Connecting the dots

“When connecting the dots, you will say the alphabet out loud,” the sister with white hair shouted at the top of her voice.

Kittu did not like the sister with white hair. Yesterday, she had pinched him on his arms for talking to David.

“Do not talk in class. Pay attention to what I am saying.”

The area around his forearm where she had pinched had turned red and hurt. Kittu couldn’t understand how someone could be so mean.

“Does it still hurt?” asked David. They were talking during snack break. Classes for lower kindergarten students were for two hours a day. They started at 9 AM and ended at 11 AM. There was a 15-minute snack break at 10 AM.

Krishna Prasad Naidu, or Kittu to friends and family, was eating an orange cream biscuit. David was munching on an apple. David was worried for his friend. Kittu had cried his heart out in class yesterday.

“Stop crying,” the white-haired sister shouted. 

Her habit hid most of her hair, but the streaks showing were all white. Her name was Sister Alphonse, but the children called her the “white-haired sister” behind her back.

“Did you tell your parents she pinched you?”

Kittu shook his head. He had not told anyone. He was not sure how his parents would react. Maybe they would blame him for talking to David in class. Kittu never understood why parents always took the teacher’s side. They’d tell him to behave, listen, and be a good boywhatever that meant.

“I know a way you can talk and no one will know,” said David. He clenched his lips and kept talking out of the corner of his mouth. David looked funny while doing that. Kittu started laughing.

The school bell rang, signaling the end of snack time. The friends walked back to their classroom.

It was English. The four-lined books had the alphabet on them, one page for each letter. The letters were all in dots, covering the four lines. The idea was to draw the shape using your pencil and say the alphabet out loud. It was difficult work. David was as bad as Kittu at connecting the dots. Their lines slipped all over, and the letters looked like drawings.

“Look, this is a lizard,” said David.

Kittu looked at the page.

“No, it looks like a cockroach,” he said. Both friends laughed.

“Krishna Prasad Naidu, stand up,” said Sister Alphonse. “Why are you laughing in class?”

She came over to check Kittu’s class book. She was shocked. The page was covered with drawings.

“What did I tell you to do?” Sister Alphonse asked.

“Uh… draw… in the book,” Kittu stammered.

“I did not ask you to draw in the book. You have to connect the dots and complete the alphabet. God, don’t your parents teach you anything at home?”

Kittu stopped listening after “draw in the book.” He was looking at David’s book. David was coloring a circle using crayons. The color reminded Kittu of the balloons his parents had bought him for his last birthday. He smiled, remembering the fun he had playing with the balloons.

Sister Alphonse noticed the boy was not paying attention to what she was saying. She was about to spank him when she saw the principal, Sister Francesca, standing right outside the classroom. Sister Francesca was firmly against hitting children.

“Stand on your chair and remain there till the end of the class,” Sister Alphonse shouted. “Let the whole class see the worst student in the class.”

Kittu was worried she would pinch him again. He got up on the chair and tried to climb on top of the desk.

“I said stand on the chair, not climb on the desk. Are you deaf?”

Kittu did not know what “deaf” meant. He abandoned his idea of climbing on the desk and remained standing on the chair.

From his vantage point, he realized that the class looked different. The other students around him looked smaller from this height. He was taller than Sister Alphonse. He liked the fact that she now had to look up when talking to him. Turning his head the other way, he realized he could see the street through the classroom windows.

He also saw that all the children in the class were looking at him. He knew they were hoping they had been asked to stand on the chair. This was more fun than connecting the dots. Kittu did not know it, but he was learning to see the positive side in every situation.