A Fly’s Mischief – Aziz Moradabadi

One morning Saurabh was eating pudding for his breakfast in the hostel mess. At that time, there were about 20-25 boys present.

Saurabh was reading a magazine along with relishing his pudding. All of a sudden, a fly came and squatted on his pudding plate. Seeing this, Saurabh was enraged. Without losing a single minute, he attacked it with his magazine. But the fly flew away, and the magazine fell directly on the glass of milk, which Deepak had put on the table. The glass fell, and the milk splattered over Deepak’s clothes. Deepak also lost his temper.

Angrily, he picked up a plate with omelette in it and threw it at Saurabh. But Saurabh ducked and the plate dashed against Gautam.

Gautam did not lose a second. He picked up a plate with a pudding in it and flung it towards Deepak who was running out of the hall. But Gautam missed his target and the plate hit Montu.

After caressing his forehead for a while, Montu picked up a glass and aimed it. This glass hit Ramu, the servant in the mess.

Shrieking angrily, Ramu lifted a cold drink bottle from the crate and aimed it at Montu. But the cold drink bottle was caught mid-way by the tall Amit. He began to drink it.

Just then, an empty plate came flying like a disc from nowhere and touching Amit’s head, hit Satbir.

Satbir screamed with pain. Then he also picked up a bottle and hurled it up against the ceiling.

The bottle clashed against the fan and was smashed into pieces.

There was utter chaos in the hall. Suddenly, the naughty Manoj went into the kitchen and brought out a tray of eggs.

Putting the tray down on a table in the hall, he began to throw the eggs like balls.

Hearing the noise, the hostel warden, a bald man, came there. An egg thrown by Manoj fell on his bald head. The warden was mad with rage.

But when the children saw the warden with an egg on his bald head, they began to laugh. By this time, the Mess Manager also came there.

The warden asked the boys sharply, “Tell me who played this mischief? Who started all this?”

After a little thought, Saurabh, who was standing out, peeped in and said fearfully, “Sir, actually what happened was…” And then he narrated the entire incident.

Wiping off his head with a handkerchief, the warden said smiling, “So it means the real culprit is a fly and all of you are innocent. But there is no rule in the hostel for punishing a fly. Moreover, how can we find out which one was the fly that squatted on Saurabh’s plate?

”Anyone, nobody will play any such tricks again, or else he will be severely punished,” he warned and left the place.

All the children had a hearty laugh at this.

∼ Aziz Moradabadi