Preordained Love

Turning point

'Will there be a day when you all be silent without me shouting', Naya was in bus on the way to school and children were talking to loud in the bus. Being in her imaginary world was hard for her in chaos around, so Naya used to get irritated easily in noisy places.

'Sorry mam', said one extra extrovert student teasing her. Naya gave him a stern look and his smile was nowhere to be seen. Naya was known to be a very strict teacher in the school, no student was allowed to joke around with her but that didn't mean she was that bossy arrogant teacher. She laughed with them but to a certain extent.

Too much was going on inside her head and she was playing with her olive green floral printed saree's edge that she was wearing today.

It was 7'O clock and Sun was already harsh, the bus moved with a slow pace picking up students from every stop. The bus reached school a bit late than the usual time. Today the school was short of teachers as many went for their exams, so Naya was sure she wouldn't get any free period to relax due to substitution. With this thoughts running in her head she entered the staff room that was chaotic as always. And whenever someone enterted, it became a good morning battle ground with good morning being shooted here and there. After the tough fight,teachers sat to relax a bit. Today the co-ordinator was also absent so the teachers were relaxed or else they had to move to the classes immediately after they arrive. Teachers then took their registers and moved towards their respective classes.

When Naya reached her class, she saw Ananya crying.Ananya was a sweet and shy girl who hardly spoke in school, she was quite and kept to herself. Naya kept all her things on the teachers table, 'What happened Ananya? Why are you crying?'

Ananya didn't answered, so Naya asked the other students about the matter but no one knew anything. Naya moved to Ananya's seat, sat down, held her chin to turn it towards her, 'look here Ananya. Why are you crying beta? '
As soon as Ananya saw her, she hugged her tightly and started crying again. Now, this was the part Naya was very bad at, consoling someone, so she sat there frozen not able to decide what to do. But she can't just sit there, everyone was looking at her, so she held Ananya close and caressed her hair.

'Sush, if you dont want to tell I won't ask ok. If you feel better by crying you can cry'.
Naya asked other students to open their science book and read. Naya sat there hugging the girl for a while until she was calm.
'Do you want to talk now?', Naya asked her once she stopped crying.

'Mam,in bus there is a boy who bullies everyone, today he took my pencil and teased me too. If only I was stronger I would have taken revenge', Ananya said rubbing her eyes.

'Ananya, do you know a true strong person is someone who makes sure they don't hurt the people who are weaker than them and taking revenge from the people who mistreat you or hurt you, leaves no difference between you and them. So just let go of things and be at peace, also you can always report him', Ananya nodded.

Naya was going to open her book when she heard the bell ring and she moved out of class. It was usually her free period today but she got substitution today in LKG. Small kids were beyond her capacity to handle, not because she can't but it wasn't good to scold kids. So she mentally prepared herself for a chaotic class. She was giving herself pep talk and moving to the class. LKG and nursery were adjacent classes, so while going to her class she heard children shouting in nursery. She entered the class just to check, incase teacher wasn't there she will have to mind that class too. But to her surprise Kriti mam was there, she was on her phone and children were shouting, climbing on desk and jumping.
'Mam please mind the kids, if anything happened to any of the kids you know how angry principal sir will get', Naya said to the teacher after she hung up.
'Ya mam'
'Who does she think she is? My boss', Kriti derided as Naya left.