Chapter 5: The Tale of a Pencil Box

On the dusted old shelf was an old rusted pencil box.And it cought the eyes of Sheki who was on his way to bathroom( he was in an unusual hurry).Coming out he took the box which he vivdly remembered stealing an eraser from.
Back to the living room he sat amongst others and painfully tried to open the rusted box.After much try it gave way and it opened.It cought Mama’s eye.And the memories of it came flooding back to Sabi.
Years back it was the very same box from which Mama revealed a really big secret and the way he revealed he was a sure shot detective in the making.
It was Lunch break and it was the time when Sabi used to gobble up his lunch fast, along with Bendhu(Shubendu) and head out to play the additional 25 minutes.
Nobody knew how it all began but just as he left half a dozen guys and gals in their sweaty uniforms huddled arouthe box.It was a regular pencil box with a soft sponge sheet to give bedding to the pencils and pens.But there was no eraser in the lot as Sabi was really pissed off at the growing number of eraser thefts, he stopped bringing it altogether.
But who cared if he brought an eraser or not.
What laid beneath the sponge covering was what mattered.
And then Mama ever so cautiously and gingerly removed all the pens and pencils one by one.
And all waited with bated heart as Mama slowly opened the sponge layer.
What they saw inside did not make sense to anyone. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!! SABI HAS GONE NUTS!!! Was the first reactions. Nari(Nihar) started running his brilliant cunning brain but even it could not come up with anything reasonable to describe what was in front of their eyes. No it was not a picture of alien chik in bed.
Scribbled badly with a ball pen with great difficulty on floor of the metallic box was a CODE!!
Now not even the smartest 7th grade kid will have it easy cracking this CODE with series of random numbers!!
All hated Maths and this thing was all numbers.All started concentrating hard.Nari staring intently at the digits as if trying to hypnotise them and make them speak out their true meaning, pallu giggling vuhuhahaha in an attempt to make the digits LOL and tell the meaning( reverse phschology you see ;)) and appu shaking her head sideways left, right and her hair neatly tied in two plaits ,which were flying and swinging in every direction and hitting Dumma(Sanith) all over his face( I cant tell you what was going on in his head). But none were smart enough, not even the reliable Swappu(swaroop) or the intelligent Cango(kumar), while Amari(Amarnath) and pikku were seriously pissed off that sabi had finished off lunch before them and so would have an advantage in the game( will be revealed later) and so were just waiting like hungry vultures for someone else to break the CODE so that get right back at Sabi!!
As the time ticked and with no breaktrough the gals were beginning to panic which evident by increased giggling of pallu and appu who was smiling and increasing the speed of shaking her head resulting in more smacks on Dumma’s face.
And the woes only escalated with the arrival of Dummi( Sanjana, No she has got nothing to do with Dumma :P )
As she came through the door and noticed the huddle, her instincts smelled something, GOSSIP ,she loved it and headed their way to get into action.
Thump thump ,her footsteps reached Mama’s ear and he looked at her. There was strong rumours of Sabi having a crush on her so he looked back at the code.
And then as Sanjana alias Dummi made her way and pushed poor pikku and amari aside to get a better look which angered Amari no end and he tightened his grip on one of Sabi’s pen ready to poke her but Pikku grabbed back the pen and said in a stern voice “Dude, You’ll break the pen!!” And they somehow managed to get back into huddle.
As mama concentrated hard ,Pikku and Amari ran out of patience, nari started looking out at the door to fore warn arrival of Sabi, Pallu giggled on,Swapu and Cango started adding,subtracting,dividing and multiplying in order to get anything sensible,Appu continued shaking her head and swing her hairs and Dumma continued getting smacked on his face by her plaits( he hated the oil in her hairs, otherwise he was fine) and just sat listening to her heartbeat which he later realized was his stomach groaning as he had left his lunch midway.
And finally the hard work payed off as Mama proclaimed “I cracked it!! Each number stands for a letter, I saw this code in the newspaper last week”. He took the pen from Pikku’s hand and tore out a sheet of paper from Sabi’s book and wrote down all the letters in English on one side and alpbhabets next to them.
A-1
B-2
C-3
.
.
.
Z-26
He scribbled the Code below it as Pikku,Amari,Nari,Swappu,Congo,Dumma,Appu,Pallu and Dummi(who had no clue what was happening) looked on waiting…

9 - 12 15 22 5 - 19 1 13 15 19 1

And Mama began

9=I

12 15 22 5 = L o v e!!! Yeah….. Muhuhahaa!! Mama knew what was coming!!

They all knew what was coming, they just knew it,It got to be her, they knew it, Appu and Pallu couldn’t wait to see Dummi's face, Nari and Dumma couldn’t wait to spread the word, Pikku and Amari’s smart brains started scheming how to make Sabi’s day miserable, Mama was already proud to be the Decetive in the making,as for Swappu and Congo, they couldn’t wait for the class to begin!!

19 1 13 15 19 1 = S A … " N J A...Yeah Yeah its her.. " they crooned. But Mama was the 1st one to notice that something was terribly wrong.

The code translated into "I L O V E S A M O S A"

Damn! Damn! Fuck! Shit!! They cried in disappointment as Sabi came back to class after having a tough match of “POLE to POLE”( evovled from TREE to TREE and its a very tough game ,trust me :P!) and was surprised to see all the crownd around his desk.
And Pikku and Amari started laughing and teasing “You love Samosa... You love Samosa…hahahahaa”
And Sabi shrieked “Arghaaa…!!!!!!!!!!” and he was as red as a tomato.
Now back in Sabi’s drawing room he grabbed the box and 3 pairs of strong hands grabbed it back and all had a good look at the smudged and fading ‘code’ etched out on Sabi’s Pencil Box some 7 years back may be for the last time......

To be continued........


Disclaimer: I can't stress how fictional this is. Parental guidance advised for use of abusive languages! Crap!!