Tale of A Different School

"We had a great childhood. We used to stay together whatever the matter would be." Barun echoed those lines to the more than thirty children sitting on the benches in a classroom. 

Barun is the principal of an NGO school called 'Child Care'. He is 40 years old. He teaches children how to behave properly and live with unity. Many parents admitted their children to this school so that their children can quit the obsession of using mobile phones and learn to play outside with friends. This is a one week course. The syllabus includes 14 sessions which are completely free of cost. Each session lasts for 40 minutes. The age limit of the students for this course is from 7 to 10. 

Barun used those lines in the 11th session to make the children understand the necessity of helping each other. He continued.

"We used to live in a village where there was no electricity. At that time, my age was 9 and I read in class three. I had two best friends, Rano and Bapi, who had the same age as well as the same class. We always went to school together, played together and studied together. We never played indoor games. Instead, we preferred outdoor games. Our parents were also good friends. They often visited each other's houses without any occasions. 

One day, from our school teacher, we heard an announcement. A 100-meter long-run competition would be held in our school playground. Along with the other students, we also took part in the competition. We would practise long run daily in our nearest field for the preparation of winning the competition. We all dreamt of winning separate medals in separate rounds of the competition. Finally, the competition day came.

 On the day when we reached the school, we saw our school playground was well decorated. For the purpose of running the competition, the playground was split into 7 rows with the dust of chalk. We had been watching for almost two hours that the other students were running and few of them were winning. 

Finally, I heard my name was being announced. However, I also heard both of my best friends' names were being announced in the same round. The three of us were amazed to listen to the announcement. We clearly understood that we were going to compete with each other. However, we did not think much about it and stood in respective rows as instructed by the sport conductors. I stood in row 1 and my friends were in 4 and 6. It was a 100-meter long run. The whistle blew and we ran.

At the time when I was a few metres away to reach the first position, I looked at my other friends. I saw Rano holding one of his legs and sitting in the middle of his row. He, in order to reach the first position, tried to run fast but carelessly stumbled upon a small mound. I, seeing him in that situation, forgot everything and ran towards him. Bapi followed me too. We both, lifting him in our arms, ran out of the school gate in an attempt to take him to the nearest doctor chamber. We could listen to the announcement, "You can't leave from the middle of the competition. Come and join. It is a punishable offence." However, we ignored everything."

Barun paused and looked at his right. The other children also looked at the entrance door to the right side of the classroom. They saw two men entered through the door and stood beside Barun. Barun, with great excitement, introduced them as his best friends, Bapi and Rano. He exclaimed in joy, "We are still together."

All the children in the classroom stood up and began to applause. The sound echoed in the classroom. Barun said, "As we violated the rule of competition, we were dismissed from class for 15 days, but were later allowed after our parents were called".