But Why…?

“Hello” — “oh! Sad! Sorry to hear that!” — “How is family doing?” — Mom over phone with someone.

“Mom, what happened?” — me having trouble to understand her.

“Your far grandfather has expired today”- mom in a sad voice.

“Oh… so what will they do with him? Will they throw him to bin?” — I was referring to dad when he said need to throw the medicine to bin which got expired.

“What! No! they should perform last rites!”- I can feel the sad and shock in mom’s voice.

“But why? They can just throw in bin rite”- again thinking of dad comments.

“You just complete your homework, don’t ask unnecessary questions! Tomorrow you have school”- mom was angry.

I started with fill in the blanks opening my book.

There was this question — “write a question, using ______”.

I fell into my thought — “But why…? Why are they asking me to write Why?”

I had enough of these questions which no one answers me, and this teacher asks me question to answer her “Why?”. I felt like I had many problems in my life.

“Grandma!!”- interrupting grandma when she was busy with TV.

“You completed homework?” — staring at TV grandma responded.

“Yes, leave it. Now tell me why we need last rites?” — I was curious to know.

“What! Why? It’s the procedure to send people to heaven” — “oh bad! he again slapped her”- grandma was trying to reduce the TV volume because of the background music.

“But please you don’t go to heaven leaving all of us”- my voice had the shiver.

“What are you talking, everybody must go to heaven when time comes, now keep quite let me watch TV” — grandma seemed ignorant.

“Now whom shall I ask?” — “Mom- No!”- “Dad- No!”- “Tommy…?” — “Tommy…?” — “No!”

“Good morning teacher…” — We all stood up with a grand wish as we do every day.

“Bibli… how can we send people to heaven?”- I started drilling my nose whispering to Bibli.

“You know what…”- Bibli stopped whispering as teacher heard our loud whisper.

“Bibli! Keep quiet. Get me your homework”- Teacher called Bibli from her table.

“I didn’t talked madam, he was asking me to come to heaven, promise!” — Bibli shouted in front of the whole class.

“Oh god! These ladies cannot keep secrets”- I banged my palm to my head forgetting that Bibli was a lady.

“Heaven! What heaven!” — My teacher asked me to standup.

As I am the Lion it was proud moment for me to address my class.

“Teacher” — I do not know why my nose was itchy — “I did not ask her to come to heaven, I asked her about sending people to heaven” — drilling the nose Lion answered the Teacher.

“Why? Why you want people to send to heaven?” — My teacher started her cross questioning.

I was thinking whether I should explain her or keep quiet. Well, I needed my answers.

“There is nothing called heaven or hell, when you grow up you will understand, sit down and concentrate on class”- Teacher put a full stop for my long narration.

I sat down giving some dirty looks to Bibli.

There were ton of questions and doubts running in my head.

Bibli poked with her finger and said slowly, thank God! this time it was slow — she was staring at teacher than uttering any word.

“I don’t know…”- I never waited for those precious words.

I got a paper piece behind the bench saying — “I know how to send…”

I replied saying — “How?”

I was not ready for this response — “But Why…?”

I lost in my thought, the answer to “Why?” is more important than any other question. But how to answer the question when its answer is “Why?”

“Children make a sentence starting with Why” — My teacher shouted from her table, making me upset.