Womanhood.

“Sir, please sir, I just need a day’s attendance…I am sure, you will be able to think of something”, I begged.

“Shut up, let me finish with him”

The sir was a good looking guy with a pleasant face. This made all the more impossible to guess if he is angry or not. He is a good teacher, but tight-fisted when it comes to internal marks. I wasn’t the one who cared much for marks and we never got a chance for a duel. He was happy doing his job and I was happy not doing my job. But now, fate intertwined our destinies, and there I was standing in front of him because of my low attendance.

I looked at Neeraj (my fellow class mate ) through the corner of my eye. He was crying. It was nauseating to see a 6 foot tall guy with moustache crying like a baby. But sir was enjoying it profoundly. I pledged to myself -  I will not cry.

What did I do after all?

I didn’t find my faults as un-forgivable. The classes were a torture and I found happiness in the canteen. That’s all I did.

Minutes passed, but tears never stopped pouring out of his eyes. It was annoying and I was losing my patience. You don’t need to cry THIS much! The sir eyed me occasionally as if challenging me to come up with a better plan than his whining. I looked back at him blankly. ‘No sir, I am not going to put up a drama for viewing pleasure.’

After an hour of deliberation and watching that panicky poor thing dance around his office, he let him go! Then, He turned to me.

“What’s your reason?” he asked.

“Sir,.. Umm…, nothing…I just need a day’s attendance sir, and I swear I wont let this happen again”. I wanted to end it quickly.

He wasn’t amused.

“I need to talk to your parents”

“Sure, sir”. I dialled my mother’s number in my cell phone and gave it to him. My mother knew I am an out-cast in my family and this call won’t sway her much.

“Your daughter’s career is going down ….she has a bad attitude and we see her more in the campus canteen than in our classes” he said over the phone…blah blah blah. I rolled my eyes. ‘Oh! Now he is the caring fatherly figure’.

He finished the call, and looked at me. I wasn’t moved, a bit. ‘No sir, you still can’t make me cry.'

“You can go”, He said after returning my phone.

I gave him the papers to be signed eagerly.

“No, I ain't going to sign it”

“Why sir? You just talked to my mother…she understood the gravity of the situation and here I am swearing that it won’t happen again. Now what’s the problem?”

“…problem is, you are a girl. And you don’t seem to understand it”

“Cant a “girl” bunk classes?”, it came out a little too hard.

He gave me a cold stare now. Oh, I get it. “A girl” shouldn’t question the act of her male teacher.

“Sir, it is not by my fault that I became a woman” I blurted…

Still no reaction.

“Sir, you gave him 3 days attendance ‘coz he is a boy and you are sending me away ‘coz I am a girl? “ I fumed…

Now, He smiled. It took me a while to get the reason behind that smile. Yeah, he had finally succeeded in getting on my nerves. I stormed out. Damn him, and damn his signature.

Tears were pouring out of my eyes. It was of rage.

“You should have cried it there in that room, instead of here.” Neeraj spoke from behind. He had overheard the conversation. He didn’t sound anything like a cry-baby I saw 5 minutes before. Damn his theatrics! He smirked and leaned over the wall basking in his victory of getting the paper signed.

I realised I was holding “The text of microelectronics by Sedra and Smith” for the whole time. It was getting heavy in my hands.

He continued. “ See, he is really an idiot...all you need is to get really emotional, and he will sign it in no time”. I blinked. Did he just advise me?

That was the last thing I needed. I swinged back and hurled the book at him. It hit the wall, where he was leaning seconds before he ran for his life.

Aaarrrggghhhh! Damn him and his manhood!