It was the 3rd of December. About an hour after lunch, the students of class XI sat huddled in their classrooms. The corridors were empty. There were no prefects in the vicinity. Everyone was nervous. It was time.
Rohan, Varun and Manav left the classroom and signaled others to make small groups and follow. They went to the back-courtyard. It was deserted. A narrow path led them into a small establishment of low-built, terraced houses that were occupied by the families of school workers. Once they had crossed the campus boundary, they waited for others to catch up. Their nervousness transformed into excitement. Soon the entire class was working its way upwards through the houses. Men, women and children came out to see them. They talked to each other and smiled. Students often went that way to a small park near the mountain top for picnics. Their move was too bold to arouse any suspicion.
Nevertheless, they hurriedly left the houses behind and took to a broad, stone path that meandered all the way up to the mountain top. Soon the school was left behind. But it was just the beginning. They had a long way to go. It was only a matter of time before the authorities found out that they were missing. Rohan caught a glimpse of the school from high above - the red roof-tops, the Field, the Auditorium. His spirit lifted. They moved up and up, as fast as their slowest friend, shouting and laughing in excitement and nervousness. After about half an hour, they took another path that led them down again. But some students began to get tired. Running away with the entire class was a pretty stupid idea after all. They had to continually stop for students in the rear and some of them had even begun to complain. But they cheered each other and continued down the mountain towards the main town.
"We have made history!" exclaimed Manav.
"Not yet," replied Rohan. He had a feeling that no matter how fast they went, they would find the authorities waiting for them in the town. They heard a car pass ahead. The stone path they had been travelling on crossed a road and continued steeply down between luxurious houses on either side with beautiful gardens. They were not more than a kilometer from their school. They had taken a wide arc around the campus to avoid detection. They decided to quickly run down the road and disappear. The steep slope was not an issue. It was on their marathon route they had been running for years. But just as they emerged from the trees, they spotted a short woman walking on the road. She was a Junior School nanny. "Where are you boys going?" she asked.
"Picnic!" Manav replied.
"Picnic?" she asked, a smile spreading over her face. "But who is escorting you? I don't see any teacher."
"Oh! The warden. He is coming right behind us."
With that they left. She watched them for some time with an innocent joy on her face. It was certainly blissful to watch the boys, whose dirty underwears she used to once clean, all grown up and enjoying their day out. The group picked up pace as the rest of the journey was downhill. They crossed the main road twice and each time they grew more nervous. As time passed, it became more and more obvious that their absence had been noticed. They moved swiftly across each crossing and disappeared into the trees.
About an hour later, they halted in front of a tea stall in a corner of the town, opposite the Naini Lake. To their right, a road ran up above the Bhotia Market to the Governor's Residence, from where it took a U-turn and continued upwards to their school. A little way to the left was a Gurudwara and a police station. The town's field was at a lower level and they ran through its length in small groups, keeping close to a high wall that obscured them from the police station. People threw random glances at them. But groups of uniformed boys wandering about in town was not an uncommon sight. They worked their way past the Ashok Talkies to the taxi stand. It was decided that they would, if possible, go to a classmate's house in Haldwani and then contact all those who lived nearby. Some students procured cash they had successfully hidden from the warden. Four students went ahead to talk to the drivers while others lingered around, nervously glancing at the police station or the road that ran up to their school.
"What's wrong? Why are you boys here?" asked a taxi driver.
This was unexpected.
"We have to go to Haldwani," replied Manav.
"Your holidays have started?" asked another driver. A few more joined in.
"Yes, sort of. We are going to visit a friend of ours."
"If your holidays have started, why are you all in uniform?" asked the first one.
"No, we have to come back to school today itself. Just a quick visit and back."
The drivers exchanged looks. The schools in the town usually booked buses for a party this big. "Does your principal know about it?"
"How do you think we came here?" Rohan intervened.
It seemed obvious. They couldn't have just walked out of the gates. More than a dozen drivers had been observing them. They began to talk among themselves. The students waited with their hearts in their mouths. Were they planning to enquire?
"Okay. How many cars?" asked a driver eventually. They were sixty and decided to take six taxis. Fare was agreed upon. They hurriedly got in the cars lest they be caught in the last moment, and soon they were speeding along the lake.
Rohan nervously looked around. The lake was dotted with beautifully decorated boats, while Ayarpata, one of the seven giant mountains of Nainital, rose for the sky beyond the opposite bank with a huge landslide scarring its green surface. He heard bells ring continually in the Naina Devi Temple. Tourists in colorful dresses were strolling along the road, exploring the road-side shops, enjoying the scenery or blissfully sitting on benches with pink cotton-candies. The town was as beautiful as ever.
It was 4:00 PM, time for roll-call. A bell rang and within minutes the boys lined up in the front quadrangle. But there was a gap between Class X and Class XII. The warden was furious. Juniors were sent to call the missing boys. They ran around the campus but their seniors were nowhere to be seen. The warden was boiling with rage. Prefects were summoned. "I want the entire class here in two minutes!" he snarled. The prefects sent more juniors to look for them. The warden waited impatiently. He would give them the hammering of their lifetime.
Meanwhile, the vice-principal, Mr. D. K. Roy was tending to his garden, a pair of golden spectacles perched atop his head. His wife sat on a rocking-chair, enjoying a cup of tea with a Junior School nanny. A heap of answer papers rested on a table beside her.
"It is nice to see the boys go out more often," said the nanny.
"Yes, it is nice," agreed Mrs. Roy, her mind on the unchecked papers.
"But holidays start day-after. What was the purpose of sending them today?"
"I don't know. Ask Sir," she pointed at her husband and took a sip.
"Sir, I saw some boys out of the campus. They said it was a picnic."
"Yes... yes," he replied without looking up.
"But I did not see any teacher escorting them."
"Saw whom?" He had her attention.
"The boys... go... picnic..."
"What picnic?"
A phone rang in the Staff-Room. The warden answered it. Students could see him through the windows. There was a sudden disquiet because what the warden heard made him fall to his knees. Soon, phones were ringing in every staff quarter. Teachers came running out. Search teams were sent to the town. There was panic. There was chaos. Where could they be? And what if something happened to any of them? Eventually, a phone rang in the police station.
Four drivers were playing cards when a police vehicle screeched to a halt in front of them. Two officers jumped out and asked if they had seen any student of Queen Victoria School.
Yes, they had. An entire group.
Did they know where they went?
Yes, they did.
Did they have contact number of any of the drivers who had taken them?
Of course, they had.
It was for the second time that the phone rang in their car. The first time had been about an hour ago. Rohan's mouth had gone dry then. But it was only the driver's wife asking him to bring home vegetables. But this time it was different. Rohan felt it the very moment the phone rang. They were about eight kilometers from Kathgodam, a small town at the foothills of Nainital and the nearest railway station. The driver stopped the car and stepped out. Four cars had lined up behind them. All the drivers were excitedly talking on their phones. The sixth car was not in view. Rohan looked out of the window and watched their excitement turn into nervousness and then, fear.
He had doubted their plan from the very beginning. It was puerile and impulsive. He was scared that even if one of them got injured, they might all have to return. But so far there had been no accidents. And with good luck, they had come this far. But it was over. He would certainly be expelled now, no doubt.
"What have you done?" the driver shouted through the window.
"We are going to Haldwani to meet a friend," replied Manav immediately.
"No you are not. You ran away from your school!"
"No! We are just going..."
"Yes, you did! Why didn't you tell us?"
"You wouldn't have taken us then."
"We could have helped you!"
"Helped us? You would have taken us back to our school."
"No! We would surely have helped. You are like our little brothers. We have been driving you people for years. We would have done whatever we could."
"Fine, then take us to Haldwani. We have almost reached Kathgodam. Haldwani is just fifteen minutes from there."
"You don't understand what trouble you have landed us in."
"You are in no trouble. We are. All you have to do is..."
"The police are after us!" With that the driver left.
"Listen," Rohan called out, "why don't you just drop us in Haldwani?"
"Because we have been ordered to wait here," he shouted back.
"You can at least drop us in Kathgodam. It's just eight kilometers from here. Anywhere," Rohan looked around at the quiet pine trees waving gloomily in a breeze, "but here."
"Why don't you realize the gravity of the situation? The police have set up a checkpoint in Kathgodam. They are even sending a patrol car up."
Manav was the first to realize the gravity of the situation - for a smile spread over his face. Rohan felt proud too, and a bit nervous. They had indeed created a stir. Cops and teachers chasing them - they couldn't just give in. They had to put up a good show. The desperation to evade heightened. "Then why don't you drop us somewhere before Kathgodam. We need to go off-road," he said.
"We can't. We have been ordered to stop. They might slap a charge on us for..."
"You can tell them we had reached Kathgodam by the time you received their call."
"We already gave them our location. They said, 'Stop right there. We are coming.'"
"See," Rohan raised his voice, "you are six and we are sixty. Think about it. You can always tell them we forced you to drive on. You had no choice. Just drop us somewhere near the plains and be on your way."
"We can't do that."
"Then - you are six and we are sixty. Think about it!"
The driver stared at him in disbelief. He consulted with his colleagues. They were all nervously pacing up and down the road. One of them was just standing at the edge of the road, looking dreamily at the mountains. Rohan couldn't hear what they were discussing, but suddenly, they all headed back to their cars and without a word, started the engines and accelerated. Rohan had no idea that in time to come, they would actually tell the police that the students threw stones at them and beat them with sticks, (Really? They couldn't come up with anything better than stones and sticks!) and forced them to drive on. One of them literally pulled up his sleeves to show some marks.
Just as they were to enter Kathgodam, they spotted a narrow path that led off the main road to the banks of the Gaula River. They paid the drivers and dispersed from the road. The sixth car was still missing. It was highly risky to wait for them on the road. Judging by the time they had wasted earlier, the police or the school authorities could be there any minute, and it was quite likely that the sixth car had already been busted. They ran down the path and wandered near the river, concealed by thick foliage of road-side trees. They spotted a small temple and took shelter. The priest was most astonished to see them and asked curious questions. They didn't answer much. Rohan had an unsettling question gnawing at him. They had come so far, but what now? They couldn't go back on the road. They were stuck!
After much hullaballoo, the class decided to send a pair of boys to contact their parents and another pair to wait by the road for the missing car. But just as the first team set out, they saw the sixth car speeding down the road, straight towards Kathgodam, probably unaware of the checkpoint that had been set up. They shouted and flailed their hands, but in vain. There was nothing more they could do. A few minutes later, Rohan saw an SUV on road. He caught a glimpse of something green inside. Prefects! The sixth car was sandwiched. He wondered what would happen to them. They had no idea where their classmates were. But would the prefects believe them? He turned his gaze to the swift waters of the Gaula River, swirling and dashing down its rocky bed. Soon, a police car swept by, turning every eye on the road.
Few villagers had begun to gather around the temple. They just stood and watched. The two boys returned. They had seen the prefects and had decided to come back. After a splenetic debate, it was decided to send them again. There was no point just hiding there. The boys walked towards the road as everyone watched gloomily. And just as they stepped on the road, a car screeched to a halt in front of them.
They stepped back in fright... and out jumped an elderly man and a woman.
"Mother!" one of the boys screamed and hugged her. Apparently, the authorities had called all local parents to help in tracking the students. The news had knocked the wind out of them. The boy's parents were on their way to the school and whom did they see but their son step out from the trees! His father made quick phone calls and soon, more and more cars began to roll in. Rohan sat quietly on the temple steps and watched his classmates excitedly narrate the wrong doings of the warden. He was somewhat happy that his parents were blissfully unaware of this. They would know, eventually, but they were spared the period of turmoil of a missing son, no matter how brief.
The sky darkened. All six taxis were lined up by the road. A big crowd had gathered around them. A few constables were struggling to keep the media away. There was a flash every now and then. The priest was busy giving his statement to the police. The school authorities were pleading with them to return. The principal individually talked to them on phone, but the students simply refused to return. Eventually, the parents decided to send them back and everyone agreed. The media was pushed away and the students were ordered to go quietly back to their respective cars.
"Now, we have created history!" said Manav brightly once in the car.
"Yes," agreed Rohan. They had actually done it. "But we also screwed our reputation," he said faintly.
"We didn't," said Varun. "The warden did."
A prefect entered their car. "Wait till you reach school!" And they spoke no more.
Rohan sat awkwardly all the way back to the school, not daring to even move in front of the prefect. They received a great welcome from juniors when they arrived in the dormitories. They clapped and cheered till some prefects shooed them away. Dinner was arranged separately for them and the waiters served them graciously. Everyone, except their seniors whose batch reputation they had ruined, was supportive of their uprising. Mr. Lawrence talked to them after dinner. He cancelled the expulsion of the five students and asked them for a fresh start. After all, they were the boys who would be leading the school next year.
No one knew what happened to the warden. He was never seen again.