The School Ramlila

"Children, how about organising the Ramlila on our school grounds this year?" asked the Principal during the Saturday cultural programme.

- Rajkumar Dwivedi

The children cheered, and the teachers also agreed to the proposal. The Hindi teacher, Ashok, was given the responsibility of making all the preparations.

On Monday, Ashok Sir asked the teachers and students to assemble so that actors for the different roles could be decided. Someone wanted to be Taraka, a Yaksha princess-turned-demoness, and another agreed to be old Vishwamitra, a sage.

Someone was ready to play the role of Kumbhakarna, a powerful demon and younger brother of Ravan, who loved to eat and sleep a lot.

Other students and teachers agreed to play the parts of characters like Vibhishan, Ahilya, Dashratha, Lakshman, Bharat, Janak, Sita, Hanuman and Parshuram. Nobody volunteered for the roles of Ram and Ravan.

"So, children, who is going to play Ram's role?" asked the teacher.

The children did not utter a word because they knew that Ashok Sir would play Ravan's part. He used to be Ravan in the town's Ramlila group, too, therefore no teacher had offered to play Ravan's part.

Ashok Sir was very strict. The children were afraid of getting good beating from him in class if they attacked him with arrows while playing Ram. At last, Aviram courageously offered to play Ram's role.