Chapter 18: Entry of Professor Shastri

Rahul and his friends were having their way with Bharat as they heard this domineering voice from the front of the class and stopped in their tracks since they knew who this was and never expected this person to arrive so early before time.

Everyone Exclaimed "Oh! Professor Shastri has come." They were all stupefied for a moment as they did not know what to do since the punishment for harassing and bullying a fellow student was quite severe if caught and it was as if they were caught red handed so they did not know how to explain this to Professor Shastri and nobody expected Professor Shastri to come to class 30 minutes earlier however nobody was brave enough as to why professor Shastri came so early".

Rahul who was the leader of this group of students and who was behaving so rudely towards Bharat and had an arrogant attitude previously was now trembling since he was the one who had planned all of this and was going after Bharat to teach him a lesson however now he was caught red handed.

Professor Shastri asked again: "Why are all of you so quiet now? It seems you all do not have any shame. Tell me why all of you guys were going against this one student who seems to be alone and new to our college."

Rahul was the leader among them so he had to answer and he fumbled and said: "Sir … we w we were just."

Seeing the situation getting out of hand Mary interrupted and said while weeping: "Sir this new student was teasing me and tried to flirt with me so Rahul and his friends were just protecting me from this boy."

Rahul also nodded seeing the opportunity and the rest also agreed with her saying: "Yes sir we saw that this new boy was behaving rudely with Mary and was using vulgar language and signals so we were just punishing him as to how dare he disrespect women in our prestigious college."

Bharat couldn't believe what he was hearing. First of all he was being abused and physically beaten and now they were trying to frame him for such a heinous crime which he has never done.

Bharat got up immediately and fixed himself up.

Bharat said: "Sir I did not do anything, they are just trying to frame me. This is my first day in this college. Why would I flirt with someone on my first day?"

However just as Bharat was explaining himself the other students started shouting and subdued him taking Rahul and Mary's side since he was alone and the rest of them were all Rahul's friends so he was subdued by them.

No matter how but Professor Shastri was one of the most respected, senior, impartial and honest teachers in this college who was teaching for more than 10 years and had immense experience in these type of situations also he knew how Rahul and his group of friends were since he had been teaching them for so many years so naturally he had an idea about what could have transpired over here however he did not have any proofs so he could not do anything now.

Professor Shastri said: "Even if this boy had committed a crime by trying to flirt with Ms. Mary here, that doesn't mean that you guys have got the right to beat him to death and bully him. Who gave you the right to punish other students? Once this kind of incident occurs you should first report this to one of the teachers first."

Rahul and his group kept quiet as they knew that they were almost caught red handed and if Mary would not have saved them then they might have to serve severe punishment from Professor Shastri.

Rahul and his friends collectively said: "Sorry sir! We will not repeat this again."

Professor Shastri warned them: "OK! And yes I also do not want this to repeat itself if you guys are found bullying someone else and caught then the consequences will be severe am I understood."

The students said: "Yes sir."

Professor Shastri ordered: "Now go and take your respective seats all of you."

Then Professor Shastri nodded towards Bharat and asked him to introduce himself: "To get to know one another, please come up front and introduce yourself to the class."

However at this moment Rahul interrupted: "But sir how you can be so partial towards us since you warned us however you never gave any punishment to him since he is the main culprit."

The Professor said: "Rahul I am the teacher here as to who is wrong and who needs to be punished I will decide here and yes we will investigate the matter if the new student is found guilty then he will be punished however if we find that he is innocent and it was only you guys who were bullying him and slandering him then you people have to suffer."

The Professor further said looking towards Bharat: "OK now since the matter is settled for now come in front and introduce yourself to the class."

When the professor demanded it of him, Bharat stood up and addressed the group: "Hi I am Bharat and I come from Rajgarh Town which is in the north of this Rajgarh Metro City."

Professor Shastri said: "Thank you for your introduction Bharat, now you can go and sit beside Gaurav who is sitting right beside the window there."

Bharat only gave a short introduction of himself after that Professor Shastri assigned him a seat at the side of the class which was near the window which was as far from Rahul and his Group as possible since he knew that once this boy has come into the wrong side of Rahul and his Group they will try to slander him so in order to protect him from that he tried to pair him with another boy who seemed to be aloof from this group.

Bharat went and sat beside Gaurav as per Professor Shastri's instructions.

Gaurav said with a smile while extending a hand of friendship to Bharat: "Hi Bharat this is Gaurav here. I want to be your friend."

Bharat smiled and accepted his handshake and said: "Hi Gaurav I also like you and would love to be your friend."

Gaurav said: "I want to let you know that Mary and Rahul are only framing you because I know you are innocent and not only me the rest of the class also know of their antics so you don't have to worry of being alone since anyone who is not in their groups are being bullied by them."

Finally Bharat felt relieved meeting someone who was not hostile towards him in this college otherwise since the time he entered here he felt like people were always against him.

Rahul, Mary and their group of friends were just looking intently towards Bharat as if they were irritated since Bharat was able to escape from their clutches just now due to the interruption of Professor Shastri.