By Prabeer Sikdar

SHORT STORY
The Eccentric Masterji

It was end for Sonu’s classes but masterji included a new chapter in his daily schedule as he began practicing his favourite singer’s numbers everyday during nights. Sometimes, when sleep caught with him, he had tea and resumed his singing till the wee hours of the day to keep the threat of Dakuram at bay as the latter would never dare strike when someone was awake. Unfortunately, masterji’s neighbours did not like being disturbed. However, the stray dogs of the area soon grew fond of masterji’s night songs and started assembling near his home at the appointed hour. They found that Masterji’s song easily lulled their young ones to sleep. Meanwhile, Dakuram was planning another heist. He had set his eye on the village goldsmith, whose house was not far from masterji’s house. But as luck would have it, young puppies started barking as soon as they saw a dark figure moving near masterji’s home. The stray dogs, surprised to see their young ones getting distracted from the soothing songs, got angry and went after Dakuram. Startled by the unusually loud noise outside, masterji hurried to see what’s going on. What he later saw had astounded him. A man lay unconscious just opposite the road outside his house. As he stared closely, he felt a terrible fear looking at Dakuram, whose photographs were pasted all over the place. Next morning, when villagers woke up in the morning, they found Dakuram at masterji’s home. His hands and legs were tied with a rope. Last night, unknown to the villagers, Dakuram was bitten many times over by the strays, and fell down unconscious. Soon, the word spread like wild fire. A huffing Nirbhay Singh reached the spot and immediately took him into custody. For Singh, it was the prize catch of the year. At the police station, a Veterinary doctor was summoned, who administered anti-rabies vaccines to Dakuram, whose body bore dozen of cut marks all over his body. A shaken Dakuram, later spilled the beans and disclosed his hideout, which was inside a rocky cave outside the village. The police soon recovered all the looted goods, which were returned to their owners. In the meanwhile, masterji explained police how he had foiled a robbery attempt leading to the capture of notorious Dakuram while downplaying the role of stray dogs of the area. As promised by the police, masterji got his reward of Rs 50 from the Police Commission at a function organized at Super Kids School. Bholpur villagers as well as masterji’s neighbors all attended the function. The children were also happy at masterji’s feat but their admiration for their former teacher was short-lived after he expressed his desire to donate the money to the Head Master of Super Kids School for carrying out repairs to the leaking school roof.

(Concluded from last week)