The Fire That Ignited Conscience

The Fire That Ignited Conscience

‘Get out of the class!’ ‘Right now!’, Miss Stellan screamed and the entire village got to know that another day at school has begun.

Miss Stellan was the Principal of the Central School of Excellence, which was the only English medium school in the entire village. She was nicknamed as ‘Miss Terror’ by the villagers. A very strict, harsh, over-disciplined lady, who just knew how to control others, especially the children at school. She couldn’t tolerate a single child coming even a minute late to the school. In our days, we used to bribe the watchman to allow us to enter after the morning assembly, as, it was way too difficult for us to wake up at 6:30 a.m. in the cold months of December and January.

But this was clearly not the scenario in the Central School of Excellence. A minute late, and you’d be punished for the entire day! Also, the punishments used to vary with Miss Stellan’s mood. A happy mood, and you’d be asked to stand on one leg for the day and a sad mood would ask you to run throughout the playground which was about 420 meters. Homework not done, and you’d not be allowed to have your lunch, plus do extra work within the deadline. Less marks in a test and you’d be humiliated publicly, and if you failed a class, then you’d be immediately suspended without any re-exam.   

Children had forgotten to smile and laugh in the school. It had a very gloomy atmosphere, which according to Miss Stellan, was a ‘disciplined’ one.

‘Very Good morning Ma’am’, greeted Rozy.

‘Morning’, replied Miss Stellan.

As soon as Rozy was about to leave, Miss Stellan shouted, ‘Hey Girl!’

Her harsh voice and rude expression were enough to scare little Rozy. Very meekly she said,

‘Uh…yes Ma’am?’

‘Why is your uniform incomplete? Where is the tie?’

‘Ma’am my sister said she’d need a week more to arrange the tie for me’

‘A week more? Why so? Have you foolish people taken an oath to not to adhere to the rules and regulations!’

Rozy couldn’t utter a word in front of her fierce gesture.

‘Speak you moron! Where is the tie? I’m sure you must have sold it to your friend in return for doing your class homework.’

‘No-no, Ma’am! My homework is complete and properly checked by our class teacher, Miss…

‘Shut-up! Stop giving names of your teachers who get fooled by your innocent faces. Remember this, I’m the School Principal. I have all the rights to ask and reverify anything that I wish to. And, without any further delay, I want you to clean the school Staff Room. So just leave’, she ordered.

‘Pardon me Ma’am, but I have my classes to attend. History, Design, English and then Mathematics.’

Miss Stellan grabbed her ear and pulled tightly.

‘Aaaahhhhhhh, Ma’am please, it’s hurting!’

‘You little spoilt brat! How dare you deny me, ha?!’

‘Ma’am please, I am telling the truth ma’am’, she begged.

‘You break the rules and then expect mercy! How poor is your upbringing! How irresponsible your parents are!’

‘I don’t have parents’, Rozy said and burst into tears.

‘I just have an elder sister who works day and night just for my studies and well-being, and she had told me that she’d surely get a tie for me in a week.’

‘Stop making pity stories, you liar! So what you don’t have parents? There are hundreds out there who don’t have, but that’s not any excuse! You have broken the rules of the School by not wearing the complete uniform. And, no matter how many classes you miss, but you’ll have to clean the Staff Room immediately!’

Rozy was kicked out of the Principal’s Office. With teary-eyes, she ran towards the washroom. She looked at herself in the mirror, and started sobbing.

‘Rozy? What happened?’, asked her friend Shea.

‘I…I…uh…’

‘Yes-yes? Say? Why are you crying so badly dear?’

‘Shea…she…hurt…ear…tie…’

‘What are you trying to say Rozy? I’m not getting anything? Stop crying please!’

Shea hugged Rozy tightly and patted her back so that she could feel better.

‘I miss mummy-papa. I miss my old village and school. I want to go back. I don’t want to study here’, said Rozy.

‘But why dear? Mary did so much of hard work just for your studies. She wanted that you study in a well-reputed English medium school. And our School is the only one in our village. Then why such sudden idea of going back?’, asked a concerned Shea.

‘I can’t bear Miss Stellan’s torture anymore! It’s just my fifth day here in the school, and she has scolded me badly almost three times with no good reason! I had forgotten the way to my class once, and upon asking a peon, she made me do the job of that peon for the entire day, just because she thought I was roaming around the premises without permission. Next morning, I got slow in the assembly march, as I was tired after doing the job of the peon. Running from here and there, up and down the stairs, carrying books and passing stationary, and serving tea to the teachers, plus cleaning the floor and what not. My legs were breaking in the march. She saw this, and made me run twenty full rounds of the playground, even during the killing-bright sunlight.’

‘Yeah I remember all of that, huh…’, Shea sighed.

‘That day I had given you lemonade and made you drink six full glasses of water, along with sprinkling cold water on your face every two minutes’, said Shea.

‘And today, again Miss Terror gave me an unnecessary punishment’, said Rozy, still teary-eyed.

‘You want to share what happened? I don’t want to force you to tell me actually’, Shea said politely.

‘Yes, I will share, once the school gets over. For now, I need to go and clean the Staff Room’.

‘Staff Room!!?!! But why now? Your classes? And why cleaning it alone?’ asked Shea, quite shocked.

‘I’ll tell you everything later, bye’, and Rozy headed towards the Staff Room.

Staff Room was in the extreme corner of the uppermost corridor. It was poorly lighted, with only a single small window, and was loaded with old-unused furniture, books, files, and so on. Dust had made its house on every single object.

With a deep sigh, Rozy first cleaned the floor with a broom and then with a wet cloth. The old tables and chairs, all kept systematically, yet in a congested manner. The dust was making Rozy cough every now and then. She was working without even a glass of water. She cursed her fate, her sister, and even her parents for leaving her alone in this cruel world.

After the school got over, Shea ran towards the Staff Room to check on Rozy. She was relieved on hugging her best friend.

‘We need to rush your home right away. You need rest dear’, said Shea.

On their way home, Rozy told the entire story to Shea. Shea got very angry at Miss Stellan and cursed her. She once again hugged Rozy when they reached her house.

Mary had not yet arrived from her work. So Rozy entered the house with the extra keys that she had.

‘Hey sweety! How are you? How was your day at school?’, asked Mary as soon as she arrived.

Rozy kept silent. Mary saw her pale face and asked again, this time, with a greater intensity in her voice,

‘My dear, what’s the matter?’

Rozy hugged Mary and burst into tears. She narrated the entire incident. Mary calmed her down and decided to break the fixed deposit in order to get the tie.

The next morning, with a heavy heart, Rozy went to Miss Stellan and greeted.

‘Good Morning Ma’am’

‘Oh! You are in complete uniform huh? Morning-Morning. So, as I was saying yesterday, you have to clean the Staff Room completely. I checked out the previous day, you hadn’t done your job efficiently. What’s the issue huh? Don’t you lazy girl ever does any work properly?!!’, she mocked.

‘Ok Ma’am, I’ll try to finish it entirely today’, Rozy said while trying hard not to express her tiredness on her face.

The Staff Room was much more messy and dirtier today. It seemed as if Miss Stellan had intentionally made it so. Poor Rozy, couldn’t help it. She just wept and got on with her work.

The school canteen, meanwhile, had a lot of rush that day. It was a Friday and, on every Friday, Miss Stellan used to monitor the canteen on her own. There was only one cook in the entire canteen. Miss Stellan had made it clear that the cook who was ready not to take a single leave in the entire year, would be hired. Thus, only one poor guy, Mr. Joy, who was in extreme need of money agreed to this condition.

Miss Stellan began screaming at Mr. Joy about the canteen management. She didn’t like that Mr. Joy used to give snacks for free to the children. She had told him strictly before as well that anything which comes for free is not valued. Still, a kind-hearted and a lovely soul Mr. Joy, had violated this rule.

‘How many times do I have to repeat the instructions Joy? Why doesn’t your useless head get it?’

‘Ma’am, I am myself a father of two kids. I love children. My conscience doesn’t allow me to take money from these little angels, please understand’, replied a thoughtful Mr. Joy.

‘Oh just stop this nonsense! Feelings only make a person weak and nothing else. You have to be practical and hard at heart. These children wouldn’t understand the value of food until they get charged for it.’

‘Charging them for food is not the only option available Ma’am. There are other ways as well. You could take them to a poor locality to actually show them how do people survive in starving conditions. This would actually infuse a sense of valuing things in them. And since they’re all in a tender age, they’d remember this for life.’

Miss Stellan wasn’t actually paying attention. Still, Mr. Joy continued.

‘Ma’am, I respect your opinion of maintaining discipline in life, but discipline shouldn’t cage the joy of living. In my point of view, every moment of life should be lived happily and joyfully. Discipline is necessary for achieving success. But there is no meaning of success without happiness. Feelings, emotions, tears, smile, these things matter a lot in a human’s life. Our conscience guides us to be perfect and strict, but at the same time, it keeps the liveliness alive within us and never lets us become a stone’.

Miss Stellan threatened to take his job away if he doesn’t adhere to the rules. She never agreed to Mr. Joy’s point of view. While she was shouting, a smoke could be seen from inside the kitchen section. Mr. Joy begged to go and check once, but Miss Stellan disagreed. She completed her temper-tantrums and left in rage.

As she headed towards the Staff Room to check on Rozy, there was a fire outbreak in the canteen. Mr. Joy ran to ensure that the children leave the canteen immediately. While he was busy in vacating the canteen, Miss Stellan reached the Staff Room and gazed at an exhausted Rozy.

‘You silly moron! You still aren’t done with such a simple task. What should I take from this?’, she scolded.

‘Ma’am! I can hear kids shouting from the canteen. I guess there is some issue. We should go right away’, said Rozy.

Miss Stellan also heard the voices, but ignored them out of overconfidence.

‘Oh! No more excuses you spoilt brat! Even I can hear them, but it’s quite normal that you kids keep on shouting every now and then for no good reason!’

The fire spread across the school. The heated atmosphere made Miss Stellan go silent for a while. She opened the Staff Room door and got terrified.

‘Fire! How the hell this happened in my school!’

While she was trying to run, she slipped and fell on the floor.

‘Ouch! My leg!’, she wailed.

Rozy rushed to her and gave her a hand. She helped Miss Stellan get up and made her sit on a chair.

She immediately got the bucket of water that she had for washing the floor.

Little by little, she kept on throwing mugs of water. Miss Stellan was watching everything but couldn’t even move from the chair.

Mr. Joy had already called the fire brigade. He was trying hard to control the panicky atmosphere. And then it was obvious that Shea considered her best friend to be dead. She had also considered it a possibility that Miss Stellan might also be dead with her.

The mere thought of the death of her bestie and the Principal broke Shea from the inside. The pain was drowning her from within.

After a while, a person from the fire brigade team, came running with a little girl in his arms. Shea’s face just got lit up with immense joy. She went to Miss Curie, the department head of the Health and Wellness Club. Miss Curie along with Shea brought a faint Rozy in a nearby house. They sprinkled water on her face, rubbed her fingers, hands and her legs constantly. Even Mary had reached there by then. Mary’s hands got folded and her closed eyes prayed hard for her only sister to come back live.

Suddenly, an unexpected voice was heard from behind.

‘She’ll be fine’, said a familiar voice.

Shea got astonished at the sight. She couldn’t just believe her own ears. It was none other than Miss Stellan showing a great concern for Rozy, the girl whom she had almost put to death.

‘Ahhh!’, Rozy’s mouth could manage only that much strength to show her existence.

Everyone took a deep sigh of relief and pleasure. Mary stood up from her prayers and kissed Rozy’s forehead. Shea almost broke into tears and thanked the All Mighty for saving her best friend.

Miss Stellan came near to Rozy, with tears of guilt in her eyes and spoke shiveringly,

‘My dear! I’m alive today because of you. If you hadn’t taken the charge of fighting the fire with the available water, I would have been dead by now. I understand that it’s impossible for you to forgive me, but still, as a human being with a conscience, today, at this moment, I apologize to you for all my misdeeds’.

She went to Mr. Joy and confessed,

‘I concede to your point of view. I thank you as well for making me a human being again from a mere living stone’.

Mr. Joy became the sole coordinator of the canteen. Now the food was available for free to all the children. The so-called Miss Terror of the school had now become Miss Favorite of the kids. She had changed as a person. A person with feelings, maturity, softness and kindness. Rozy was very happy in her new class and she had fallen in love with the school.

Sometimes, people need to face a tragedy to listen to their conscience and transform into a better individual. It doesn’t make any person small in conceding to another’s point of view, if their conscience agrees with it.