Rohini Punished for Flunking Math

Rohini clutched the answer sheet with moist palms. She had scored 24/70 in her math. That meant doom, because it was Sunil who taught her maths after he got back from office. Throughout her auto-ride home, Rohini's armpits felt cold and damp. before walking in, she prayed her father won't be too angry. She was nervous. Raghu noticed large rings of sweat patches under either armpit of her navy blue school uniform. Her armpits had done a lot of sweating today. Once in school before the exams were declared, and now.

The school uniform fit her beautifully; hugging her breasts and her eighteen year old, strong, muscular bosom. The sleeves were tight around her biceps, and stretched when she flexed. She wore a black leather watch on her left wrist. She silently sat down at the dining table, where her father was also sitting, watching television. She prayed no one would ask about the math test. In the kitchen, her mother was cooking butter chicken, and the heavenly smells emanating from the kitchen made her stomach rumble softly. She would always be hungry when she came from school, inspite of hogging ample quantity of food in school.

"Hey! How was school," Shweta asked, cheerfully. Rohini forced a smile. "Something wrong?" she asked, looking worried.

"No." Rohini replied.

"Your armpits sure tell another story," she chuckled, noticing the gigantic sweat patches that were fast expanding. her sweaty palms had left an imprint on the glass table.

"Rohini, beta. How was school," Sunil asked, smiling. The heady odour of her sweat at once assaulted his nostrils. "How was your math test?" He added.

Rohini gulped. "I didn't do very well, papa." she said, joining her hands on the table, so that the sweat from her palms wouldn't wet the table. It also helped conceal the sweaty armpits from her father who was sitting in front of her.

"What do you mean didn't do very well? How much did you score?" Her father glared at her. Rohini cleared her throat. Raghu was being served lunch. The sight of the butter chicken made her stomach feel positively hollow. She was getting very hungry.

"Rohini, I'm just getting yours." Shweta said, hurrying over to the kitchen.

"24." Rohini mumbled, after a pause. she felt a bead of sweat trickle down her left armpit, and shifted her left arm to reposition it, as she felt tickled.

"Out of?" Sunil looked pretty angry. 24 out of anything couldn't be good. When Rohini said 70, Sunil slapped her across the face. She looked down, ashamed.

"Show me the answer paper." Her father barked. Rohini wiped her palms on her skirt, and fished out the answer paper from her bag. Her father examined its contents, growing more disappointed with each page.

"All you do is go to the gym all day. It's distracting you." He said, clutching her pumped bicep.

Rohini hung her head in shame. She was standing in front of her father, as she dared not sit.

"Should I serve her lunch now?" Shweta asked, with the plate in her hand.

"She gets no lunch today. Don't bother, Shweta." Sunil yelled.

Shweta waited with the plate for sometime, and then retired to the kitchen. Raghu ate in peace, chewing on the pieces. From the corner of her eye, Rohini watched him eat, and felt an annoying gnawing at her stomach. It was just like the gnawing she got before the bell to the lunch hour rang at school. Only, it was a bit more intense at this moment. She loved butter chicken. The smells assaulted her nostrils, while the smell of fresh sweat emanating from her body assaulted every body's in the room.

Her father was particularly proud of the smell of honest sweat that came from her daughter. He loved that she sweated like a man.

"These are all silly mistakes, Rohini! You know all this stuff. We spent hours on this!" He said. Beads of sweat trickled from her armpits; rivulets running down the inside of her arm. She wiped her arms on her sides, by clamping them to one side and rubbing. Her father noticed this activity of hers twice, and rapped the table with his fist.

"Can you stop moving your arms, please? And stand straight!" He demanded.

"I need to move my arms becau-" she began an explanation

"why?" Sunil barked, interrupting

Rohini: "to wipe my sweat-"

Dad; "No!"

Rohini: "But sweat is running down my arms-"

Dad; "I don't care. stand straight. Do not move. Keep your arms in front of you." Her father spat.

Rohini squared her shoulders, by joining her palms across her skirt like her father had asked her to. Her biceps flexed involuntarily as soon as she did that.

"And what about this?" He roared. "Inverse trignometry? Didn't we practise these?"

Rohini nodded. And then, her eyes widened. Her stomach felt absolutely empty. Raghu had been served some gravy. It smelled divine. She felt her mouth water. She suddenly remembered she'd been so busy with prefect duty as sports captain, that she'd managed to just have two cookies in school. She was starving.

She felt a stomach rumble coming up. Oh, and it would be loud. She tried her best to fight it. Her father would be livid if he heard it. Are you listening to what I'm syaing, or still thinking about the butter chicken? he would ask. Hunger gnawed at her stomach. The rumble would come any minute now. Should she cough, or ruffle her feet? She felt that would irritate him even more. She tried sucking in her stomach.

"How much time did you spend at the gym? I've told you not to spend more than one and a half hours. You wear a watch, don't you?" Sunil barked.

Compounding her discomfort, were the three nervous beads of sweat that she felt making their way down her arm, from her right armpit. And two beads on the other armpit. Sweat was practically streaming down the insides of her arm. She fought the need to wipe her arms. It tickled the insides of both her arms. The beads stopped at the elbows for a brief two seconds, while her dad yelled at her, and then dropped to the floor. Sweat was dripping off her elbows. The sides of her uniform were soaked, and clung tightly to her skin. The rings of sweat had spilled over to her waist, and were spreading to her breasts slowly. At that moment, Shweta came with a pot of butter chicken gravy. Seeing her mother pour its contents on Raghu's plate, she felt her stomach walls itching to rumble. Her stomach rumbled loud, and long. Her father looked up at her, and chose to ignore it. He went back to scanning the paper. Raghu snickered. So did Shweta. Before long, there was another rumble.

"Stomach's rumbling? That's too bad." Sunil said, finally. Another rumble, and this was the loudest. The inappropriateness of the entire thing made her laugh.

"Uff! Rohini, can't you stop that?" Sunil yelled, now very irritated.

Rohini: "I am trying, papa. But it's...just happening, I can't help it!" It was close to 4:45, and lunch time for Rohini is usually an hour before.

Dad: "Too bad. You're not getting any lunch today. You only get dinner today, at 9."

Her stomach growled again, and Rohini couldn't help but laugh at how absurd it was sounding, and knowing how she was absolutely not being able to help it.

"Are you doing that on purpose?" Her father yelled. "Shut your stomach up!"

"I swear, I'm doing all i can to stop it. it's just getting louder... I can't help it." Rohini said, laughing out loud. Her mother, and Raghu burst into peals of laughter.

"stop it both of you! this is serious. Your daughter can't make anything of her life with just gymming and dancing, if she gets scores like this." Her father screamed.

Rohini hung her head in shame. She prayed her dad wouldn't keep her grounded. She didn't mind the caning, or the slaps. She didn't want to be grounded. One by one, Raghu, Sunil and Shweta finished their lunch. It was now 5:45 pm. Rohini was very hungry, and her sweat began to dry up in the fan.

"Do the dishes. Mop the kitchen floor." Sunil said, and ordered her to the kitchen. It was hot in the kitchen. Her stomach growled, looking at the dirty dishes. They reminded her of the delicious butter chicken, and she could smell the heavenly flavour. Sweat began to soak her uniform again, and dripped mercilessly down her face, neck. Mopping was harder. By the time she was done, it was 6:50.

Rohini's stomach felt like hunger had dug out all the flesh from it. It ached, and growled. She felt hunger in every joint. In every muscle.

Sweat shone on her face, neck, forearms, practically running down her arms. Her uniform was giving off an incredibly pungent smell.

"Sunil, she is soaked with sweat," Shweta said, looking at her from the hall.

"Let her sweat," Sunil said. "Let her know for once what it is to toil. Look at those muscles on her. She knows what it is to sweat."

"This is how I work, every day, to earn bread for this family." Sunil finally told Rohini.

"This is the amount of sweat," Sunil continued, grabbing hold of Rohini's shirt, and then showing his sweat-soaked palm to Rohini, "that it takes. I want the same intensity in your studies, as well."

Rohini nodded. Her stomach gave out a thunderous growl. It paused for about a second, and then gave out another growl. Then a pause, and then another.

"Jesus Christ. You have quite an appetite for a girl, I'll give you that. Go on, you can eat," Sunil said.