Saved By The Camera

It was the end of the first day of a new school year and instead of looking forward to go home like any other child, Rohit was dreading the bus ride back home and for good reason! Every day of the last school year, he had been bullied by a group of senior boys, who called themselves The Gang. They would taunt him badly by throwing rubbish at him or shoving him or throwing his bag to the ground as soon as the only teacher on the bus got down at her stop until the bus reached his stop. This year, he had hoped against hope that The Gang would magically be assigned to another bus. However, that was not to be as he had caught sight of the boys staring at him with a bullying look in their eyes that morning on the bus ride to school and all the old dreadful memories came flooding back bringing tears to his eyes thinking of having to endure The Gang for yet another year!

As soon as the school bell rang, Rohit tried to hurry to his bus to find a safe seat in the front near the bus driver or the teacher and be as far away from The Gang as possible. But alas, his classroom being on the third floor, it took him a while to get to his bus by when all the safe seats were gone and as fate would have it the only empty seats were in the row in front of The Gang!

Already in distraught, he started praying to all the possible Gods he could remember at that moment to protect him from the wrath of The Gang and he counted every second of the bus ride just to keep his mind engaged and distracted from The Gang. Stop-by-stop he felt butterflies in his stomach and an increase in adrenaline as his anxiety grew.

Finally, the teacher’s stop came and he felt a lump in his throat and he tried to fight back tears as the next instant, The Gang had emptied their water bottles on him, drenching him from head to toe and his new bag with the new books in it. He helplessly tried to shove them off, but he was one against four and he got kicked on his backside multiple times. To his relief, his home’s bus stop came and he got down in tears as he went home.

After getting back home and brooding over for a while, he had no choice but to focus his attention away from the incident and onto other things for the next school day. As he was browsing through the school diary to update his personal information that needed to be submitted, something magical that could remedy his hopeless situation caught his attention! All of a sudden, he felt a weird sense of boldness and relief as he went to bed that night. 

The next day Rohit boarded the school bus and as soon as it reached school, he went straight to the principal’s office and narrated his ordeal to the principal. He had done the same the previous year. But even though the principal was sympathetic to his complaint, the investigation was not fruitful as there was no proof or witnesses and it was Rohit’s word against The Gang’s. However, Rohit knew that this time would be different based on what he had discovered in his diary! 

Soon, The Gang was summoned to the principal’s office. They were questioned about the bullying incident the previous day which they denied as they had done the previous year. They once again, said that it was Rohit’s word against their word. Then came the punchline from the principal when she said to The Gang: “Get ready to be surprised when sometimes, somewhere, someplace, when you least expect it, someone steps up to you and says, ‘Smile, you are caught on camera!’”! 

At that instant, Rohit’s excitement and sense of relief knew no bounds! The principal then proceeded to show them all the footage of the bullying incident the previous day caught on the CCTV cameras that had been installed on all the school buses in the new school year and told The Gang that it was in fact their word against their word.

Rohit thanked his lucky stars that had helped him find out about these CCTV cameras from the school diary under the Bus Policy the previous day and gave him the idea that this could be the solution to his bullying woes. Facing the consequences, The Gang apologised to Rohit and they never dared to bully him ever again. Rohit felt relieved and happy that his favourite technology had come to his aid and he had been Saved by the Camera!