“Why are there so many kids in here this week?" Add a few more kids to an already crammed, noisy space and you notice. Barely looking up from her work correcting the crude formation of a cursive letter, Indu grinned and said, “They know about the picnic.” For every kid who loves coming to Indu’s Excellent Tuition centre to learn, there’s one who’s heard through the kid-to-kid rumour mill that Indu and DWP were planning a few outings for the tuition class in the next few weeks. There was a sudden push to get their names on “the list” which meant attending tuition class regularly or risk being overlooked. Suraj, who is not one to attend tuition more than once a week, leaned in close to me, po
Sohel’s thin, reedy fingers were shoved into his mouth up to the second knuckles. The closer I got to him the wider he pulled his lips apart, stretching them to his ears until I thought they would tear. Once I reached him, he relaxed, removed his fingers from his mouth, wiped his saliva-drenched chin on the back of his grimy hand and told me his tooth was ‘paining’. I reluctantly asked him to open his mouth wide once more and took a look inside. Hiding behind front teeth that look like perfect white chiclets were two gruesome black holes bathed in a pool of spit. He wiggled his dirty index finger in his mouth, pointed to the painful tooth and gave a quick wince to convince me to help somehow
