“I have to finish the work before that,” she thought. She was feeling a deep emotional distress, an untoward incident happened earlier that day. “These papers have to be submitted by tomorrow morning. I can’t let my work affected by my silly emotions,” she shook her head and pulled out the next paper. “Oh! It’s his paper!” she exclaimed angrily and looked at it with intense hatred.
“Why should I check his paper? A cheap nasty thief! He is thrown out of the school, will never come back” Nomita closed her eyes in distress. That incident appeared in her mind.
Tapan Das, the boy was 12 years old, studying in her class. He was older than other students and was from a poor family. A tall lanky Tapan had two beautiful innocent eyes, which made him lovable to her the first time she saw him. She joined the school in the middle of the year as a substitute teacher. She was very fond of children, so she became very friendly and popular with them very quickly.
She liked Tapan because despite being underprivileged, he was regular in his homework, behaved properly and was the most obedient student in her class. The other teachers had a hard time believing this because he never listened to them, always got into mischief, was severely reprimanded for his behaviour. Her other students also complained against him for beating up others or stealing their lunch boxes, pens, but she didn’t believe them. She always thought they are blaming him only because he was poor.
Earlier today, she was doing some paper work in their class and asked them to be prepared for the English test which was to be held immediately after the recess. During her work, her diamond ring given to her by her husband came out of her finger twice, once it almost fell on the floor. It had been a bit loose since the past few days. Fearing for its safety, she took it out and put it in her bag, reminding herself to take it to the jewellery shop after school that day. During recess, she was still in the classroom; all the children had gone out to eat their lunch except Tapan, who was helping her arrange some official documents. Suddenly, a school peon came to inform her that there was a phone call for her in the office. Her mother-in-law hadn’t been keeping well for the past few days, thinking the call was from her, Nomita ran hastily to attend it, forgetting her bag in the classroom.
The call turned out to be from one of her friends. After hanging up, she went straight to the staff room. She was just looking for her bag when Tapan walked in with it and handed it to her telling that she had forgotten it in his classroom. She felt relieved and thanked him. He left right away.
After finishing her lunch, she went to her class, conducted the exam and returned to the staff room with the papers. She was telling some of her colleagues about how she almost lost her ring, and opened her bag to show it to them. But the ring wasn’t there. She started searching frantically ‘It was in here!’ she remembered clearly, ‘Where did it go?’ Other teachers gathered there, one of them prompted,” Wasn’t Tapan the one who brought your bag here?” Then she recalled that Tapan was in fact alone with her bag in the classroom for some time. But Tapan? Would he? Could he?
“Of course he did it! It’s his handiwork surely” one more teacher joined in.
“He’s a born thief, we know him very well.”
“His uncle is a criminal, he’s in jail now!”
“Let’s inform the principal, a deterrent punishment must be given”
The decision was taken on her behalf that the principal must take strict action against Tapan. They were furious.
Tapan was called to the principal’s office, he looked a bit flustered. He admitted to having brought the bag from the classroom to the staff room, but denied taking the ring from the bag. He and his school bag were checked thoroughly, but nothing was found there.
Nomita was filled with an overwhelming sense of outrage. It was her wedding ring! It was a 1 carat diamond ring, cost almost a fortune. How could he even think of stealing it? “Where did you hide the ring? Return it to me! Are you even listening? Return it to me right now!” In a fit of anger, she slapped him. He was standing expressionless till now, but now his lips started to tremble, tears sprang to his eyes. “I didn’t steal it miss, believe me, believe me please,” he mumbled.
She was furious on hearing this. “How can I believe you? Nobody touched the bag except you. Did the ring disappear? Everybody kept telling me that you are untrustworthy, but I never believed them. I trusted you, how could you do this to me?” she spluttered.
The principal intervened, “Are you sure your ring is not in the bag madam?”
“Yes sir I checked it many times. This boy took it for sure”, she retorted.
“Then its okay ma'am i'm calling his guardians and will take punitive action against him.”
The rest of the teachers were not satisfied with this much and they joined in unison, “Expel him sir. Stealing a diamond ring is a big crime. He has brought disgrace to our school; we cannot allow that boy to sit in our class.”
“Okay, okay”, the principal tried to calm down the situation, “I’ll take a strong action, trust me. But let me inform his guardians first. Please return to your classes for now, I’ll let you know what happens after I speak to them.”
She did not wait at the school, took the rest of the day off and came home. She was dismayed, not only did she lose her wedding ring; she also lost faith on humanity. The latter was disturbing her even more. In the late afternoon, she was informed that Tapan das was being expelled from the school, but the ring could not be recovered. The principal asked her to file a FIR in the police station the next day. She felt some satisfaction. “He deserved that!” she murmured.
She looked down at his test paper in her hands. She was going to throw it away, but suddenly something caught her eye. The students were asked to write an essay on “My Mother” in the exam. Did she just see her name in there? She took a closer look. He had written-
“I had a mother, but God took her away when I was one year old. I do not remember her. Her photo hangs on our wall. I used to pray to god to return her everyday and one day god answered my prayers. He sent Nomita miss. She looks like my mother. She loves me very much; she doesn’t scold me like other teachers. Whenever my classmates complained against me, she protects me like my mother. I know I’m not a good boy. I have made many mistakes, I take other’s things, and I eat their lunch boxes secretly. But from tomorrow, I’ll be a good boy. Tomorrow is Nomita miss’s birthday and I want her to be proud of me. I wanted to give her a present, but we are very poor, I can’t afford anything, so I got a tiny silk purse which my mom had. It’s very beautiful. I think she would definitely like it. I wanted to surprise her and I got a chance today. Nomita miss left her bag in the classroom with me alone. I was keeping the purse inside when I saw a sparkling gold ring inside. I put the ring inside the purse and put it in the bag. When she opens the bag at home she will get my present and will be happy for sure.....”
Nomita couldn’t read further, she sprang out of her chair, grabbed her bag from the shelf and started searching again, her hands were shaking. When she didn’t find anything, she felt nervous; did he make it all up? Suddenly she remembered there was a small pocket along the outside of the bag, which she didn’t bother to check earlier, because she was absolutely sure she put the ring inside the bag. Her heartbeat raced as she slid the zipper and put her fingers inside. Her hands felt something soft and she pulled it out. It was a beautiful red silk embroidered small purse. She could feel her ring through the thin fabric. There was a note inside –“HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS... You made me a good boy today...”
She went numb, a cold shudder ran through her body, she could feel a lump growing in her throat, tears clouded her vision. She clenched the small purse in her fist and closed her eyes as she fell back in her chair. She did not have the courage to look at her birthday present...
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