Check this. Poor Jispa has been bandaged on her left foot.
But there isn’t anything wrong with her left foot. There isn’t a hurt, or even
a scratch there. Then why is it there? Jasmine saw this in the morning and
called Jispa and me ‘impossible’.
Well I am particularly proud of this one. Jispa had a little
bit of fever yesterday night. That’s because she has a puss boil on her left
butt. It’s painful and it’s ready to ooze. We started putting medicine on it.
The ayurvedic one is a brown paste that seeks to suck out the puss. While the
boil itself hurts, putting the brown paste makes it throb and hurt a bit more.
The fever today morning was gone but the boil needed fresh dressing. So we
dressed it up and got her ready for school. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go to
school today. I was ok – sure. This is a good enough reason not to go. Jasmine
wasn’t so benign about it. Of course she can go to school. Ya, it hurts but
it’s not that bad.
So I was with Jispa later and she said – “you know it’s not
because it hurts I don’t want to go. In school there is pushing and pulling and
someone will touch the boil and it will hurt like hell.” – and I added “and you
can’t really tell them that you have a boil on your bum. It’s too
embarrassing.”. “ya” she replied “ and if you tell the buys then they do it all
the more”. Hmm. That’s a genuine problem. You have whackos in school you get
sadistic pleasures and you have a problem that you can’t really talk about, and
you definitely are in pain and you will limp. So “Jispa, here’s one idea. Let’s bandage another leg in a way it shows
so you have a reason to limp and no one need know.” Her face lit up and she
said “Yes, that will work”
So we just simply bandaged the other leg and sent her off.
This way we address Jasmine’s concern for not bunking frivolously and Jispa
concern of not being embarrassed or hurt.
In the end I don’t know if the ploy worked or if her friends
really care or anything. But it did get her to school and we had a chuckle or
two.
Subterfuge - the end matters more than the means.
