When the kid’s primary education began at home, Mr. Vishwanath Dutt decided that his kid would henceforth be called by his christened name, Narendra Nath or Narendra only. A tutor was engaged to teach Narendra letters as was the custom in upper class families.
The teacher was a well educated elderly person who was held in high esteem by the Dutt family. He wanted Narendra to concentrate on his Primer book. But Narendra’s mind wandered over other subjects he wanted to know about and his curiosity demanded answers of. The teacher would not entertain extra-curricular queries. It resulted in Narendra playing pranks and naughty games with the teacher to let his steam off which kept building up in his mind.
The teacher would often find his things like cane, shoes or his bag missing. Then, the missing articles would appear at strange places miraculously. Narendra’s sisters aided their brother in his mischiefs.
One day, teacher’s cane was found missing. The teacher appeared very vexed. The sisters revealed that it was the doing of Narendra when they found their mother worried.
Meanwhile, Narendra had slipped out.
After the recovery of the cane, Bhuwaneshwari Devi called out, “Narendra! Where are you?”
Narendra had come back. He heard his mother’s sharp voice and knew that he was in trouble. He put on an innocent face and came to his mother, “Yes ma!” He had his hands folded and stood respectfully as if he were before a deity. His mother knew that he was trying to fool her.
She screamed, “What act is that?”
“It’s no act, ma,” Narendra assured. “My teacher has taught me to respect the elders. I am merely obeying his advice.”
An angry Bhuwaneshwari Devi tweaked the ears of her son and thundered, “Don’t try to be smart. I know how much respect you’ve for your elders. The way you harass your kind teacher is enough proof of it. Now we know all about your mischief. Today, didn’t you hide this cane of his?”
Suddenly, the sensitive boy was seized by a feeling of shame and guilt. He snatched the cane from the hand of his mother and began hitting his own back and legs mercilessly screaming, “Yes ma! I am a bad, bad, bad boy. I deserve a severe punishment for what I’ve done. I am no good and deserve no mercy. I’ve sinned against my teacher. I am evil through and through. My mischiefs…”
Whack! Whack!! Whack!!!
This violent and remorseful reaction of Narendra caught his mother and the sisters by surprise. Infact, they were stunned.
Bhuwaneshwari Devi took away the stick from the hand of Narendra lest he should seriously injure himself. All the women got hold of him and hugged him to put him at ease and to console him. The mother felt ashamed for not realising the hyper-sensitive nature of her child. So were the sisters for betraying their brother.
Narendra’s sensitiveness was perhaps the manifestation of his deep spiritualism born within. He on his own used to sit in meditation. Many other kids of his age joined him in meditation. His meditation was no act. Others were merely trying to copy him. One day, the other kids saw that a cobra snake stood with his hood up behind Narendra. He was lost in his meditation unaware of the fact. On being informed Bhuwaneshwari Devi ran to the spot and found the snake departing to her great relief.
What irked young Narendra was that the adults were not straight forward who avoided telling the truth. Their thoughts, intentions, speech and the acts were not in harmony. It greatly disturbed his young mind.
There was a tree in a ground near the colony where the Dutt house was situated. The children used to play monkey games of climbing and swinging by its branches. Somehow an elderly person didn’t like it. To scare away the children he warned, “Kids! Stay away from this tree. It is a haunted tree. A horrible demon resides on it. He devours or puts a curse on anyone who disturbs this tree. So, for your own good stay away from it.”
Narendra was among the kids who used to play on that tree. He didn’t believe in demons or ghosts. He had a feeling that the elderly person had cooked up the demon story to scare away the simple kids.
So, one day, when the elderly person was around, Narendra got up on the tree inspite of the protests of his mates who believed in the ghosts. He frolicked on the branches of the tree to the chagrin of the elderly person and his own mates. The elderly person stared up at him.
Narendra announced, “See friends? There is no demon on this tree. Or it would have devoured me.”
The elderly person departed being outwitted.
When Bhuwaneshwari Devi learnt about it she didn’t like it at all. Being an orthodox woman having a penchant for blind faiths, she feared for her son. For her demons, ghosts, evil spirits and witches were real threats to mortals.
Upon Narendra’s arrival she flew in a rage. In sheer anger she slapped her son and rebuked, “Why did you climb that tree? You could have fallen down and got hurt. The branches you swung by could have broken. And then, trees house dangerous snakes and pythons. Can’t you realise that?”
It greatly hurt Narendra. He knew that even his mother was not being true to him. She was infact afraid of ghosts, demons and spirits but was trying to hide her real mind behind the talk of breaking of the branches and the snakes. Narendra felt a great revulsion against the falsehood of the adults. In its heat, he spoke some very bad words to his mother which shocked the entire family.
At that time, the Barrister, Mr. Vishwanath was also at home. He too heard all those offending words. He didn’t react violently to the misbehaviour of his son. He decided to make his son realise his folly in a different way, through a subtle psychological rebuke.
He wrote down all the bad words used by Narendra against his mother on a wall in bold letters under the caption, ‘Narendra uses following words for his mother.”
When Narendra saw it he was very ashamed of himself and duly apologized to his mother and the other family members. He never again used any foul words against his mother. The reason of his anger, the falsehood and hypocrisy of the adults was never understood. No one tried to fathom the depth of his hurt feelings.
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