Home Schooling

A fictional narrative based on incidents from the childhood of Swami Vivekananda.

- GITANJALI MURARI

“Stupid,” Naren yelled at his sisters. “Wait till we catch you,” the girls chased him around the courtyard. When he saw that they might corner him, he dashed out of the house and jumped into a drain. “Idiot,” he shouted, sticking out his tongue. The sisters stopped at the edge of the drain, afraid to step into the dirty water. Naren clapped his hands and laughed gleefully.

Complaining to Bhuvaneshwari Devi, the girls said, “Naren is calling us names ma… from where has he learnt all these bad words?” Their mother looked at them in surprise, “It has been only two days since he began going to school. He must have picked them up there.” She called Naren and when he ran in, she caught him by the hand and marched him to Vishwanath Datta’s office. “Tell your father the names you been calling your sisters.”

“Stupid, Idiot,” Naren grinned.

Vishwanath looked grave. “Do you know the meaning of these words?” Naren shookhis head. “It is rude to talk like that. You must apologize to your sisters.”

When Naren left the room, Bhuvaneshwari Devi told her husband, “I’m not sending him to this school.”