As he stood beside Tupur’s house, Pulu noticed its desolation once again. It was all dark inside! A heavy, iron lock hanged at the door. The window-panes were broken (by the boys who played cricket in that gully). And no sound of even a whisper came! Everyone said the house has become haunted. But to Pulu, it remained as the place where Tupur and he had spent most of their memorable moments – playing or studying together! Pulu was fairing well in his examinations, unlike last times. It was due to the hard work he had put in. However, that day he had had a bad exam and he was returning from school depressed, – sadly trudging down his neighborhood – while, suddenly, the thing caught his eye again! And it made him look at her house once more.
There it was, sitting on the railings of Tupur’s balcony above, with its long legs tied tightly to the iron bars so that it would not fall, gazing at him with its large, black eyes – as it always used to do! Since his mid-term exams have started, it always managed to creep into Pulu’s eyesight somehow.
That night, as Pulu’s mother served him dinner, she asked, “How was your exam?”
“Nice!” Pulu lied, “Ma, you know, I saw Doom smiling!”
“Who’s Doom?” mother asked, a bit concerned.
“The puppet I gave Tupur on her last birthday”, Pulu said excited, “As I was coming back from school I looked at it and I saw it smiling. Ma, it was smiling at me!”
“Tupur is dead!” mother said, “And you have been telling all sorts of things about that doll since a month now! Why don’t you stop dreaming idle dreams that come to no use? You will fail again.”
“No, Ma!” Pulu said.
That night Pulu had a strange dream. He dreamt that everyone of the locality was terrified of the puppet’s smile and there spread a rumor that sometimes it used to smile so mischievously and sometimes it became so peacefully sad, curling down its thick lips made of cloth, that no passerby was able to avoid looking at it! The irritation reached such a point that people urged some men from the municipal corporation to take it down from the balcony. They came with a long ladder and climbed up to it and started to untie its legs. After hours of struggle they failed! They got frustrated and wanted to cut its legs down with a knife. At this moment Pulu’s dream broke. It was dawn and it was time to get ready for school.
The results of the last class test were announced that day. Pulu had got the highest marks! It was unexpected. And the fact that he had answered less than what he actually got made him nervous and he was so sure that the examiner had committed some calculation mistake! The teacher congratulated him, not without a raised eyebrow however, which conveyed clearly that she was suspicious of something. Some of his classmates also said that Pulu had copied someone else’s script or that he had used hidden chits that contained the answers.
The next week went by smoothly. Pulu didn’t pay attention to the puppet. It kept on sitting quietly on the railing. However, one week later, it caught Pulu’s eyes again. This time he could see one of its eyes missing. He felt sad. And that afternoon, seeing no one nearby, Pulu went near the broken window-pane again, below the balcony. He found the button on ground. The rain had made the puppet soak up water inside and the threads binding its eye to its face had come off. Pulu put the button in his pocket and brought it home. But he could not devise a plan to get it back on the puppet’s face. The balcony was higher than anyone’s reach. There were no trees around so that one could try and climb! The only possibility was through getting a ladder…
Tupur and Pulu were neighbors and classmates. After every exam, they used to discuss the question paper. And almost every time it could be made out that Tupur will come first and Pulu will do miserably! Pulu never cared. All he liked was to play cricket in the afternoons or spend time with Tupur. Tupur’s mother used to like him a lot. And Pulu’s prime job was to talk his hours away and, at times, play some video games in her computer. Tupur didn’t like the idea. But she had to give in. At times, when she would grow desperate at Pulu’s academic performances, she would shout at him. And Pulu would say, “You are not my friend anymore!”
“You come here every time to study, don’t you?” Tupur would say.
“That’s what I say to my mother before coming here!” Pulu would say.
“If you don’t study you will fail!” Tupur would shout.
“I won’t fail. I am not that stupid!” Pulu would reply irritated.
“You will! I don’t want to make myself responsible for that!” Tupur would say finally.
Pulu knew she wouldn’t be able to hold on to her anger for long. She was soft at heart. Till she was alive Pulu never paid attention to his studies. However, once when she could be found no where, with her name stroked off the school register suddenly one morning, and the long desolate afternoons starting to eat Pulu from his inside, did he start to spend time with his books regularly.
That evening Pulu confided in his mother. “Ma”, he whispered, “You know something?”
“What?” mother asked.
Pulu brought out the button from his pocket and said, “See! He has lost one of his eyes!”
Mother took the button on her palm and looked at her son. “I can ask the municipal people to bring the doll down from that balcony,” mother said, “Anyway, no one is living there since one year, and it keeps distracting you.”
Pulu remembered his dream. “But we just need to sew this button back!” he said “Let him remain where he is!” Mother looked at him sternly. She was quiet. “We can ask the municipal people to sew it back?” Pulu said. “No!” mother scolded, “Have your dinner and go to sleep! You still have one exam remaining in this mid-term!”
Pulu took the button back and put it in his pocket.
Within a few days Pulu managed to arrange for a ladder! It came secretly from one of his playmates whose father used to work in constructions. Pulu didn’t inform anyone about it, and one night he went out and hid it in Tupur’s garden. On the next afternoon, once the cricket matches were over, Pulu used the reminiscent daylight to climb up to the balcony. He had a needle and a roll of thread in his pocket. On reaching the top his attention went to a scroll of paper, scribbled with blue ink, lying on the floor. He stretched out his hand through the railing and took it. It didn’t take long for Pulu to realize that it was nothing but the answer script of his last exam! Standing atop the ladder, forgetting all about the puppet and its lost eye he had come to mend, Pulu stared deeply at the papers. They were uncorrected! How could they be here? And how did he get the highest marks then? Pulu started to sweat. And it was already dark once he could make out that the puppet’s face was hardly visible anymore and that it was time for him to get down! While stepping down the ladder he missed one step and fell! Pulu broke his left hand.
The first thing mother did was to slap Pulu tight in his cheek, despite of all the pain he was already having! She called the doctor next who came and plastered his hand saying Pulu couldn’t use his limb for several weeks! It was hung from his neck like an unnecessary appendage that he slowly grew irritated to carry and which often swung beyond his control, when he ran, hitting things in its way. Mother also called up the municipal corporation and one fine morning, four men, chewing tobacco, came with a huge ladder, and climbed up to the balcony. They tried to untie the puppet’s legs but the cloth was too old and wet with the recent rains and they didn’t come off!
“Give me a knife!” one of them called out to the other and the second man took out a knife from his pouch and handed it over to the first one. Pulu saw the puppet crying. Water rolled down its cheeks of cloth, which the municipal men claimed to be rain-water! Pulu became too dumb to say anything. All he could think of was the answer script. The puppet was brought down, with one of its eyes missing and its long legs slaughtered, with water oozing out continually from the dark hole were its eye once was! It was thrown off to a corner of the road, alongside other garbage that was heaped. Pulu wrote his second class-test the next day. He failed to answer a single question correctly. He had fever.
The results came out the following week. Pulu had got the highest marks again! He was bewildered. It was impossible! His amazement didn’t last long as the class teacher soon called him over to the staff room in person. After a long stare at him, she brought out the answer script she had corrected and put it on the table. “Whose handwriting is this, Pulu?” she pointed at the script. The letters were neat and beautifully crafted, quite unlike to the hesitant way in which Pulu used to write! Pulu held his breath. The handwriting was Tupur’s! He was silent. “I know your handwriting,” the teacher said, examining him all the way, “This script is not yours! But I myself was present in the hall where the exam was held. I didn’t see you doing anything unfair!” Pulu was quiet. He could at last understand what made the puppet smile. “This means one thing!” the teacher said, “You have got the keys to our store room where the exam scripts are kept and that you have come here at night and have replaced your script!” “No ma’am!” was all Pulu could say. “Pulu, it’s your fortune that we failed to catch you this time!” she said slowly, stressing each word she spoke, “You are not a bad student and recently you have been doing very well in class. Why do you want to ruin your future? We can also hand you over to the police!”
That afternoon Pulu staggered back home – his forehead burning with fever. He didn’t tell his parents any of the conversation. All he could make out that night was, in spite of all his hard work, he could have done badly again had this miracle not happened – just because he had made too many careless mistakes in the last test and because he had been sick this time!
Weeks went by and the final exams arrived. Pulu had prepared hard and this time he was determined to make a mark on his own without taking help from any magical resources. The literature exam went well. The questions were common. The history paper was lengthy but Pulu could write fast enough to finish it. Half of the questions for physical sciences were repeated from last year’s question paper that he had practiced solving. Only the mathematics exam was left. Pulu was not nervous. He had spent half of the term practicing sums.
On the day of his mathematics examination, Pulu came to know that some of Tupur’s distant relatives have moved on to that house! Pulu heard his mother calling out to him from that balcony. “Pulu, come up at once!” she called out. “I have exam today, Ma!” Pulu shouted, standing on the road. “Oh come upstairs for a second” mother said, “Let me introduce you to some!” Pulu went up and met his new neighbors. They were a group of three, just as Tupur’s family was – mother, father along with their daughter. The girl was slightly younger than Pulu. Pulu learned her name was Dia. “Will you please help me with my studies? I am very weak!” the girl said. “Oh, of course he will!” Pulu’s mother said, looking lovingly at Pulu, before he could say anything by himself. Pulu bid them a goodbye and left hurriedly. He was getting late!
Pulu didn’t start his mathematics examination well. He couldn’t do six out of the ten objective questions! He kept on thinking about the new girl and her similarity with Tupur. She spoke like Tupur. She dressed like Tupur. And now he was supposed to help her out with her studies. Perhaps that was the only difference! Otherwise, it was him all the way who had taken help from Tupur!
Pulu’s exam went horrible. He answered forty-five! His dream of coming first in class was buried. He was returning home dejected, while suddenly something very exciting caught his eye. Dia’s balcony had a similar puppet placed on the railing with its legs of cloth tied tightly to the iron bars. It looked new, with all its body parts intact, with no dirt whatsoever on its clothes. As soon as Pulu’s eyes met its– he caught it winking at him! Pulu frowned and stood there, still, for a moment and found it smiling all along…
Pulu came first in class. The teacher called him again, perplexed. She showed to him his answer scripts – most of which, this time, were above any suspicion. The mathematics paper was an exception however. As expected, it was found to carry a handwriting that was not his! Pulu has got full marks in maths.
Symmetry 