Page 133 - Lavender-B-7

Nabin piped up, ‘That Dashu knows everything. You catch hold of him.’

Mohan loomed over Dashu. ‘Hey, you snotty-nosed baby, you know everything?’

Dashu replied mildly, ‘No, how will I know everything? I am just in class 4. I know a little

English, some geography, a bit of Bengali, Geometr-’
Mohanchand got very angry. ‘Shut up! Tell me, who beat up Nabu that day? You know

what happened!’

Dashu looked mildly astonished. ‘Beat him up? No one beat him up.
Just landed a few light slaps.’

Mohan pulled a horrible face. ‘Oho, a few slaps, is it? Tell us how
many, won’t you?’

Dashu said, ‘It was nothing. No one gets hurt with
those light taps.’

‘A few light taps?’ Mohan mocked. ‘Then tell me
how should I give you some taps to make you
howl?’

Dashu scratched his nose and thought, then he
said, ‘The way that time when Headmaster sir
gave you a few lashes.’

At this Mohan got even more mad, twisted Dashu’s ear and shouted, ‘Listen, you fool, try

to act any smarter and I will show you a few lashes myself. Spit it out, tell me where were
you that day, and what all did you see?’

Now you know how when Dashu loses his temper, he becomes ‘The Crazy One’.
He rubbed his ear angrily, going red in the face. Then, like a mad tiger, he jumped
on Mohan. Kicks, punches, slaps, bites, they landed on Mohan at top speed. We were
stunned at how fast Dashu was able to fight. Mohan, too, had never imagined he would
get attacked by this fourth-grade midget. So, he just stood there, forgetting to

fight back. In five seconds, Dashu had him flat on the playground.
Panting, he said, ‘They didn’t even hit him this hard.’

piped up: suddenly spoke up
loomed: appeared as a large shape that is
not clear, especially in a frightening way
snotty-nosed: someone who treats people
as if they are not as good or as important
as them
stunned: so shocked that one is
temporarily unable to react
midget: an extremely small person, who
will never grow to a normal size

133