What Goes Around Comes Around

Did Seema like going to school? She wasn’t sure. But then Seema wasn’t sure of many things in life. This is just one of them. For her school did give a reprieve from the boredom of having to spend time by herself. But after spending hours amongst the mixed medley of sounds, viz., lessons, bells, playful banter, shrieks, etc., she looked forward to going home and the silence prevailing in the house felt quite relaxing.

Back in those days, her father had decided to send her to the government school right next door. She had the luxury of starting from home at the stroke of the first ring of the school bell and reach the school by the time they finished ringing the last one. 

She even counted them. If it was Ramu who rang the bell, he rang it twenty times. In the later years, it was Bheemu who rang it only twelve times. Going by the essence of his name, one would expect Bheemu to out beat Ramu by a mile, but that’s how life is sometimes. It can be full of contradictions.

Initially, Seema didn’t mind going to a Government school. Well - not until she met the children of her father’s doctor friend who were sent to the only Private English medium school in the town in those days. 

As these children talked to her, throwing English words at will at her, Seema would grow more and more silent. Seema ascribed their impeccable dressing and uppity manners to the schooling they underwent, and that’s when her vernacular medium, government school started to bother her.

That was the beginning of her journey of not being sure of herself in most of the things she did. Though this uncertainty about herself did push her to perform well academically enabling her to get good grades.

Her academic shining was also thanks to the tutors her parents had engaged for her and her brother. It was those two Chary Sirs in her life – Senior Chary Sir during her middle school, and the Junior Chary Sir when she was in high school, who made sure that she got good grades. It was as though, they saw something in her which she herself failed to see – a possibility to excel and a yearning for learning.

But still, no matter how she performed, she wasn’t confident of herself. “I have to master this English language” she would tell herself. Thanks to her brother, with whom she shared a passion for reading, the hand-me-down comic books in English reached her home from the same kids of the doctor friend of her father.

That’s how they also got introduced to books written in English by the best authors across the world. Once they dipped themselves into those stories, there was no stopping. Soon she was devouring novels, biographies, thrillers written by popular writers from across the globe.

When she expressed her desire to do her post-graduation in English Literature, it was the Junior Chary Sir who encouraged her. He had completed his own post-graduation in the very subject a couple of years ago.

“You can very well do it, Seema. I will share my books as well as notes with you.” He said goading on.

Halfway through the course, when she felt disappointed at the marks she scored and expressed her desire to discontinue her studies, he made her sit down and said “I hate to admit this to you. But your marks are more than what I got.”

“Are you trying to say these things to make me feel good Sir?”

“No, no Seema. I am telling you the truth. Do you know what is extremely satisfying for a teacher? When the student whom he taught beats him. I want you to give me that satisfaction. That’s your guru Dakshina for me.”

Seema was so moved at these words that she fell silent. At that moment, she resolved to finish her course. When she visited the Junior Chary Sir the next year with a box full of homemade sweets along with her Degree Certificate, his happiness knew no bounds. Within one year of her passing out, Seema landed a job as an English lecturer in a Junior college.

If someone had told her a few years ago that a Government school, a vernacular medium product like her would become an English lecturer, she would have found it not only unbelievable but also very amusing.

That day, as she was about to leave for home, Seema found one of her girl students crying in a corner. The girl opened up to Seema’s soothing words and said she took up a maths major as she harbored dreams of becoming an engineer. But since she had studied in a vernacular medium all her life, she was finding it very difficult to follow the subjects in the English language.

She said as she hailed from a very poor family, she didn’t want her parents’ hard-earned money to go to waste. Hence, she was thinking of dropping out. But the very idea made her feel so sad that she ended up crying.

When she said “I feel I don’t belong here, Madam. Hence I have decided to quit” Seema’s heart went out to her.

“Of course you belong here. Everyone does. You are not going to quit. If English is your problem, I will take extra classes in the evening for you.”

“I can’t pay you, Madam,” the girl said meekly.

“You are going to continue your studies. You are going to pass out in flying colors. That will be your guru Dakshina to me. Deal?” Seema asked offering her hand to the girl.

Seema’s words rendered the girl speechless. She wiped off her tears and grabbed hold of Seema’s hand in agreement and both their faces broke into a smile simultaneously.

This story based on certain true incidents is in celebration of Teacher’s Day on 5th September.