Reminiscing about the old days:

 

My brother and I travelled to school by bus. On this particular day, I had forgotten to take with me  the season tickets or the monthly pass we had to travel by bus to school. I realized this when I was ready to leave school that afternoon. We traveled to school at the same time each day, therefore the bus conductor knew us very well. So, he asked for the monthly pass usually for inspection only on very first day of teach month. As a result of this we traveled by bus and got to school. However, I didn’t have any money with me to pay the return bus fare due to the absence of the monthly pass.

I did not want to ask any help from anyone, and made up my mind, and said to myself, "No, we are walking back home".

At that time, I must have been about eleven years, and my brother was four years younger to me. The distance from the school to our home was about four miles. We walked back home and arrived home only about 30 minutes later than usual time. It was not noticed by my mother and therefore no questions were asked. We were very tired, but everything was fine but not for long. When my father returned from office, he came straight to me and asked me "how did both of you get back home from school today?" I replied "by bus as usual"  he got so angry and caned me very severely. He certainly had known how we got back home!

I have never seen him so angry before and I did not see it till he died. The best part here was comparing the time taken to get home by bus and our walking back the difference was only about 30 minutes. That was a memorable day in my life. Although I was severely punished by my father for lying to him and for making my little brother walk all that distance, I was proud that in a situation like that I did not depend on anyone but made it my way.

 

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