Dr Fixit (091 - 100)

 091

a bar of wood or rod join to another

squarely at the middle. The welder

or carpenter placed the horizontal bar up

and the vertical down. The bar at the top

of the small case with its handle like an umbrella

cut across at the middle. The letter

was pronounced, 'Teh.' Mrs Bearit set a task

like before for her pupils to do. We basked

in our newly acquired confidence

and pronounced, 'Teh.' Indolence

092

and as well as intelligence are masked,

the instructors agreed, in a general task.

The curriculum merged us together like

domestics in an enclosure at night.

When the day breaks, our true size and height

would be ascertained but can real might

be known in a balance and tape?

Mrs Bearit knew these facts: the real could be fake

at our age and so she was extremely patient

with every one of us. Sometimes, she was lenient

093

to a fault. While the other teachers

would've said the pupil was a fool, our teacher

said she knew we enjoyed her class but when pressed

we should boldly meet her and take excuse not to mess

our frames but decently go to the lavatory 

to ease ourselves. 'A man of great oratory,

an icon in Antwood and a bold name

on a golden plaque in the army ants' Hall of Fame

had,' Mrs Bearit said and pointed at the broken bench

propping the door after escorting the one who did drench

094

his pants, 'that bench and sat here to be taught

like you all.' I'd since then curiously sought

to know who that icon was in Antwood

by asking Loveit and then grandma but they could

not really fathom it as they knew little of theatre

as they said going in itself was a real drama

(in fact, our theatre was beside the jailhouse

and was tagged, 'Prison Staff Club.' The real grouse

could've been its name. But as we followed

the area to the stream, I planned to borrow

095

some seconds to go glance at the faces that graced

the posters on the noticeboard till the face

of the icon I could identify and emulate.

If Mrs Bearit praised him, then he was great -

I wanted my great teachers to mention

my name too to other kids during their tuition.

Meanwhile, we returned to our lesson,

learning things that would grant us our pension

and fame. Mrs Bearit pointed to the next letter,

the seventeenth actually, and the character

096

was pronounced, 'Uh.' The class rumbled

with the sound which was well-known in the jungle

as it was used to call someone around the wood

if lost, to show position or as the sun would

dip below the horizon, to go back home.

'Uh' was to us a familiar dialling tone.

The image of the big case was like three poles:

one laid on the ground, (not in holes)

the two others stood upright and were joined 

at its ends. An extra long pole was turned

097

or rather, bent in the middle to join

(that is how the small case was drawn)

slightly up above the bottom of a pole upright

which was equally of the same height

as the one opposite. The eighteenth letter

was pronounced, 'Weh.' The character

is like a triangle without the baseline

joined at its ends with two poles. (While we reclined

and listened attentively to Mrs Bearit,

someone slept. Our teacher tiptoed and hit

098

the top of the desk with her pointer

and the lass stared up. 'What's the matter,

sweetie?' she asked. 'Or do I send you on a race

like the lad in the morning on the pitch?' Every face,

including the culprit's, lit up while she shook

her head pleadingly. Our teacher to the nook

of the chalkboard returned and resumed

teaching us. 'When I teach and you sleep, I'd assume

the lesson is boring. Am I right?' We screamed:

'No, ma.' 'Don't sleep or a walk to the stream

099

'and back we'd take.' 'Yes, ma,' the whole class

responded. Hearing 'stream', I jumped and did something crass.

'I'd like to go to the stream!' I screamed.

'Yes, Mr Fish. But I won't let you swim

if I take you there. Back to our lesson, everyone,'

Mrs Bearit said. 'After this, we are done.'

The nineteenth letter was the last set

of images on the board. 'Yeh,' Mrs Bearit said.

We copied her, our eyes on the pointer.

Like the frame of a catapult was the big letter.

100

The small case resembles the big but it sat,

I mean its head, above the baseline where the part

that looked like a tail went below it

and then its end curved to the left. Here we hit

the end of the lesson on the nineteen letters,

capital and small, that all our teachers

would employ to write every word in Antish.

Knowing them wouldn't allow us to languish

in society as the well-learned formed the core

of bureaucrats and even the custodians of law