Monday morning there was chaos and excitement at the School Gate. Parents of the 10 children, who were going on the trip, had come to drop their precious darlings to school and were offering them last minute advice as all parents tend to do.
The children were dressed in jeans and tops. They had put on shoes that were fit for walking/trekking. At least they were not to wear their uniforms. This was a big relief. They carried their rucksacks on their backs, water bottles, 2 changes of clothes and some snacks.
Soon the school bus arrived and the 10 children, Zia their teacher and guide, as well as Sherpa, all boarded the bus. The time was about 9 A.M.
Just then the Principal was seen making his way to the door of the bus.
"What is the matter with Principal Sir!" exclaimed Zoya.
"I think he wants to accompany us," Cathy smiled.
"Haha he wants to get on the bus, lol," said Ben with a great laugh.
The Principal was not going to come with them. He had decided to wish everyone good luck.
The Principal had joined this school 2 years ago. Since his joining, no outings had been organized by the school authorities. The permanent reason given for not organizing an outdoor trip was that there were no funds or there were insufficient funds. But this time he had taken a strong stand and for this year he insisted on organized a lot of functions, debates, and programmes where kids of his school could compete with the kids of other schools.
The Principal peeped into the bus and said, "Good morning all….I just came to wish you all the best and to tell you to keep within the vicinity of your teacher. Listen to Zia Ma'am, avoid trouble, and don't fight among yourselves. Be safe and bye. See you all on Thursday morning," announced the Principal.
"Zia, take good care of my children," he added before he alighted from the bus and shut the door behind him with a big bang.
"His children….! Since when did we become his children? We are the children of our parents? Why do school people think we are their personal property?" Said an annoyed Zoya. "He is giving more advice than our parents. Do good be good etc. etc. and calling us his children."
"I think it is due to the fact that during our non-sleeping hours, we spend the maximum time in school. Some teachers get attached to their students, so they say my students, our students. Don't we say my school or our school? It is not actually our school but the school run by the management." Zen replied.
After the Principal left, the driver started the engine of the bus and they were on their way.
They had to travel in the school bus for about 15 km passing various tourist stops.
As the bus passed by the children noticed that many of the shops were closed. They also noticed that the trees and grass looked neat and clean. It was as if God himself had come down from his Heavenly abode to mop up all the trees and the grass on the sides of the road. The roads were clean too. It had rained a few days ago and the rain had washed the roads of all the dust that had accumulated on it.
Alongside the road, villager and fruit vendor, was walking as the bus was passing by. He was probably on his way to the market to sell his produce.
On his head, he was carrying a huge, but slightly shallow, fruit basket. The fruit basket was full of bunches of bananas. The children saw the bananas from the windows seats of the bus. The Fruit Vendor was holding the rims of the huge basket as it rested on his head so as to balance it.
Children are naughty and these children were naughty also.
(If Children are not naughty, is it us grownups who will be naughty?)
Soon a student put out his hand and picked a bunch of bananas. With a lot of commotion, the bananas got distributed. Naturally, someone got left out in the distribution exercise and would definitely create a ruckus. Soon there was a fight for bananas.
Zia got up immediately from her seat and walked carefully towards the back of the bus while it was moving. Not an easy thing to do.
"What is going on here and why are you making so much noise?" She asked. Tell me fast, I feel you have done something which is not right!"
The boys were the culprits who had incited one of them to do the banana stealing act. But no one wanted to tell on each other.
Zia saw the bananas peels on one of the seats of the bus and asked the driver to stop the bus and wait for the Fruit vendor to catch up.
She had figured out that one of the boys had lifted the Bananas from the fruit vendor's basket when he had come parallel to the bus while he had been walking along the same side of the road that the bus was traveling.
She figured out that the bus had slowed down to maneouver a curve; the child had nimbly taken the bananas from the Fruit vendor's basket by putting out his arm through the window of the bus where he was seated.
Soon the fruit vendor could be seen almost catching up with the bus. As he walked on the side of the road almost at par with the bus which was parked on the side of the road, he was immediately asked to stop for a few minutes by the bus driver.
"How many bananas did you lift, was it 10 or more?" She raised her eyebrows at the students.
"Ma'am we only took 10 and only Chris did not get as his banana which went to Sherpa. So he was fighting with us all, replied Danny.
She called the Fruit Vendor, got down from the bus and paid him for the 10 bananas the student had lifted from his basket. She also bought another round of bananas for everyone i.e., 14 in total.
The Fruit vendor was very happy. He had got money early morning and that too for 2 dozen bananas. His sale would be good and he would return home with the money of today's sale and an empty basket.
Zia thought it was a good time to teach her students about what honesty is and why one must not take something that does not belong to him/her. One should not steal, no matter what the temptation.
"Do you believe in the laws of Karma? She asked the students. Try not to take anything without permission. If you want/ like something, then pays for it. There is no such thing as a free trip. Everything is charged." She explained.
"Karma will always make you pay later on with interest if you do not pay now. In a way, it is like an exchange of energy, or the give and take of it. To get something you need to lose something. So, why not be honest. If you do not pay now you will need to pay later and then you will end up paying more." She added.
"Soon you will all grow up and I would not want you to become bad citizens of society. If you do wrong once, and no one reprimands you, you will naturally do something similar again and again. What sort of future will you build for yourself and if persons do likewise than what will happen to the nation?"
"I do not want you to feel I am giving you a lecture about being good. You are all intelligent children and I think what all I have said has registered in your brains."
The children all hung their heads in shame, they realized what they had done was wrong. At that time it was just a prank but the seriousness of such a prank finally sank in.
"Zia ma'am we are all very sorry. It will never happen again," all the children voiced their apology.
She went and sat on her seat with a calm mind and asked the driver to start driving. Soon they were on their way again.
They started climbing the little hills and then the bigger hills. The vegetation started to change. Soon they could see the short mountain range. The tips of the mountain range were covered with snow. Some of these mountain tips seemed that they were covered with cotton.
"Ma'am, that cottony stuff on the mountains, is it snow? "Asked Tina.
She was so excited that she almost jumped out of her seat to go to the front of the bus so as to have a better view. Yes, that is definitely snow and you will go quite near it. There is a glacier further up from our camping site. You will be able to see that too. But we will not be going to the glacier as to reach that level oxygen is rare at that altitude.
Zia told her students to see how the vegetation was changing.
The children enjoyed the bus journey singing the latest songs on the way. Bottles of water and juice were passed around.
Soon they reached an area beyond which there were concrete slabs. This was a walking path having steps also along the way. Further, this concrete path would start to become thinner into a dry foot flattened pathways through the forest.
The Bus stopped.
"Everyone get down and stay close. Before the bus goes back I want to check that no one goes back to school," Zia joked.
Ma'am, I don't think anyone is on the bus as no one was sleeping," said one of the students.
"Hmmm, but we need to be careful no?" Zia replied.
"I will check, and then Ma'am you can take the roll call," replied Danny.
Saying this, Danny immediately opened the door of the bus and peeped in. He then ascended the two steps and checked the seats on both sides of the aisle until the very end of the bus.
No one was on the bus except for the driver and himself. He walked back to the front of the bus and opened the door and got off.
He then informed Zia that there was no one. Zia then took a head count.
There were supposed to be 12 heads but why was she getting 13? She counted two more times but
but she still got 13 heads.
Then she thought someone had hitched a ride by climbing on top of the bus. She called everyone by name and asked them to come to one side.
All the 10 students were accounted for and 11th was Sherpa, she was the 12.
She caught the culprit !!!!!... This alone good looking guy about 30 years of age was standing right in front of her at a distance of about 4 meters with a grin on his face. He was definitely not a student? Who was he and why was hiding among her students? What was his purpose? Was he following them?
The girls started giggling and the boys thought it was a big joke.
"Ma'am, he seems to be someone you know," said Shana.
"Why were you hiding behind my students?" asked Zia.
"I want to come along with you guys, I know you are on a trekking trip and will be camping a few hours after walking ahead," the stranger replied.
Zia was angry. "Hey stranger, we are not at an obligation to take you along, why should we? You are neither a part of the school staff nor a student?"
"Ma'am, I know that I am not a part of the school staff and I definitely am not a student. But I know you as I am a member of the Management Board. I have been instructed to tag along." He replied.
"By the way, the name is Luke and good looking girls can call me lucky." He gave a cheesy grin.
Good Lord, look at this chap what arrogance, what cheek. Tag along... What in the name of heavens does he mean?