But I didn’t run away!

One of the most basic ideas that every child gets when he or she gets scolded by the parents is to run away and lead an independent life. This thought can come at any stage of the childhood years. I had seen my cousin sister threatening her Mom that she’ll storm out of the house because she was scolded badly due to her mischievous attitude and using bad words that she had picked up from school. This girl was only four years at that time. Realising that she doesn’t have the permission to go down the stairs, she decided that coming to our house was the safest option and packed a few dresses, pants, a bottle of water, two sweets and two lemons that her grandma had got for them. She told her Mom, she doesn’t wish to stay with her anymore and walked out straight and reached our door. She knocked and when I opened the door, I could see her angry face and my aunt’s giggling face from the other side. She came and told my Mom, she’s now her daughter and demanded that she will eat, sleep and bathe in our house. She will only speak to her Dad because he’s the only person who understands her. How thoughtful!

But my case wasn’t the same. Technically, I had no intention of doing any such things but what happened out of a tiny miscommunication gave shape to the following incident.

It was raining and my school, like any other school, didn’t formally declare a holiday. Since I always used to go to school with my Dad and return in the school bus, we had not checked whether the school bus is available on that day. I was dropped at school and my Dad left for his office, which was about 100 mtrs from my school. Upon reaching the class that we, hardly five or six of us, were told that no classes will be held on that day and the teachers gave us free periods to enjoy. Being in my fourth standard that time, my school used to get over at 2:40 pm afternoon. When school got over, I was told that there is no school bus available and I will have to call my parents to take me home. Didi was appearing for her graduation exams at that time and Ma was busy with her. So the option of calling home was stroked out, despite knowing the fact that there are others in the family who can come and pick me up. Well, the next suggestion I gave to the school authorities was that they can drop me at my Dad’s office and I can go back with him. I am the last in my family to have studied in this school after my aunt and my sister. They knew me and Dad quite well. They agreed. I was dropped at Dad’s office, went to his cabin, sat on his chair and happily slept off. My Dad wasn’t in office at that time, obviously. He came back after about a couple of hours and was taken aback to see me sleeping. He asked me about the whole incident and immediately realised what must be going on back home. Ma and Didi would have returned home from the exams and found out that I haven’t reached home yet. My uncles and aunts would’ve panicked by now and started looking out for me. Dad picked up the phone to call and found the line busy. In an era with no mobile phones and only a landline connection, you are limited in your actions. He was finding ways to communicate to them about my whereabouts while they might be trying Dad’s office number to ask or inform about me. Therefore it was a total chaos without me understanding what’s going on!

We finally decided to go home as early as possible and started walking towards the parking area. The second shock and to my amusement, I witnessed my Dad getting scolded for the first time ever! My uncle was trying to find a parking space with my sister. They both got out of the car and greeted us with angry faces. Didi kept asking, rather scolding me about whatever happened while Dad got scolded for not informing back home. Quite a weird and funny situation with both elder siblings scolding their little ones. 

Well, we reached home and Mom was relieved to see me alive and not kidnapped or that I did not run away anywhere. I was then scolded and told for the umpteenth time that a family at home means everyone and not only your parents and sister. I should have called home and informed someone. That was a lesson that I learnt and remember till date. But now, if you think about it, everyone in the family thought I would have run away because someone must have scolded me. But I didn’t.

PS: For quite some time afterwards, I was being watched closely by everybody and my cousins faced the same situation too. However, the regular dose of scolding didn’t go down!