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Mr. Shabnam would often times call upon me to go to the board and demonstrate the homework solutions for the rest of the class. As luck had it one such time I had minimal preparation and had to heavily rely on Nima to pass the answers on to me. While Nima infrequently did so but was more focused on cracking jokes with Putra. As I struggled through the problems on the board, getting some right and some wrong, Nima and Putra continued their antics. With Mr. Shabnam focusing on me and correcting me when necessary, the two did not think they were also under his radar. So when Mr. Shabnam finally pounced on them it completely caught them off guard. With Putra sitting on the closer side of the bench, Mr. Shabnam lunged towards him, grabbed him by the hair and pulled him to the front of the class. He pushed him against the wall and administered a severe beating before finally practically shouting, “Why have you been laughing?” Paralyzed with fear, Putra struggled to get a few words out before Mr. Shabnam continued his physical punishment. After a few more blows he opened the classroom door and literally kicked Putra out of class. Nima was spared his beating. 


This all made for a very tense remainder of class for me as I feared that any wrong answer by me would perhaps serve as a trigger for my own beating. Fortunately I made it through the class. Whatever leftover anger Mr. Shabnam harbored was quenched as he momentarily left the class to beat Putra up a bit more.

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