This is the link to the 1st Part.

So the following evening . I started my plans , how can I skip the school and escape from test. I got an Idea. In the previous post I told you that the building on which we were residing was a lengthy one. They were two staircases to reach our home. One staircase was the front one and other was a like a backdoor type.Most of the people in our building used the front staircase, it was seldom that anyone used the back one.The backdoor staircase was very closed to my home, so whenever any conversation took place in the balcony ,it can be heard in the staircase.using this I could make out if any one was approaching the staircase or not.  So I thought tomorrow I will go and sit in the backdoor staircase and no one will notice me. like this I can skip my school. In my mind, it never came to me that I can go to any park or some other place, being a 7 or 8 year old the idea never crossed. So it was went as planned, the next morning I got ready to go to school , I picked up my bag, said bye to mom and secretly went to backside staircase and sat there. There was a little problem in my plan.  usually in those days I never had the habbit of taking lunchbox to school, since my school was a walkable distance , I used to come home during lunch period to have my lunch and then again go to school. I did not had watch at that time , to see whether it was a lunch period or not, but I also had worked out this, The school in which I studied was a Muslim Minority School, so the lunch period in our school was always during the “Azaan” or “Adhan”  period of the mosque, For those who don’t know what is Azaan?  It’s actually the call for prayer which is used to notify the muslims about prayer time , the afternoon azaan usually took place at 12:20 pm and 12:30 pm to 1:20 pm was my lunch period. There was a mosque near my home, so when I heard the azaan , it was time for my lunch, so I would wait for 10 to 15 minutes , keep my bag in the staircase, go out and come from the front staircase, eat lunch and then quietly go to my place of hiding after lunch.  The day went very well, I sat the whole day just like that, I don’t remember how I passed my time there and one more thing, the back staircase was very dark one , as there was no window or any type of holes where light could pass through, so the whole day I sat in that dark place. So like this my 2nd day of bunk to school took place, but still now my mind was playing games with me, still I had the fear of test. I though if the teacher had not conducted the test on 1st and 2nd day, 3rd day is sure that she will conduct the test. So I decided I will not go this whole week. I will go the next monday, I continued with my plan of skipping the school.

The other day when I was sitting in my hiding place ,  I heard the voice of my mother talking to my neighbor aunty, she told her that she was going to the market to buy vegetables.  I waited for my mom to go to the market, once she went. I went upstairs quietly. Those days most of the houses in Chennai used to have wells build inside the house, it used to be  an open well , so during rainy season, the wells will be filled with water and we can use the water in the well for domestic purposes. Once I came up , I found that one of our buckets was left near the handpump, it was empty. From the very young age, I had the habit of helping my mother , so I thought why not I  fill the bucket,since mummy will be tired because she went in this scorching heat to market, I will help her.  I went near the handpump and started pumping it to fill the bucket. I was very happy , I thought mom will be suprised seeing that someone has done the work for her. To my suprise,  I found that mom has not locked the house , she had just used the latch, there was no lock. In our   each neighbor used to look after each other, so there was no need to lock the house when someone went outside for a short time.

I don’t know ,what came into my mind ,I looked around no neighbor was there, so I opened the latch of my home and went inside. I went into the bedroom and hid myself under the bamboo mat.

When my mother returned from the market, she was suprised to see that the latch of the door was open and someone has filled the water bucket. She thought that she must have forgotten herself to lock the door while going to the market. She continued with her usual work of the home. She was sweeping the bedroom , while sweeping the floor,she took the bamboo mat and found that there I was hiding under it. She was shocked to see me, how come I came from School so early and what I was doing there. I told her everything , how due to the fear of the test , I skipped the school . This time she was not happy with me, she was angry , the first thing she did was a tight slap on my face, I Started crying there. She caught hold of my one hand and took me into the kitchen. There she took the “Chimta” (tongs) in other hand and she turned on the gas stove. She placed the chimta on the burner, I was crying profusely, She asked me will you do this kind of activity next time? I said no ,    I will study mummy, I will not skip the school . Please leave me , don’t burn me with Chimta. Please. I started crying very loudly, my mom understood that I have realised my mistake. She turned off the gas stove.

My elder brother came for the lunch, along with him, I went to the school. The things which are destined to happen will happen   (Woh kehte hai na  ” Jo hona hai hokar rahega” )  I had to give the test . The teacher made me to give the test that day. So this is how I bunked my school. Friends , this was the first and the last time in my school life , that I ever bunked or skip any classes. After the chimta incident , I never had the courage to do this kind of act. By the way , I improved my reading skills gradually,… I started enjoying learning.