Silambattam fall out

”I will be cancelling class today” announced my silambattam teacher,” I have to be in the police station by 8 am. I will come tomorrow.”

“Why?” I asked worried, “do you want me to speak to anyone? What happened?” (The local DIG used to be my hammer throw instructor).

I heard the whole story later.

Apparently, he was training eight teenagers, 6 boys and two girls, in an empty lot at 5:30 in the evening. He went a little way down the road with the boys to pick up new “short sticks “ for training which he had left there.

The girls were practising their jumps and flips. Their  six-foot long bamboo poles were on the ground.  Four young men surrounded them.

“Hey beauty,” said one leering and moving closer.

“Go away, “ said the girl.

He advanced closer. He sang a love song in Tamil. He stroked her arm---. “one of you for each of us “ he said and grabbed her closer.

This was too much. The girls picked up their sticks and expertly thrashed the young men. Three ran away. One was felled to the ground.  He lay there screaming, “save me, save me.”

Fortunately, the teacher reached before they killed him.

As he too ran away, his arm was hanging at a peculiar angle.

The boys returned with the local panchayat leader and others.”This girl broke my arm, said the boy, pointing to one of the girls.

“I am going to file an FIR,” said the father “you will pay for this.”

The next morning they all assembled at the police station. The Inspector started smiling when he heard the story. He turned to the boy’s parents, “are you sure you want to file an FIR?  This girl can also file one. He touched her first. She has three witnesses. She is a minor. He is an adult. This case is molestation of a minor. He will go away for at least four years. Nothing will happen to her. It is self-protection.”.

“What about his arm?” asked the irate father. “It cost me a lot of money for treatment—Xray, plaster cast etc. He cannot use his arm for a month”.

The inspector called the girl forward. “Do you want to file a case. “

Before she could answer, the boy’s father said “ all right, all right we are leaving.”

“Tell your son to apologize to the girl” said the inspector lifting his pen.

The words stuck in his throat but the boy managed an apology.

As they were leaving the inspector said, “what sort of an undisciplined rowdy are you bringing up? Encouraging him to molest girls! He doesn’t seem to have any brains either. Who will touch a girl when she has a six-foot bamboo pole in her hand?”