A morning errand

The boy looked up from his book and saw his grandfather sitting in the long chair, listening to one of his neighbours. The man spoke in a low voice and the boy could not hear anything he said. His grandfather's expression seemed grave, and he realized that his grandfather was angry. Soon, his grandfather raised his hand and said loudly "Enough! I don't want to hear about it anymore. For the past few years these fellows have not taken care of things. Now it has hit a rock bottom. I don't think even God can fix that place. I am sure God cannot reside in a place that is run so badly. That temple has lost its sanctity. I will not go there anymore." The neighbour seemed disturbed when he heard this. He asked "But then where will you go? How can you live without going to the temple every day?" The grandfather responded "I did not say that I will not go to the temple every day. I will go to the other temple." The neighbour asked, "Which one?" The grandfather mentioned the name of the temple. The neighbour seemed shocked. "But that is more than two miles away!" "So? You think I cannot walk for two miles every day?" The neighbour corrected "Its more than four miles to go and come back." The grandfather irritation increased "Ok, ok! Four miles. I can walk for four or five or even six miles every day. I can walk 10 miles every day. As a matter of fact, I can even walk 20 miles every day. I will not go to that temple ever and if that I mean I have to walk a hundred miles every day, I will do so. But I will never ever step into that temple again." The boy had forgotten about the book. He listened to the conversation keenly. He liked reading books, but he liked listening to conversations even better. But he was not happy to see his grandfather angry. He closed his book and went inside the house. 

The next morning, as the boy was preparing to go for school, he heard his grandfather calling his name. When he reached his grandfather, he asked the boy to go a place not far from his home. The boy said "Ok" and stood looking at his grandfather. His grandfather too looked at him without saying anything. After a few seconds the grandfather said "Don’t you want to know why you are going there?” The boy responded “Yes”. 

“Then why did you not ask?” 

“I thought you will tell me. I was waiting for you to tell me.”

The grandfather laughed and said “Always ask for information when you don’t know something. Do not wait for others to tell you. It does not matter who the person is, if you don’t have all the information you require, ask. Do you understand?” The boy responded “Yes” and then asked, “Why am I going there?” Once again grandfather laughed and said “You are a quick learner. I want you to get the prasadam from the temple there.” The boy shook his head but did not leave. The grandfather asked, “Are you worried about your school?” The boy shook his head in agreement. “I have already talked to your master. I told him that you will reach the school an hour late. So, its ok.” The boy thought “So, first period is gone. Today’s Tuesday. Its history, super!” The boy smiled at his grandfather and left. 

He walked through the fields that surrounded his house. The paddy that was planted a few weeks back, had started growing. The land on both sides was painted bright green till the horizon. The boy was used to seeing this beautiful sight every day and so did not focus on it. Instead, he focussed his thoughts on the amount of time that he will take to get back home. “From here to the village road its ten minutes, from the village road to the main road its thirty minutes. From there, another 20 minutes to the temple. That means I will take 10 + 30 + 20 = 60 minutes, which is 1 hour. At the temple, I will spend 10 minutes, I think and then another 1 hour to get back home. That means I will get back home after two hours and ten minutes. I left home at 8 and so will reach back home at ten ten! I will then pick the bag and go to school. So, I will reach school at ten thirty. That means, I will miss two periods and not one. Oh no! Math’s gone too.” He felt sad. 

By the time he reached the village road he felt happier. “That’s ok. I will find out from Venu what happened, or I can ask the master itself. What is important is that I am missing the history class. Today, master said he will talk about Vikramaditya’s empire. That will be boring. I will read it from the book before the test.” The village road did not have any vehicles plying through it. Bullock carts plied on the road only once early in the morning and then again once in the evening. So, the boy walked in the middle of the road. Soon he started whistling a tune. He had learnt whistling a few days back and these days, he spent most of his time practicing whistling. He was good at it and in the past few days had picked up a small fan base. The previous evening one of the boys in the class, wanted him to learn a new song. Since then, he had been whistling the tune. He thought he will learn the whole tune in a two or three days. 

As he continued walking the scenery changed from green fields to trees and bushes. Soon, he reached a pond. It lay to his left. He stopped and stooped down to pick a flat stone that lay on the road. He flipped the stone off his hand. It flew in the direction of the pond and touched its surface, but unlike the other stones it did not sink. It skipped on the surface and flew back into air. The boy stood on the bank of the pond and counted “One, two, three, four, five, si… Oh no! Almost six times. Wow! That’s a record! Five and a half skips.” The boy continued to walk. He continued to whistle. Step by step be moved closer to the main road. When he was a few yards from the main road he stopped suddenly. A long black snake lay in front of him. The rains had only stopped a few weeks back and many of the snake burrows were flooded still. So, the snakes were forced to stay over the ground. They slithered around for some time and when they got tired, they stopped wherever they were and rested. 

He looked at the snake for some time. It seemed poisonous. He was sure that it was a cobra. He wondered what he should do. “Should I turn around and go back? No! Grandfather will be angry. But if the snake bites me, he will be angrier. But then I will be dead and so it would not matter. But I don’t want to die. So that is not an option. But I can’t turn back now. But…” Suddenly, he remembered his mother telling him “When you are walking in the fields late at night stomp your legs hard on the ground then the snakes will not come near you.” He did not understand the connection between stomping legs and snakes. He was also not sure what stomping legs will result in when the snake is this close already. But he had no choice but to stomp if he wanted to proceed further. So, he stomped his legs hard on the ground. He stomped like a soldier chanting “Left, right, left, right, left right, left, …” For reasons only known to the snake, it started slithering to the side of the road a little after he started stomping. A victorious smile appeared on the boy’s face. He had won over the snake. “Now no snake can come near me. I have the ultimate snake weapon.” The snake disappeared into the bushes, and he continued his journey.

The main road was crowded when compared to the village road. People walked on its sides. Bullock carts passed by at a leisure pace. The persons driving the cart did not seem to be in any kind of hurry. They flipped the whip that they held in their hands out of habit than need. The whip did not affect the bullocks. Only the flies that flew around the bullocks’ backside flew away annoyed. From time to time, horse carts went by at great pace. The carts drivers in this case seemed impatient and constantly smacked their horse’s back with their whips. The boy looked at the horse carts with interest. He liked the sight of the horses flying through the air. He segregated the horse based on their colour and tracked the count. By the time he left the main road some minutes later, he had counted 3 white and brown horses, 2 white and black horses and 1 brown horse. 

The temple was small and was situated by a pond. It was not crowded. A few devotees stood in front of the inner sanctum and prayed with their eyes closed. One of them shouted “Om Namah Sivaya” suddenly and the boy nearly lost his balance in shock. The temple priest saw him and waved at him. The priest held out the prasadam in a yellow bag. The boy stretched out his hand and the priest dropped the bag into his stretched out palm. The priest asked, “How is your grandfather?” “He is good.” “Please request him to come one evening.” The boy nodded his head and walked away. 

As he stepped out of the temple, he noticed a man and a woman arguing with a horse cart driver. The man said “That is too expensive. It is not very far. Why are you charging so much?” The woman added “We can buy a horse at this cost.” The driver snapped his whip on the horse while saying “Then buy a horse and go in your own horse.” As the whip struck the horse’s back, it started moving forward. The man shouted “Hey wait. Ok, ok! We will pay the exorbitant amount you are asking.” The horse cart stopped. The driver stretched out his hand and said, “Its fair price. Pay now.” The man said “No, I will pay at the end of the journey.” The driver lifted his whip to strike the horse. The man protested “Don’t you trust us?” The driver responded “No”. The man said, “How can we trust you?” The driver said, “You don’t have to.” The man said “Ok, ok. Here is the money.” The man and woman boarded the cart and it moved away. 

The boy walked along the sides of the main road. He got the feeling he had spent a lot more time on road than he had expected. He walked briskly and did not wait to observe the events that took place around him. As he reached closer home, he crossed the school. He heard the voices of the children and the teachers. Suddenly, he missed being in the school. He started running towards home. As soon as he reached home, he ran up to his grandfather’s room. His grandfather was sitting by his table and writing something. When the boy entered the room, his grandfather looked up and said, “What took you so long?” The boy said, “It took this long.” The grandfather said “Ok, ok! Now run to the school.” The boy placed the prasadam on his grandfather's table and ran out of the room.