Free I Kissed A Girl In My Class by Abhilash Gaur Page B

signs
of budding new ones. The mali said he should be patient, his
sapling was under the shade of another tree and would grow slowly.
He also warned Manu not to water the sapling unless the soil turned
dry, as too much water might make it rot. “What rot,” Manu thought,
“everyone’s sapling is quickly turning into a strapping tree and he
wants me to deny mine the nutrition it deserves.”
    He continued
pouring water into it every morning, and even increased the amount
somewhat but the result was just as the mali had predicted, the
tree looked weaker and weaker still. Was it ill, was it dying, did
it need some scientific treatment, Manu wondered. He searched for
answers in the biology portion of his science textbook. There was a
chapter on agriculture towards the end of the book, and it talked
about the Green Revolution and the role of fertilizers. Urea and
potash. Yes, his sapling needed some fertilizers, and then it would
shoot up to be the tallest and stoutest of the trees in that
orchard. Perhaps, it would yield fruit before Manu passed out of
school in four years, and he would be honoured on the school stage
with its first basketful. Um, no, the first dozen mangoes would
have to be sent to the school’s patrons wherever they lived, and he
would insist upon the principal accepting the next, and only then
take the third lot as reward for his labours.
    It was a pleasant
reverie but Manu realized that he had no way of getting
fertilizers. The schoolyard always had a heap of manure for the
flowers in one corner, but he would not for anything handle such a
vile thing. Besides, it wasn’t scientific and modern enough for his
taste. Manu asked Papa where he could get some fertilizer, but got
another question in reply: “Why, what do you need fertilizer
for?”
    The days had
become very hot and the summer break was just two weeks away. All
the water in the world was not making any difference to Manu’s
sapling while the other five were thriving. “Mine is a lemon,” he
cursed his luck. It was left with just four or five leaves whose
tips had curled and turned brown. The main stalk was also beginning
to shrivel.
    Manu then
remembered that one of his classmates, an untidy boy named Harman,
was a farmer’s son and always talked about his farmhouse and
combine-harvesters. “Hey, Harman,” Manu accosted him in the tiffin
break, “say, do you know anything about gardening and caring for
trees?” Harman nodded proudly. He was a disaster in class and in
the sports field. But of agriculture, he claimed, he knew
everything. “And do you know where I can get some urea?” Manu
prodded him again. “I can get you some,” Harman said, “we always
have a jeep-load lying in our garage”.
    “Really!” Manu
said with mock-surprise, “that would be nice. I have never seen
these fertilizers we keep reading about. Can you get some tomorrow
morning?”
    “Sure thing,” said
the other, eager to be in the good books of an all-rounder. And
true to his word, he slipped a packetful of white powder into
Manu’s hands as soon as he saw him in the morning. Manu had already
watered his sapling, but he did not want to wait till the next day
to try the fertilizer. He ran back to the ground, opened the packet
and after a moment’s hesitation, when he considered how much of the
powder to pour, he emptied the packet near the roots of the
sapling. And then, he emptied his water bottle over it.
    Next day, the
plant had taken a turn for the worse. Where Manu had expected it to
shoot up like Jack’s beanstalk, it seemed even more shrivelled, and
the leaves had turned black as though they had been burnt. Manu
continued watering the sapling till the morning before the summer
vacation started. Although he knew it well, he never told anyone
that the Patron’s precious sapling had died a week ago. Killed by a
heavy dose of fertilizer.
    ***

19. Summer
Holidays
    Summer vacation
was the longest break of the year, nearly two months long, but