Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months.
Arko had now settled into school life — or at least, his version of it.
Every morning, his mother shouted from the kitchen,
"Arko! Eat your rice properly and hurry up, or you'll be late!"
And from outside came his reply,
"Ma, I'm coming!"
He eats quickly. Within minutes, his meal is done. Now he is ready to head to school.
She handed him two rupees. "Here, take this for school. Buy something if you get hungry."
"Thanks, Ma!" Arko said, tucking the coins into his pocket.
Except he was never on time. By the time he reached the school, most of the students were already standing in a line for prayer. Arko would quietly sneak in from the back and pretend he had been there the whole time — though everyone could clearly see his dusty chappals and untidy hair.
Inside the classroom, chaos followed him like a shadow.
"Arko! Sit down and write A to Z," said Mota Master, tapping the blackboard.
Arko groaned. "Sir, I know A to Z! But when I write them, they run away from the page!"
The class burst into laughter.
"Run away?" Mota Master raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, sir! Yesterday, I wrote A… and then B came out so big it pushed A away!"
Even Mota Master couldn't help but hide a small smile. "You and your stories…"
During a math lesson, Arko accidentally dropped a chalk piece, and it rolled under the teacher's desk.
"Arko! Pick it up!" shouted Mota Master.
Arko crawled under the desk, muttering, "It's hiding… maybe it's scared of me!"
The whole class erupted in laughter as the teacher tried not to chuckle at the little boy's antics.
The new Headmaster, however, was still learning how to deal with him.
He had heard of Arko's famous cupboard incident but didn't believe a child could cause that much trouble — until he saw it for himself.
One afternoon, Arko was sitting under the banyan tree near the classroom, poking the ground with a stick.
The Headmaster walked up and asked, "Arko, what are you doing now?"
"Sir, I'm finding treasure."
"Treasure?"
"Yes, sir. I heard if you dig near a big tree, you'll find something shiny!"
The man sighed. "And if you don't find anything?"
"Then I'll dig another hole!"
The Headmaster rubbed his forehead. "At this rate, you'll dig up the whole school!"
Arko grinned. "Then we can plant new trees, sir!"
Later, Arko tried to impress a group of classmates by climbing the banyan tree. Halfway up, a branch snapped. He landed in a mud puddle, looking like a "chocolate cake," as one of the kids snickered.
"Ta-da! I meant to do that," Arko announced, wiping mud off his face. The class laughed even harder, while the Headmaster sighed in despair.
---
Most villagers were not fond of him. They whispered about his mischief, grumbled at the chaos he caused, and sometimes scolded him for breaking rules or wandering where he shouldn't.
"Why is that boy always in trouble?" one woman muttered, shaking her head as Arko ran past with a stolen kite.
"Trouble follows him like a shadow," an old man grumbled, frowning at the ruckus near the pond.
One day, Arko tried selling "invisible fish" to the neighbors.
"Just one rupee!" he shouted. "They're rare… can't see them anywhere else!"
A villager frowned. "I can't see anything, boy!"
"Exactly!" Arko said proudly. "That's how rare they are!"
Even some of the grumpier villagers couldn't help laughing, shaking their heads at his audacity.
During mid-morning, Arko sometimes used the 2 rupees his mother gave him to buy a small snack from the shop — but more often than not, he ended up using it for something ridiculous. One day, he bought a tiny kite, another day a handful of marbles, and once, he even tried buying a small clay toy for a goat.
Evenings in Nandipur were magical for Arko. The air smelled of wet earth and roasted corn, and the horizon glowed pink and orange. He loved running along the fields, chasing the chickens, or talking to the cows as if they were secret friends.
One day, he paused near the pond, watching the reflection of the sky ripple across the water. He whispered, "One day, I'll see the world beyond Nandipur. Big cities, mountains, oceans… maybe even stars closer than these."
His little heart felt a flutter of excitement. For now, he was a village boy, full of mischief, curiosity, and dreams bigger than his chappals. But somewhere deep inside, he knew that one day, those dreams would take him far from the banyan tree, the cows, and even his noisy school.
And for Nandipur, that was still a story waiting to be told — with mud puddles, invisible fish, runaway marbles, tiny kites, and plenty of chaos along the way.