I had a chance to sit on a school bench last week!! I went to the nearby school for a function. It was a holiday, and the classrooms were empty. Do schools have a different smell? I don’t know… I sat on a bench, and looked around. It was an old Government school. The benches were empty and dusty too.
The courtyard outside was lined with trees and shrubs. Trees having name plates on them and other messages by the National Service Scheme and other clubs in school. The neatly numbered rows of classrooms waited in silence for the footsteps of kids. The surroundings were smartly maintained.
In the classroom shelf, I found an English Text Book. The first lesson was the story “Cherry Tree” by Ruskin Bond. Nostalgia welling inside, I turned the pages and read the story. It was about a kid planting a cherry tree at the foot of Himalayas and the expectations with which he and his grand father nurtures it. The way the tree grows first, and then becomes taller than the kid. The thrill with which the kid plucks the first cherry fruit and spits it out, seeing its sour. Time passes and the little plant endures being nibbled by a goat and a caterpillar, is run over by a runaway cart, and experiences the cold winters and the heavy spring rains. Through it all, the tree grows as well as the kid. Years pass before the cherry seed grows into a tree that produces fruit. The kid wistfully remarks, “How it changed!” and Grandfather responds with “Just like you.”
I just thought of my old schools and my teachers. Aren’t they too doing the same thing? Planting and growing young minds. Naughty kids who are sour in behavior at first. The happiness of the teachers when they change them to sweet kids. The surprise on their face when an old student wishes her somewhere in a crowd.
My father is a teacher too. He observes that the naughty students in class, who get most of the scolding from teachers, turn more respectful in the long run than the studious kids. This may be because they realize the importance of teachers after leaving school, and how the scolding or beating helped them to shape their future. Like the Cherry tree, the sour fruits turn sweet with time.
I spent the time as if in a meditation… ran through my school days and the teachers who helped and encouraged me to reach here. Ramani teacher of 5th standard, who wanted my laddu when I got admission for engineering… She was the first person who could beat me for a reason after joining 5th std. The reason was of course talking to the next person ;) Vasu master and bhasi master who first showed me mathematics is the coolest subject. These are from primary classes … the list becomes endless when it passes through High school, Pree Degree, Engineering and finally reaches Poornam, the trainers there too. This post, I think I had to make it on September 5th, the teachers’ day. Though late, I dedicate this post to all teachers of mine who helped me reach so far and taught me to smile at world.
Take a moment in your life and think about them. Teachers consist not only the people who drew salary to teach you, but there are people who taught you big lessons of life, including your parents. If this post reminded you to do that, which you always take for granted, I would be much happy.
Asatoma Sadgamaya
Thamaso Maa Jyothir Gamaya
Mrithyor Maa Amrutham Gamaya
Aum Shanti Shanti Shantihi
(Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality. May there be peace everywhere.)
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