Karwar Tales

It was not the first ray of the sun which woke him up. But it was the smoke from the exhaust of the first bus from Karwar busstation to a near by town which woke him up. He woke up looked around and realised that it was five in the morning. He has to prepare for the days classes. He immediately got up and folded his dirty sheet from the platform which served as his matress for the night and went into the public toilet for a bath. He then went to the corner of the platform where he had kept his meagre possesions which included a school bag with books and two pairs of uniform provided by the government school which he was attending and a few old clothes given by his classmates.  He dug into his shirt pocket and came out with a five rupee note. He then proceeded to the tea shop nearby for a tea. "Yen Raju, hegiddiya" asked the tea vendor. "Chennagiddine anna" replied Raju as be paid for his tea and made his way to the corner where his books were kept. He then began reading a portion of poetry in Hindi. 

As Raju was reading it he gradually went into deep thought. He  remembered his  father who would teach him to read difficult hindi words. The last he had seen his father was an year ago in the morning of that fateful day when his father stole money from the hotel owner where he worked  as a waiter and escaped to Kanpur his native. Raju wondered what his mother would be doing at that very moment.  It was almost four years since his mother a local Karwar woman ran away with another man never to be seen or heard again. Raju  then remembered the unique chuckle which she used to give on various occasions in the past. Raju then felt a sudden shoot up his leg and then he saw a constable weilding his stick ready to strike his leg a second time. He had fallen asleep on the platform. He asked a passerby for the time. The kind old man looked at him at replied "Vombhathu Khalu".  The boy got up and rushed to school. His school was to begin at nine and he was aleady fifteen minutes late. Another day had begun....