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Lavanya Nukavarapu

Drama Tragedy

4.0  

Lavanya Nukavarapu

Drama Tragedy

Roti

Roti

3 mins
18.2K


Rani walks alone to the school with her torn shoes, sewn multiple times, her socks beyond repair but shrouded by her shoes and her patched school uniform. She stops at the small Dhaba on her way to school. Her mouth waters at the sight of a buttered roti and dal. But she bites her lip hard while her stomach lurches with hunger.

At the school, before the first class starts, she drinks a bottle of water to control her hunger so that she can concentrate on what is taught in the class. The maths teacher, Mrs. Prabhu, today draws a big circle under the heading shapes and symmetry. She asks the students to name few things they love which are circular in shape or things they can think of which are circular in shape.

But Rani is somewhere else, at the Dhaba, eating roti and dal. She drools, tries to remember how the roti tasted six months ago. She has been eating rice, not even rice, only leftovers that her father bought home; sometimes they were stale and smelled bad, but her family ate without a complaint. They were fortunate to have something to eat. But today her desire to eat roti is irresistible.

She hopes during lunch time, one of her classmates offers her a bite from their lunch boxes. But they never do. They bully her because of her poverty and treat her like an untouchable.

The students call out one by one: helmet, sun, full moon, football, orange, clocks, wheels, coins. On her turn, she blurts out roti, and the class laughs.

Mrs. Prabhu offers her lunch box to Rani during the lunch break – roti and dal. She controls her tears while she is chomping the last bit of the roti, feeling gratitude towards her teacher. And that marks the beginning of her student life. Daily she shares the roti with Mrs. Prabbu. In the evenings Mrs. Prabhu tutors her along with other children, but for Rani the tuitions are free.

Mrs. Prabhu and Rani never talk other than studies. The tuitions improve her academics, and the roti keeps her hunger at bay. And Rani never looks back. She brags scholarships, the condition at her house improves, she gets a sponsor – a poor girl from slums finishes her education and stands on her feet.

Years later, she returns to the same school as maths teacher but is disappointed to find that her teacher has retired. So she visits her teacher’s home to thank her. The one roti that her teacher gave her had taught the best lesson of her life – never to give up hope.

She finds her teacher in a poverty-stricken stage, famished and battered. She holds her teacher’s hand and asks her, ‘Do you remember me?’

‘Roti?’ the teacher replies looking through her foggy and unclear glasses. ‘Can you lend me one? I haven’t eaten since two days.’

Rani brings her teacher home and promises to take care of her teacher for the rest of her life. Life has come a full circle – a maths class where she was learning to draw circles to tying the rough and knotty hair of her teacher into a circular bun as her teacher is relishing her meal of roti and dal licking her fingers like a small child. A full circle from roti to roti.


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