For the past few days, Alongbar has become reluctant to go to school. Whenever it is school time, he sneaks away from home and goes to the forest with the cowherds to graze cattle. Together with the cowherds, he smokes bidis, smokes ganja (marijuana), and also consumes tobacco. In the forest, they hunt rats, mongooses, and small birds, and roast them to eat. They also roast and eat various types of grasshoppers found in the bamboo groves and mustard fields. They even steal birds’ eggs from their nests and boil them to eat. The cowherds also do not reveal Alongbar’s changing behavior to anyone in the village.
In this manner, for three or four days, Alongbar avoided going to school. When it is time for school, he makes various excuses—sometimes complaining of a stomach ache, sometimes a headache, or feeling dizzy. As soon as his parents are not around, he slips away completely and spends the entire day playing with the village’s school-dropout children and the cowherds.
A few other children in the village have similarly abandoned their studies completely. Even by coaxing or reprimanding them, their parents are unable to send them to school. Whenever they are sent to school, they…
…speak very ill of the teachers in front of their parents. Because they were punished by the teachers for not doing their lessons and for creating mischief in school, they grew to deeply resent them. They even took an oath that they would never go to school again, even if it cost them their lives. Nowadays, they just wander aimlessly around the village. They head to the forest with the cowherds. They pass the time according to their whims by hunting and roasting birds, and hunting and roasting rats. Alongbar is also being badly influenced by them. Just like them, Alongbar now wishes to live a carefree life of leisure and eating. To make Alongbar drop out of school and join their group completely, they began telling him:
“What do you even gain by studying? One can survive perfectly fine without an education. You shouldn’t go to school anymore either. If you can’t do the lessons, you’ll only get beaten if you stay in school. Why keep getting punished by the teachers?”
By hanging out with them, Alongbar is also looking for an opportunity to drop out of school. However, his mother is no less determined; she is constantly figuring out strategies to send Alongbar to school.
Today, the mother finally confronted Alongbar:
“Son, why have you become so reluctant to go to school? Why do you keep deceiving us like this? Whenever it is school time, you complain that sometimes your head hurts, and sometimes your stomach hurts. Even when woken up in the morning, you don’t get up quickly. Why are you so unwilling to go to school? I want to know.”
Alongbar replied:
“I am completely tired of going to school, Mother.”
“Why are you tired of it? Haven’t you thought about what will happen to you in the future if you don’t go to school?”
“Even without going to school, one can survive. Look at how so many uneducated people are living out there.”
“…If you are educated, you gain respect, you are recognized by everyone, and you can live a peaceful, settled life by securing a job. You can also become wealthy by doing business.”
Alongbar replied somewhat stubbornly:
“I am not going to school anymore. From today onwards, do not even tell me to go to school.”
“Then what will you do? Will you go work as a cowherd? If you do not study, you cannot stay in my house. An uneducated child cannot be my son.”
Alongbar replied with even greater defiance and stubbornness:
“I will work as a cowherd, but I still won’t study.”
“Fine, if you want to work as a cowherd, then I will go talk to Gendra Mahajwn (the landlord/wealthy merchant). Go and work at his place. But you must support us by working as a cowherd until we die. If you cannot feed us through your work as a cowherd until our deaths, you will bear the sin.”
Alangbar readily agreed to work as a cowherd. He had absolutely no desire left to go to school. He thought that working as a cowherd would be much better and easier than studying.
Out of sheer frustration and distress, Rwisumwi (Alongbar’s mother) went to speak with Gendra Mahajwn that very morning. Gendra Mahajwn also happened to need a cowherd. Whenever possible, he would employ three or four young children as cowherds. After negotiating a monthly wage of 500 rupees, Rwisumwi took an advance of 300 rupees and returned. At that moment, Alongbar was playing with his pet puppy. The mother came back home, approached Alangbar, and said:
“My son Alongbar, from today itself you will have to go and work as a cowherd at Gendra Mahajwn’s place. I have already brought an advance of 300 rupees for a month’s work. You go work as a cowherd, and as soon as each month ends, I will bring the money from Gendra Mahajwn and keep buying and eating fish and meat every day.”
Alongbar replied:
“I won’t go stay today; I will go stay tomorrow instead.”
“Fine if you aren’t going today, but you absolutely must go tomorrow morning.”
In this manner, the day passed. Night fell, and everyone went to sleep after finishing their evening meal. Throughout the entire night, Rwisumwi could not sleep as she kept thinking about her son. She had dreamed of making her son a great person, well-educated, an active member of society recognized by everyone, and a skilled human resource capable of working for the honor of his community and society. At some point, Rwisumwi drifted into a deep sleep. The sleeping world hardly noticed when dawn broke again. Alongbar was fast asleep. He was completely unaware. As soon as it became light, his mother woke him up by repeatedly knocking on the door. Alongbar had no desire to get up.
The mother kept calling and knocking on the door continuously. Alongbar grew angry with his mother for making such a fuss to wake him up. Although he had no intention of getting up, he reluctantly dragged himself out of bed.
When Alongbar opened the door and stepped out while rubbing his eyes, his mother said:
“I have already packed all your bags and belongings. Wash your face quickly, the time has come; you have to go work as a cowherd now. The landlord said that by 7:00 AM sharp, you must finish milking the cows and take them out to graze. From today, you are Gendra Mahajwn’s cowherd. Now, if you don’t arrive exactly on time, Gendra Mahajwn will come over to scold us, because just yesterday I took an advance of 300 rupees. Even if he doesn’t scold us, he will deduct it from your next month’s salary.”
Rwisumwi spoke these words very casually on the surface. However, deep down in her heart, she could not accept the words she was saying as light or easy. After speaking, Rwisumwi wept silently. Inside her heart, a heavy grief burned intensely like a raging fire, even as outwardly, like rising smoke visible to the eyes…
…did not come out. Within a few moments, tears began streaming heavily from both her eyes. She could no longer hold back her crying. For a mother who had dreamed of making her son well-educated, sending him off to work as a cowherd was no small matter. To her, it felt like a terribly sinful act. As she wiped her tears away with the edge of her dokhona (traditional Bodo dress), the fabric became completely soaked. Looking into her son’s face through her tears, she spoke out again:
“My son is going to become a cowherd from today! He is going to feed his parents by working as a cowherd! This is not what I had wished for. Because his parents are uneducated, they tried their best to make their children wise and knowledgeable. But my boy did not listen to his parents’ words…!”
Rwisumwi collapsed near the hearth and wept bitterly. Seeing his mother cry like this, Alongbar stood completely still and just stared at her. What child could bear to see their mother cry? Only children who do not truly value their mother could remain unmoved by her tears. Watching his mother weep, Alongbar’s own tears began to well up. Slowly and unnoticed, tears started trickling down from both his eyes. Within moments, he broke down completely and began sobbing heavily. Wailing through his tears, he said:
“I won’t go work as a cowherd, Mother! I will study from today onwards. Please go and return the advance money you brought. I will start going back to school from today.”
Bowing down to touch his mother’s feet while crying, Alongbar pleaded:
“I won’t work as a cowherd, Mother. Please do not bind me into servitude. I will go to school from today. From today, I will obey everything you say.”
For a long time, the mother kept her face covered with the edge of her dokhona, weeping continuously. Alongbar held onto both her feet tightly and cried. Rwisumwi finally lifted Alongbar up and pulled him into a tight, warm embrace. The neighbors around began wondering what all the commotion was about…
…thinking it was a morning quarrel. Standing out on the street, they stared intently at the mother and son crying. In this manner, as soon as it struck 9:00 AM, Alongbar neatly dressed up and left for school. The mother went back to return the 300 rupees advance she had taken from Gendra Mahajwn.
Gendra Mahajwn was not at all willing to take the money back. He said angrily:
“Why are you coming back to return the money after taking an advance? Why didn’t you think it through properly before coming to talk to me? Either you take the job or you don’t. Why back out after taking an advance to secure the position? You have simply wasted my time. I was happy thinking I had finally found a cowherd.”
Rwisumwi pleaded:
“Please don’t take it badly, elder/brother. I couldn’t think straight either. Because the boy insisted he wouldn’t study and wanted to work as a cowherd, I came to take the advance.”
Taking back the 500 rupees, the landlord barked one last time:
“How can people like you afford to educate your children anyway? You can barely manage to feed yourselves. You will end up selling off all your lands trying to arrange loans for fees!”
Rwisumwi felt deeply hurt by the landlord’s mocking words. Yet, as she walked back home from his place, she thought to herself:
“We will see what happens. Even if we have nothing, I will educate him by taking loans or even by begging if necessary. But I must succeed in making my child wise and well-educated.”
Following this incident, Alongbar began going to school punctually every single day. He started studying with deep concentration. True to the saying “the more you study, the wiser you become,” his knowledge and thinking capacity grew better and better. Whatever he studied with focus, he was able to retain perfectly, understand quickly, and think about critically.