“It is very unfair, we will not study under a new teacher,” the boys said.

The new teacher, who is arriving, has the name Kalikumar Tarkalankar. Even though the boys had not seen him yet, they had nicknamed the teacher as “Black pumpkin fresh chilli”, a ridiculous translation of the teacher’s name.

The vacations had ended and the boys were returning back to school from their homes in a train. Among them was a jolly fellow who had composed a poem entitled “The black pumpkin’s sacrifice” and the boys were reciting the poem at the top of their voice. Just then, when the train stopped at the Adkhola station, an old man entered their coach. With him was his sleeping bag all folded up, few pots that were closed at their mouths by pieces of cloth, a tin trunk and few bundles. One bully-type of boy, who was called Bichkun by the others, roared, “There is no place here, old man. Get into another coach.”

The old man said, “There is a tremendous rush and there is no place elsewhere.

I will adjust myself in this corner and will not cause you any trouble.” So saying, the old man vacated the seat among the boys and sat down after spreading his sleeping bag on the floor in a corner.

He asked the boys, “Where are all of you going and what for?”

Bichkun promptly replied that they were going for a “shraddha (a religious rite performed after the death of a person).”

“Whose shraddha?” the old man wanted to know.

Black pumpkin fresh chilli’s, he heard in reply.

The boys once again chanted at the top of their voice, “Black pumpkin fresh chilli, we will show you your place.”

The train halted at Asansol and the old man alighted to bathe at the station.

When he returned after taking a bath, Bichkun sounded him at once, “Do not remain in this coach, mister.”

“Do tell me why,” the old man requested to know.

“There are a lot of rats here,” was the answer.

“Rats! What is all this talk of rats?”

“Just see what the rats have done after removing the covers of your pots.”

The gentleman saw that the pots that had contained sweets and other eatables were absolutely empty.

“The rats even scurried away carrying away one of your bundles,” Bichkun said. The bundle had contained five or six luscious mangoes from the old man’s own garden.

The gentlemen laughed and remarked that the rats must have been hungry indeed.

Bichkun said that rats are like that. They eat even if they are not hungry.

The other boys joined in the fun and laughed out aloud. “Yes mister, had there been more eatables, they would have finished that too,” they said.

The gentleman said he had made a mistake. “Had I known there would be so many rats traveling together in the train, I would have brought more good things to eat,” he said.

The boys were disappointed