“Dad, you know what happened in the school today?”, Riddhi said excitedly.
“What dear?”, Saurabh said, concentrating on the traffic.
“Our Miss made Mayank stand in the corner”
“Did she? Why?”
“Because Mayank fought with me”
“But he’s your best friend, na?”
“Thaaat he is, but today he hit me so hard. I got a bruise. You want to see?”
“Okay…”, Saurabh said as he was stuck at the signal anyways.
“See?”
There was nothing to see. Saurabh wasn’t surprised.
“Don’t worry, dear, it will be OK tomorrow morning”
***
“Hey man. Sorry about Riddhi”, Saurabh said to Nishant.
“Why, what happened”
“Didn’t Mayank tell you?”
“No, what?”
“Riddhi complained about him and he got a punishment”
“Is it? No he didn’t say anything, that’s surprising. Mayank, come here… you got a punishment?”
“No Dad”
“Didn’t Riddhi complain about you?”, Saurabh asked.
“No. I complained about her. Miss gave her a punishment. Made her stand in the corner for the whole period. Ask Sanket”
Saurabh started laughing.
“This kid is impossible. She always creates stories”
***
“… and then he pinched me. So I gave him a beating”
“You should not beat anyone Riddhi. You could have complained to the teacher”
“Miss”
“What?”
“She is not called teacher, she’s called Miss. Miss Ankita”
“I’m sorry. I’ll remember that. You should have complained to Miss Ankita”
“She doesn’t like me. She says I make false complaints”
“But didn’t she punish Mayank that day?”
“That was different. I showed her my bruise as evidence”
“Hmmm”
“But today Miss punished me only… For fighting with Mayank”
“I’ll talk to your Miss, OK?”
***
“Mayank, beta, did you pinch Riddhi?” Saurabh asked, expecting a no.
“No uncle. She pinched me. I said I’ll complain to Miss and she started beating me”
“You know Saurabh, you should talk to a child psychologist or something. I know she’s too small, but she always lies so much!”, Nishant said.
“I know, yaar. I was thinking that myself”
***
“Daddy, I don’t want to go to Mayank’s place”
“Why Riddhi? Nishant uncle is home today, he’s going to take you guys to the zoo”
“I don’t like Nishant uncle”
“Now come on, Riddhi. You used to like him so much”
“But he pinches me…”
“Enough Riddhi!”
“I swear dad. He pinched me here”, she said, pointing to her chest. “It hurt real bad. I got a bruise. You want to see?”
A Fine Imbalance 
so what do we think now! *confused*
Its about child abuse?
-Punds
Nicely titled.
…This is an episodic story- just like life perhaps- no well-defined beginnings or ends, just episodes.
Same question – Child Abuse ?
bleu: never ask anyone what you *should* think 😉
punds, sigma: yes and no. actually i rarely explain the writings. i’d rather like to know what do you think?
m/w: hmmm, u’re probably closer.
then asuph, YOU got me thinking what you wanted.. in a way?! didnt you?
tricky situation she puts her parents into…
Cheesy art answers questions.. Good art poses questions(thats the gist, i don’t remember the exact phrase). So by that account this post scores quite well. Good one asupha..
bleu: 🙂 i did? good.
iw: thanks. means much. like i said (actually i never did), you’re my one reliable, usually bang-on-target, critic.