s why I didn’t write the answer on a wall. Did you forget?” She asked keeping her hands on her waist. Her mother once again hugged her and placed a kiss on her forehead.
Something made me uncomfortable. I felt shame on myself for the first time for the shameful thing that I have been doing unconsciously. Yes I have the habit of scribbling on the walls.I have never felt bad after all these years as I saw many people doing the same on bus stands, public toilets, railway stations, inside train compartments and even at temple. This is very common in our incredible India. Right from our childhood we have practised it once we come to learn the ABCs or any of the languages. We cannot blame our politicians for any of the vandalism. It’s after all only the educated citizens of India do all these scribbles and make the public property nasty.
Next day morning as usual I took my bus route. I took the corner seat next to the bus conductor. I felt boredom but my hand didn’t scribble on the walls and it took a paper to write a letter to the Mayor of Chennai city corporation insisted to bring awareness on the scribbling, Pasting violated articles in public party with a subject as “National scribble”.
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