My first shot at story writing

On a dusty summer afternoon, mama's weary eyes wait patiently for her Tintu to come back from school. It’s already past 1:30. Anytime she might hear the doorbell. But it’s not happening now. So mama switches on the television set to catch a glimpse of the afternoon soap. No, the concentration is lacking, the mind being still on the doorbell. She lowers the volume of the TV set in case it might distract her mind, still no calling-bell. Mama looks at the clock once again. The wait has been over 20 minutes now and she starts getting impatient. She cannot wait now and is eager to pull kiddie in her lap. Finally the wait gets over and the doorbell rings. Mama rushes towards the door and opens it. In a flash of seconds her wait turns into anger. She pulls Tintu by her ear and drags her inside the house.

"You have soiled your clothes like a dirty fellow.”

“What do you do in school? Always quarrel with your friends?"

"But mom!" she whispers.

"Stop! Don’t tell me anything. I am not going to listen to your excuses.”

“You are not going to have anything for lunch today. That’s your punishment. “

Tintu starts whimpering now, but mama is unmoved.

Her breaking voice only utters a single word 'tiffin'.

"Nothing, nothing, nothing for you today" and she pulls and locks her in the room.

The repeated banging of the door is heard; the whimper turns into violent sob. The sound gets fainter and fainter as Mama puts a pillow on her face and lie down on bed.

Deep in her thoughts, a sudden series of random events crosses her mind. The effort to put those pieces together totally engulfs her. There have been no cases like these earlier. Never ever it has happened that somebody has complained about Tintu’s behavior in school. On the contrary, everyone has been praising sweet little Tintu. What could have been wrong today? All the logic behind this still hovers in illusion when suddenly the telephone rings.

"Hello mam, this is Mary from Little Flower school. May I speak to Mrs. Dutta?"

"Yes, speaking".

"Mam, I have something to tell you. Tintu was not able to find her tiffin box during the break. She was able to find some five and half rupees after lot of searching and digging her school bag. With that precious little fund she queued up the school canteen to get at least something to eat. The rush at the canteen queue was too much for sweetie to cope up with. She just took one little bite from her precious possession when somebody pushed her when the food fell off her hand into the dress. So Mam, please don't scold her for no fault of hers. She has been such a nice and wonderful child. Thank You Mam ! "

A sudden clamor wakes her up. Being able to recollect the crazy little dream that nearly made her heart skip a beat; she rushes to the kitchen to find the packed Tiffin- box lying close to the oven. All the events start making sense. Taking a deep breath, she turned very slowly towards the locked door to fling it open. In every direction she could see Tintu whimpering. She found Tintu sleeping deeply in the far corner of the room. She quickly pulls her up and hugs her deep. She could barely stand, a sinking feeling totally arrests her and as she pulled her forehead and kissed, a sudden gust of emotion blows and tears starts flowing down her cheek.