The 'pencil box' incident

A long time ago, I was in school. Sounds like really long ago, when I used to carry a big heavy school bag, a bottle and a lunch box. Life sure was fun then ! The biggest hassle would be if homework for the day had been completed and whether my best friend sat next to me during art class. This story is about my best friend of seventh standard...and her favourite pencil box.
It is rightly said that the more you love something, the brighter your chances are of losing it, or something to that effect. And Shweta was madly in love with her pencil box. If any of us would ask her why she carried such an old pencil box, she would hold it fondly in her hands, almost pet it and tell us how she had got it in the second standard and how it had stuck to her all these years. She always had a penchant for sturdy things, and this, at that time, was the sturdiest. It was shaped like a car, with a greyish bottom and a greenish top. And was very sleek too and did I mention? The apple of her eye, or whatever it is called when it is an inanimate object.
This would have been an all too good story had it not been for the bad guy, in this case, our Maths teacher, Prem Sir. Now Prem Sir was one of those strict and short-tempered teachers. The kind children shudder at the name of. And on the fateful day he was in one of his moods. As soon as he entered the class, one could hear a pin drop. Shweta, me and a guy called Kapil were seated together. Kapil was known for his notoriety, one of the 'shorties' in the class, but man, could he keep adults on their toes. He was hyperactive! He never ever fell short of energy, I personally believed he was always thinking of the next mischief he would commit while still in the middle of the first one. For some reason, on that day he was laughing...or rather guffawing...even when Prem Sir came right in.
In Kapil Prem Sir found the perfect stress buster. While we hadn't even seated, he came over to our seat and held Kapil by the ear. "What's so funny?" he asked. To which Kapil went down to a giggle from his laughing. "Tell me, what is it that you're laughing at?" , somehow Kapil found that hilarious and almost laughed out loud this time. I really don't know what Kapil is doing these days, but at that time I was sure he would go into the army, being such a hard shell, I was sure he would keep army secrets even when he was captured by the enemy. At that time though, it really dint help him much. Prem Sir looked left, right and center for something with which to bash up Kapil. All the students had very slyly kept all the thick Maths books inside their desks by now. The only thing that was out was, Shweta's favourite box. And well, rest is history.
Sir really banged Kapil hard with the box, in a vain effort to make him stop laughing which obviously didn't happen. What did happen was tears started trickling down Shweta's eyes, and fast. Had I not known better, I'd have thought she had a soft corner for Kapil. During the act, fragments of the box flew all over the classroom, the top of the box, half the bottom of it, the pens, the pencils, the eraser...everything. By the time Prem Sir was done, all that was left of the box was a half-a-choco-bar sized piece, which he looked at for a second, laughed and handed over to Shweta. I had never ever seen her so upset before. No wonder she took Biology in the 11th standard, she obviously dint want to lose another box to Prem Sir you see.